Paul volunteered as a journalist at Berkeley
public radio station
KPFA, then in 1988, joined the
San Francisco Fire Department, as one of the first women hired by the department. Her first book was the nonfiction memoir
Fighting Fire, published in 1998. It was a finalist at the Northern California Book Awards and an alternate selection for the Book of the Month Club. Her second, the 2006 historical novel
East Wind, Rain is based on the
Niihau incident, a historical event in which a Japanese pilot crash-landed on the private Hawaiian island of
Niihau, after the
attack on Pearl Harbor. "When it's over, we don't want to leave," said the New York Times review of the book.
Lost Cat, A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology was published in 2013 and illustrated by her partner, artist
Wendy MacNaughton. It details Paul and MacNaughton's high-tech search for their cat. The PBS Newshour described the book as "A thoughtful, kind and funny story about the love people can have for their pets and the weird places that this love and accompanying devotion can take them. But it also travels beyond the realm of human-pet relationships, offering commentary on all relationships and the roles of those we love, and sometimes don't love, in our lives." In 2016, Paul published the New York Times bestseller
The Gutsy Girl, Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure. The book is described as "Lean in for middle grade girls, set not in the workplace but on bicycles, tree branches, sea kayaks, and cliff edges... Part memoir, part how-to-outdoors guide, (it) offers life lessons through adventure stories." She published a New York Times oped that spoke to parents about the themes raised in
The Gutsy Girl called,
Why Do We Teach Girls It’s Cute to be Scared that quickly became viral. Paul did in 2016 a
TED talk on the subject of raising healthy, confident girls by encouraging bravery, which has over 2 million views. In 2018 Paul collaborated with tea expert Sebastian Beckwith, and published
A Little Tea Book. During the pandemic, Paul collaborated with MacNaughton on DrawTogether, a half hour Instagram Live art class conceived and hosted by MacNaughton, with the goal of helping kids and parents through the school closures. Paul filmed the show with a camera phone, and also edited filmed interviews and other content. Draw Together reached tens of thousands of kids around the world and ran for over a year, with 70 half hour shows in all. During that time Paul also wrote her latest book,
Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking, How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age. Paul looks at the latest research and social science on aging, and embarks on adventures that range from scuba diving with an octagenarean, to hiking with a 93-year-old, to birdwatching. The book argues that a relationship with the outdoors profoundly changes bodies and minds, especially those of women in later years. Swimmer
Diana Nyad says of the
Tough Broad, "this arc of a critical life blueprint comes from the toughest broad I know, Caroline Paul... Caroline leads those of us of mature and wise ages to the very real hope we have much more to explore." Paul is a longtime member of
The Writers Grotto, whose notable members include
Noah Hawley,
Bonnie Tsui,
Mary Roach, and Kathryn Ma. == Personal life ==