About

Carla Coffman’s writing has been a spiritual grounding through every chapter of her life — a constant through good times and bad. The seeds of her stories were planted in unexpected moments, often with strangers.

While searching for work after the real estate market collapsed, Carla sat at a breakfast counter in the city. An old man in tattered clothes sat down beside her. He had once been wealthy, but the market crash had taken everything. Yet he spoke of hope — of a young woman who had vowed her love for him, and of their plans to marry. He smiled and said, “I can hardly believe it myself, how could any young beautiful woman love a man like me. You should write a book about it, and you’ll have a best seller.”

A second stranger told her a similar story — that the love of a woman had saved him, and that Carla should write a book about him. How did they know she was a writer? They were strangers to her, and she to them.

Those encounters became the heartbeat of her work. Higgins Hotel explores another kind of man — one who was not so lucky in love. Who’s Waldo is the story of an old man who built walls around himself and frightened his grandchildren. And Sidewalk in the Sky, her first published book written under the pen name Vada Jain, tells the story of a man named Jesus.