Celeste Bennett, member of the NFBPWC Michigan Affiliate, is a retired state of Michigan employee who has been writing novels for the last few years. While working for the state of Michigan, she was a state food inspector before taking a position as a Motor Fuels Quality fraud coordinator. A few years before she retired, she served as the lab’s acting director and consumer protection director for protecting laws for weights and measures and motor fuels.
The Yarn Gene Mysteries is about a wealthy woman who stays home and knits because she is too scared to leave her house. One day, she is forced to leave all her riches when hired killers come after her. While confronting her fears, she also solves murders and learns that she can survive without those things she left behind. As the reader goes through each series, the Yarn Genie tackles many complex situations as she grows and solves murders.
Celeste started the Yarn Genie Mysteries series to inspire women who might need more confidence in their abilities and created a protagonist that had faced very challenging situations. Through the various challenges, the mysteries tell how the protagonist can overcome them. Some of the problems within the novels are drawn from her personal history that helped her to become more confident in her abilities and worth. This is why she believes that the pen is mightier than the sword change can be made in society with the stroke of a pen. For example, Celeste notes Charles Dickens who wrote stores that helped people understand the lives of the poor in Victorian England which brought positive changes over the years.
Over the years, Celeste has also written in other genres including a couple of children’s stories written specifically for her granddaughters. The first one is called Sometimes, which was written during the pandemic. Baby Do is about silly kids’ young kids say. In the future, she hopes to write more books for them specifically.
At one point, Celeste had her own publishing company where she managed 5 different authors. However, she had to close it down due to a breast cancer diagnosis. Now does all her writing and publishing on her own, and she’s been very content and happy about that.
Currently, Celeste is working on the 4th book in her Yarn Genie series that involves a child in the foster care system. In this story, Celeste’s experience working as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children in foster care was her inspiration. She hopes that through this story that she can teach the public about what the foster care system is and the difficulties faced within it.
That’s where BPW comes in for her. She connected to the organization initially because it aligned with her personal belief systems but also she believes that it can support all women authors. She knows it can be a market to get some recognition and she has spoken in the past at a BPW/Michigan state event. There was even a BPW member in North Carolina who purchased her book after it got exposure in the Michigan Monday Minute.
Besides her writing, Celeste loves to be creative with anything she can get her hands on. She also loves spending time where her two granddaughters. However, creating has been a slow process as she is currently dealing with some health issues that have slowed her down a bit but not stopped, her from writing and creating.
For more information on Celeste:
Amazon.com – https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00SEOVUIU
Website: https://www.celestebennett.com/