Catherine Con Morse, a graduate of the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, has released “The Notes” and “The Summer I Remembered Everything,” two young-adult novels set in Greenville.
Both books are inspired by Morse’s life in the Upstate, including living in Greer’s Pelham Falls subdivision and her two years at the Governor’s School.
“The Notes” was released in April 2024, and follows Claire Wu, a reserved Chinese American teen at a Southern performing-arts boarding school. When piano teacher Dr. Li shows up, Wu works harder and dreams bigger than ever. Just as everything begins to fall into place for Wu, personal notes about her bond with Dr. Li appear.
“I did have a glamorous new piano teacher at the Governor’s School,” Morse said. “She was from Taiwan and had just done her doctorate at Julliard. We were all just really fascinated by her (and) she held us to really high standards with music. Years later, I was still curious about her, and she made an impact on me, so the first book stemmed from thinking about her.”
“The Summer I Remembered Everything” came out in April, and is based around Emily Chen-Sanchez, an Asian Latine teenager who works as companion to an eclectic, lively, super-Southern elderly lady, Mrs. Granucci. All Chen-Sanchez has to do is help Granucci “remember” her likes, dislikes and anything else. However, Granucci falsely accuses Chen-Sanchez…