Growing Up
As Plum-Ucci grew up she knew she wanted to write books. The Body of Christopher Creed was her "cloud song." Plum-Ucci grew up on the barrier island of Brigantine, New Jersey, where she attended the public schools until the age of thirteen. She then went to Atlantic City Friends’ School, where her grandmother, Neva Ingersoll, taught advanced high school mathematics. She graduated from Holy Spirit High School in 1975. Her father, Neil Plum, and her paternal grandmother, Ads Plum, partnered in the funeral business, owning Plum Funeral Homes in Brigantine, Atlantic City, and Ventnor. Plum-Ucci largely attributes her writer’s imagination to lying awake at night, above the Brigantine funeral parlor, listening to the sounds downstairs.
She received her bachelor’s in communication from Purdue University in 1979. She served as feature editor of the Purdue Exponent, a two-year post. After Purdue, Plum-Ucci was a freelance writer in the Chicago area for several years. She became Assistant to the Producer of the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City in 1984. She later served as Staff Writer and Director of Publications of the Miss America Organization and Miss America Scholarship Foundation, producing up to a dozen publications a year for volunteers and participants. Plum-Ucci retired in 1999, two months after receiving her first advance on royalties from The Body of Christopher Creed from Harcourt—the first novel she sold.
She has been a resident of Absecon, New Jersey.
Read more about this topic: Carol Plum-Ucci
Famous quotes related to growing up:
“When I was growing up I used to think that the best thing about coming from Des Moines was that it meant you didn’t come from anywhere else in Iowa. By Iowa standards, Des Moines is a mecca of cosmopolitanism, a dynamic hub of wealth and education, where people wear three-piece suits and dark socks, often simultaneously.”
—Bill Bryson (b. 1951)
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—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)
“Growing up means letting go of the dearest megalomaniacal dreams of our childhood. Growing up means knowing they can’t be fulfilled. Growing up means gaining the wisdom and skills to get what we want within the limitations imposed by reality—a reality which consists of diminished powers, restricted freedoms and, with the people we love, imperfect connections.”
—Judith Viorst (20th century)