Twelve years ago, Ro Bily was standing in her kitchen when her son noticed she looked “spaced out,” or lost in thought. “I’m talking to Pierre,” she told her son matter-of-factly, though Pierre was not a person but rather a character, a 16-year-old boy who would show up in her first science fiction book, Beyond Light. Two published books and five manuscripts later, Bily, who lives in Asheville, says it was that first “conversation” with Pierre that kicked off her writing career, and she still regularly converses and collaborates with her characters, whom she sees as real and independent. “Sometimes I get the characters into situations and have no idea how to get them out,” she says. “They seem to figure it out themselves.”

Adrienne van Dooren joined the army at 20, made captain at 26 and served two six-month stints as a White House aide under George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. After the military, she became a faux finisher. Her book, The House That Faux Built, below, has sold 15,000 copies.Quiet people who want to learn to speak up usually have a variety of options. Assertiveness training, for example. Or a class or two in public speaking. But when Adrienne van Dooren was 20, she thought joining the United States Army would do the trick. (Her mother begged to differ. “There are only two kinds of women who join the army,” van Dooren recalls her mother saying, and neither one was a compliment.) Growing up in Hendersonville, van Dooren, now 49, was something of a tomboy, playing outside and roaming the woods with her brother. She was also petite and pretty with fair hair and skin, a well-mannered, soft-spoken Southern belle. After two years at Montreat College, she went to a job interview where the interviewer told her she needed to learn to be more assertive. So when she enrolled at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, she took classes in education and fine arts, but also, surprisingly, its ROTC program. 

by Janet Hurley     photo by Matt Rose

Kitty Schaller has spent her life thinking about food. A Midwesterner whose father managed sales for Kraft’s Natural Cheese division, Schaller graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in food science. She presumed that she, too, would work in the food industry. But she had no idea that, rather than producing food, she would spend years thinking about how to effectively distribute it—and how to change public policy to end hunger in the United States and, ultimately, around the globe. Growing up, she believed food was what held the world together. “If you want people to come, bring cookies,” she says. “It’s the way we get to know each other.” But in her senior year of college, a community nutrition course opened her eyes to the critical role food really plays. “I worked with the visiting nurses in Des Moines and visited families that had nothing—nothing,” she says. “I’d read about that, but I didn’t know what that was like. It was a really profound experience.” 

photos by Rebecca D’Angelo

Western North Carolinians aren’t exactly in the habit of taking cabs. At least not like New Yorkers are, or even Chicagoans or folks who live in Washington, D.C. But there are several cab companies here, and they employ a handful of women drivers whose on-the-job experiences seem as bizarre and wide-ranging as any big-city driver’s.

People in any industry can find themselves out of work. Ten years ago, Susan Hopkins, now Asheville branch manager for the international recruiting firm Manpower, was out of a job herself for nearly six months, even though she’d had steady managerial jobs since college. “It was time to re-market myself,” says the Churchville, New York, native who has a dual degree in management and marketing. And that’s exactly what she recommends for anyone looking for work in the current economic downturn. Don’t panic. Take time to retool, spruce up your resume and learn a new skill. “The reality is we’re all going to make it through,” she says. 

One reason Sallie Broach’s business has grown into a $2.5 million enterprise is because people love it when their kids look cute. photo by Hannah HuffWho says kids will wear just anything? Kids’ fashion is serious business for Sallie Broach who started her custom kids’ clothing business, Just Ducky Originals, out of her home in Asheville’s Norwood Park in 1980. She worked from home for 13 years, sending out fabric and pattern samples through a network of salespeople who got buyers interested in the clothing at Tupperware-style home parties. Today, Broach has a 10,000-square-foot factory in Alexander, retail shops in Waynesville and Asheville, 30 full-time employees and about 250 sales consultants, all of whom help her business pull in around $2.5 million a year. The business plan has always been simple—use your brain but follow your heart. And remember: people are always happier when their kids look cute. 

TWIN PEAK SHREDDERS: Twin sisters Kim Jochl and Krista Schmidinger grew up in Massachusetts and were both members of the U.S Women’s Alpine Ski Team. When they moved to the Asheville area, they brought their sport with them. This time of year, the sight of soft powdery flakes falling from the sky strikes fear into the hearts of some Western North Carolina women: snow day. What to do with the kids all day? Do we have enough bread and milk in the house? But local skiers and snowboarders say, bring it on. Dump on us. How many trails are open? 

ONE SWEET FAMILY: Bill, Sue and Elizabeth Foley of The Chocolate Fetish in Asheville.Words may fail and flowers wilt, but chocolate rarely disappoints, and its aphrodisiac qualities are the stuff of legends. Is there any other food that conjures up such strong feelings of desire, such irresistible urges?