A Song of Four Marias

Adele Nova O'Neill was born in 1944 in Washington and raised in California by parents who were both teachers. With no TV in the house, they were a family of bookworms and travelers. They spent time camping, hiking, backpacking, and skiing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and the Canadian Rockies. When she was 14 the family spent a year traveling in Europe living in a VW camper. By the time she went to college, she was infected with the family passion for nature, literature, art, and travel. She earned a triple minor in History, Literature, and Art History from San Diego State University, then a teaching credential, and a Master's Degree in Secondary Education. She taught Art, Art History, English and Psychology in high school and Art History in community college for 20 years. Now retired, with her five children grown, she enjoys spending time with family, writing, painting, photography and traveling widely on every continent. Adele O'Neill and her husband David Carpenter, after they retired from teaching in 2008, took over management of the family press. The name has changed from Albicaulis Press to Great Owl Press. Under a second imprint, Little Owl Books, they are bringing out a series of children's books, several in Spanish and English for easy learning for young children. After her father died in 2011, Adele and her Mother spent much of the year traveling the world, writing, painting and taking photographs together. Adele has followed in her Mother's footsteps and taken up the family passion for writing and illustrating. Elizabeth died in 2020, and Adele continues the task of finishing the writing projects she and her mother were in the midst of.