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As a young girl, Mary Ann was somewhat of a tomboy. She liked to wade in streams and catch crawfish, and shoot a homemade bow and arrow. She climbed trees, and often pretended the tree was her ship. The blue sky with its puffy clouds became the mysterious sea. Sometimes, she sailed the High Seas in search of pirates. Other times, they searched for her and her loot. As a writer and a photographer, Mary Ann has put that same spunk and imagination to work in her articles, stories, photo essays, and Gander’s Cove chapter book mysteries.
Mary Ann, a retired cosmetologist, launched her career in writing for children on a Sunday afternoon. It was when she read the sequel to her favorite book, and decided she could have written it better. Her husband advised, be careful of what you say. If writing were easy everyone would be a published author, which Mary Ann soon found to be true.
She joined the world’s largest writing organization for children: Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), and served three years as Co-Regional Advisor in the Southern Breeze Region (AL-GA-MS). She has completed the writing course from the Institute of Children’s Literature, and attended many workshops and retreats on writing picture books / early readers / chapter books, historical and fantasy novels.
Her published works include articles, book reviews, photo essays, and stories for The Flicker magazine, Hopscotch magazine, Fun for Kidz, Above and Beyond, The Decatur Daily, Harcourt Brace Educational Measurement Program, Measuring Up to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and Success Strategies for the TAKS in Reading/e-Path, CDs for libraries: SIRS Mandarin Inc., Gale Group and Ebsco, and Menagerie Publishing, Inc. Her books include the Gander’s Cove mystery series, SPIES, TRAITORS, HEROES, published by OnStage Publishing.
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