Children’s book author Carol Paur, a 27-year member of St. Patrick, Elkhorn, wants families to have wholesome options for their children’s libraries. (Submitted photo)

A Delavan area author is informed by her Catholic faith to give families wholesome options for children’s books.

“I pray a lot about a renewal of our culture,” says Carol Paur, a longtime parishioner at St. Patrick, Elkhorn. “I think there are a lot of not great things in our culture, and I want to be a part of that (renewal) with good and entertaining books.”

Paur’s works aren’t explicitly Catholic or religious.

But taking inspiration from St. John Paul II’s call as pope for Catholics to be engaged with culture, she aspires to write wholesome middle-grade books that avoid the “yuckiness” of modern culture. Paur wants to contribute goodness and entertainment to the culture around her. She doesn’t feel that her books necessarily need to be openly religious to accomplish that.

“Before I write, I pray. I do my Rosary on Monday nights. I take all my writing and offer it up to God. ‘This is a gift, help me to use it the way you want me to use it. Help me get over rejections and frustrations.’ My faith is a huge part of my life.”

Paur has been teaching religious education while working as a homemaker raising and homeschooling four daughters.

Writing has become her full-time occupation of late, as her kids have grown up and left the house, and her husband approaches retirement.

The Church respects all culture and imposes on no one her faith in Jesus Christ, but she invites all people of good will to promote a true civilization of love, founded on the evangelical values of brotherhood, justice and dignity for all. — St. John Paul II

She has been an impassioned writer her entire life. Having graduated from Marquette University with a master’s degree in communication, with an emphasis on journalism, her career has taken her through numerous paths from freelance writing for newspapers to producing podcasts, screenplays and a film, and writing her parish’s newsletter. She’s also a singer for the church family choir and the Delavan Community Choir.

A published author since 2013, Paur’s newest book, “Rowley Peters and the Lumberjack Ghost,” is her third children’s book. It is set to be released by Montana-based Chicken Scratch Books on April 1.

“Rowley is camping with her parents and hates camping because it’s too much work,” she says. “When she learns about a lumberjack ghost, mummies and weird frogs, she’s ready to go home or a water park. Her best friend Huey shows up and thinks these things are nonsense, and they fight and break their friendship. Rowley needs to solve a mystery to save her friendship. I’d describe it as Scooby Doo meets Nancy Drew.”

Paur has six books published – three were self-published and for adults.

“My third book, ‘Praying for the Enemy: Your 911 To Peace,’ is actually still on Amazon. It’s a spiritual book. It’s really about my struggling with practical situations and dealing with people without carrying angst and anger. Fr. Oriol (Regales, St. Patrick pastor) wrote the prologue.”

Paur’s first children’s book, “Isasnora Snores,” is inspired by her issues with snoring and was inspired by a short story she wrote for her daughter. Another book she wrote, “Early Summer,” is a young adult book that’s more about anxiety than it is about its true crime mystery.

Part of the inspiration for her new book, which may be the first in a trilogy, comes from her own experience growing up with a cleft palate. She was initially shy about discussing the topic, as she wanted to push the surgeries and struggles she’d dealt with as a child into the past, but was inspired by learning about other people’s experiences with cleft palates and wanting to give them representation in her stories.

“I joined a Facebook group for people with cleft palates and realized I had it easy,” says Paur. “I just had the soft pallet and others had major issues. But I also didn’t see any protagonists or main characters with cleft palates or cranial facial disorders. So I decided to make Rowley have this. The book doesn’t focus too much on that topic, but the scar on her face does come up, and other characters discuss it.”

Paur joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators at the suggestion of an agent. She says it’s helped her gain access to publishers and agents who have given her valuable feedback and opportunities she did not have while self-publishing her first three books.

“After 18 rejections, I finally had a publisher pick me up,” she says.

Preorders for “Rowley Peters and the Lumberjack Ghost” will be taken starting March 1 at chickenscratchbooks.com.