Winner for Human Relations Book award - Celi Ryker pens "Augusta" exemplifying how resilience is a mental attitude.
Celia, a silver and gold winner for Human Relations Indie Book Award, writes a human-interest novel based on the real-life struggles of her grandmother. Celia Ryker brings to life Augusta, highlighting the struggles of a young girl forced to grow up too fast.
Ryker shares with us in an interview the following:
Why Ryker’s grandmother inspired the writing of Augusta.
Who her grandmother was and why she is Ryker’s heroine.
The struggles women faced during the early part of 20th century America.
How Augusta survives two bad marriages: one at age 13, and one who abandons her.
The challenges of raising four children on her own during the Great Depression
Why Augusta is haunted by a decision she has to make due to poverty.
Author Celia Ryker has been a horse trainer, horti-culturalist, and hiker, and has been writing all
of her life.
Celia's first career was with horses. She trained horses and taught students on Southeast
Michigan's hunter jumper circuit for more than 30 years. Her second career sent her back to
school to study gardening fine arts and landscape design. They were not just careers -- they were passions and when life left room for a new passion she began to distance hike. Her husband, Don, said, "She got to H in the alphabet and stopped. She went from horses, to horticulture, to hiking."
She has also penned two books, Augusta, historical fiction based on her grandma’s life, and
Walking Home: Trail Stories, a memoir of her hiking a 300-mile trail in her 60’s.
Born in Detroit, she grew up in, Clarkston, a small town thirty miles northwest of Detroit. She
attended a small Catholic school, Our Lady of the Lakes, in Waterford Michigan. After high
school, at age 17, she wanted to learn how to train horses, teach riding and make a living in the
horse business. She was able to do what she loved, although the income was touch and go at
times.
She moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida as a young adult. A few years later she moved again, and
bought a farm in Ortonville, Michigan. Through this line of work, she met the man who would
become her husband. They have been together for 38 years.
After injuring her back in a horse-riding accident, she was forced to switch to a new career.
She attended the Michigan School of Gardening and received their Gardening Fine Arts
certification followed by another in Landscape and Garden Design.
Throughout these years with horses and gardening, she took creative writing classes at Oakland University and Oakland Community College. Ryker attended writing seminars; kept journals, wrote poems and short stories. She wrote a gardening article for a local newspaper for a short time and became involved in writing groups: The League of Vermont Writers, Michigan Writers, Independent Publishers and Authors of New England, and The White River Junction Writers Group. She’s been featured on WCAX-TV, WDEV-Radio, New Pages, My Champlain Valley Local 22/44 News, and other local media outlets.
She and her husband split their time between Vermont and Michigan with their border collie,
Flurry. To learn more, please consult: celiaryker.com
