Carol J. Bova found a new lifestyle as a writer in 2004 after moving from California to Mathews, Virginia, a rural Chesapeake Bay peninsula. In January 2012, she and G.C. Morrow co-founded the Ditches of Mathews County, a grass-roots volunteer project, to investigate and offer information to the Virginia Department of Transportation to help resolve highway drainage issues impacting landowners. When her research uncovered a history of VDOT-created myths used to avoid basic ditch maintenance for decades, Carol began compiling the information used in Drowning a County. In 2012-13, Carol served on the Steering Committee for the Piankatank, Milford Haven, Gwynns Island Water Quality Improvement Plan approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in August 2014. The Ditches of Mathews County was a community partner in the development of that clean-up plan. The US Geological Survey accepted Carol's July 2014 request to correct the flow lines on The National Map Hydrography Dataset for Garden Creek and the breach in the Winter Harbor barrier beach. Carol is a columnist for Chesapeake Style magazine, a novelist and the President of the Chesapeake Bay Writers chapter of the Virginia Writers Club. When not researching or writing, Carol enjoys photography, genealogy and creating silver jewelry.Carol shares her home with William the Cat, who found her at the Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society.