Books and Film

  • Ignis learns the important truth that what YOU say about who you are matters more than what anyone else says about you. He also discovers, on his journey to making his dreams come true, that what is REAL is what is inside each of us.

  • Finding one small thing that makes sense in a life that has been torn apart by the death of a child, cancer, losing a marriage and then both parents, all at the same time, can give one small glimmer of hope for better days to come.

  • In a four year period of time, I lost my daughter and my granddaughter, six months later I was told I had cancer, then my marriage ended from his infidelity and I lost both of my parents within eight months of each other. This is the story of how I survived, what I learned and how I found new hope, a new life and a new me.

  • To find a place to belong after a lifetime of never belonging anywhere, makes the meaning of “home” beyond anything ever imagined.

Char Vinar

President, NRW

Author, Writer, Filmmaker

Welcome! I am Char Vinar, President of the Neuse River Writers, and I’ve been writing my entire life.  At age seven, I wrote and drew pictures in a small notebook of a story about a mouse called Little Mouse, that I would read to my cat.  At 11, I wrote a Christmas play for my sixth grade class called “The Magic Christmas Elf”, which we performed that year. By 14, I had become a professional writer and was paid for my work published in a national teen magazine the sum of $148.78. I thought I was rich. 

Since that time, if it has ever needed words, I’ve written it at one time or another, including political speeches, magazine and newspaper articles and features, op-eds, advertising copy, product jingles, lyrics for love songs for weddings, TV and radio scripts, newsletters, children’s stories, mystery, thrillers, freestyle poetry, romance and sci-fi fantasy, as well as profiles for singles websites and copy for dozens of web pages for friends. The list goes on.

Two pieces I am particularly proud of are the instruction manual I wrote for a tractor that I didn’t receive a by-line for, and a thesis I wrote in a college Ethics class, for which I received an A+, that was entirely a lie. I just couldn’t resist the temptation to see if I could pull it off. I did fess up to the professor, after graduation of course.

I’m known for my collection of red shoes and to my friends and the writing world as the Badass Warrior Queen of the Red Shoe Nation. I’ve  traveled extensively and lived in Europe and Mexico for a time, as well as in 13 states in the US. I am a proud veteran having served in the Navy, as well as having been a Marine Corps wife, a Marine Corps mother and now, a Marine Corps grandmother.

My first actual children’s book, a collaboration with my youngest brother, cartoonist and illustrator Jeremy Vinar, is Ignis, The Mighty Dragon!

I have also written and filmed a short movie called, Black Honey, which is in editing and will premier in the fall of 2025.

The book that the movie is based on, Badass Warrior Queen, a Life of Courage, Resilience and Humor, is also in editing and is expected to be in print in early 2026.

I am currently working on a series of paranormal, romance, urban adventures centered around magical beings from my Scottish heritage.

When I’m not writing in my little red writing studio, I like to cook for my friends, indulge my quest for the most perfect tacos in the state, create magical décor for various events, play in the dirt - aka gardening, take lots of pictures, go to flea markets and farmer’s markets and watch classic movies from the ‘30s and ‘40s.