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Glen and Karen Bledsoe, Authors

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Karen Bledsoe is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Science and Mathematics Education, a part-time biology instructor at Linn-Benton Community College in Albany, Oregon, the managing editor of the School Science and Mathematics Journal (an educational research journal), and a curriculum coordinator for the SMILE (Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences) after school science program at Oregon State University. She has taught biology and general science at the high school and college levels since 1991. "My writing career began very early, even before I was aware that people were actually responsible for creating and making books. I was reading about the age of three, beginning a lifelong love affair with literature. When I was five or six, my brothers and I used to draw crazy inventions and make little books of our creations, 'publishing' them with a stapler and construction paper covers. "By fourth grade I was attempting longer fiction, as it seemed that all my ideas were novel-length. I didn't know a thing about plotting and character development, and more often than not my projects were far more ambitious than I was really ready for. But I still had the urge to write -- not just nice little "good enough" pieces for the teacher because I had to, but huge sweeping sagas because I wanted to. "In Jr. High and High School I was with a group of friends who also enjoyed writing and who had a taste for the odd and interesting. After high school, a disastrous early marriage put most of my writing on hold, but after getting past that and regaining my self-confidence, and after meeting Glen who was also interested in writing, I gave my own writing serious attention and made publication my goal once again. Through a response to a post on the old America Online writer's boards, I landed an assignment to co-write a craft book for Publications International, and I was off and running. "I think the Internet made a big difference in my writing career. Before, I felt isolated as a writer, and knew what I knew mostly from the books I could find in the library. With the web, I am a part of a nation-wide writing community, where I can get advice, ask questions, help others, and get the general support that every writer sometimes needs."	Karen, on a 100 mile canoe trip down the Willamette River with her son's Boy Scout troop in July of 2005.
Glen meets one of the locals at Wall Drug in South Dakota during a family road trip.	Glen Bledsoe is an elementary school teacher in the Mollala River School District in Mollala, Oregon. He has taught elementary school since 1991. His career has been wide and varied: Glen has been a chem tech for U.S. Steel, an art gallery manager, and has worked in a music store repairing guitars. "My elementary school teachers all made the same comment on my report cards: 'Glen has the best imagination of any student I've ever had.' Over the years I don't think I've let them down. "I'm all about making things. All of the arts (writing, visual, music) are about the same kind of creative process, about mining the imagination, about pacing, about knowing yourself. And this is what I know about myself: I am a binge writer. I can write 65,000 words in three or four weeks, but like Mark Twain, when the tank runs dry I have to let it refill. "My favorite aspect of writing is voice. A good writer can adopt any voice he'd like as easily as putting on a hat. He can be anybody he wants to be from any where and any when. It's as easy as just jotting down the words. "I find I write a fair amount of non-fiction as well. I have a deep interest in using technology in education and have written on the subject extensively over the years."
And the rest of the family....
Gabe, our oldest, is a student at the University of Oregon, where he's studying computer graphics. He's also the singer and lead guitarist for his band, Ahimsa Theory. The band completed an extensive tour this summer, and a shorter one in the fall. Gabe hopes to finish his degree this academic year, and where he goes from there -- who knows?	James, our other son, is a senior at South Salem High School. An avid Boy Scout, he earned his Eagle at age 14, and attended his second National Jamboree this summer as the Senior Patrol Leader of his Jambo troop. He's an editor on his school newspaper staff, and has been involved in the Peer Helper program. He'll be off to college next year to study Electrical and Computer Engineering, intending to take up a career in robotics.
General Sherman, known mostly as "The General," is our eight-year-old peach-faced lovebird who thinks he's been running the show ever since we brought him home as a hand-fed baby. He can be a noisy little pest, but he loves to cuddle in the morning and evening and get his head petted.	The Ladies, our flock of six female zebra finches that James bought several years ago. The poor things are getting old and scraggly, but they'll be much happier in their new, large flight cage. Here they're all huddling together in their nest while their new cage is being made ready.
A more recent companion is Licorice, a solid black kitty who came to us in August 2005 at the age of about twelve weeks. We don't know for his age sure, since he was an abandoned kitty that a colleague found in her garage. With his small, triangular face, shiny "patent leather" fur, and panther-like appearance, we suspect he's at least part Bombay. The kink in the end of his tail adds a bit of character.	Pinkerton, an albino Guinea pig, is another new member of the family. Karen was driving home on a country road in October, 2005, when she spotted something small and white running along the side of the road. "I can't just let that go," she thought. "I have to see what it is." It turned out to be a baby Guinea pig, abandoned and terrified. She had a box in the car to put the baby in and took him home. He's now a happy little fixture in our menagerie, and doubled in weight in his first month. He just moved into a nice, large C&C cage big enough for him to gallop around in.
Belle, a bitty kitty, just joined us in December of 2005 at the age of ten weeks. She and Licorice are learning to get along, though he tends to play too rough for her. Belle has a healthy appetite and loves to play and romp. She was the runt of the litter and small for her age, so she will probably be petite all her life.	Knowing that Guinea pigs are social animals and Pinkerton needed a buddy, we started keeping an eye on the websites of various animal shelters in the area. On January 3, 2006, this 6-month-old boy turned up on the Heartland Humane Society of Corvallis website. The next day Karen went in with a pet carrier and brought him home. Webster, as we named him, was surrendered by his family who had bought him and a female for the children in the mistaken notion that they would be good "starter" pets for preschoolers. The kids didn't take care of them, and so the family gave them away. Webster didn't get the attention he needed and is extremely shy and nervous. He's housed in Pinkerton's old cage while he's in quarantine and while we socialize him.
Spats was our companion in July of 2005. He was a very sick little kitty, and sadly we lost him at the age of nine weeks in spite of our veterinarian's best efforts.