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A Little Something About Madeline

Madeline Smoot is the publisher of CBAY Books and former Editorial Director of Blooming Tree Press.  In other words, Madeline knows a lot about publishing and the process of bringing a book to market.  What Madeline has never been before is an author.  Missing is her first book for teens.

Madeline lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, son, two cats, a dog, and more books than should fit in any normal person’s house.

A Little More About Madeline

Madeline is not one of those people who grew up wanting to be a writer. In fact, as a child (and a teenager, and a young adult), Madeline believed that writing was an evil, boring project assigned by teachers in order to torture students.  Madeline even went so far as to get a business degree in college in order to ensure that her paper-writing would be kept to a minimum.

Then one afternoon while channeling surfing, Madeline came across the Chevy Chase movie, Funny Farm. Although not particularly funny, there is a part in the movie where the character Elizabeth (ironically played by a woman named Madolyn) writes a picture book based on the people in her town.  That made Madeline pause.  She knew people that were rather characterish.  Perhaps she could write a story for her 5 year old sister starring the people in their family.  Thus the Melissa Mouse series was born.

Melissa Mouse was, frankly, a series of terrible stories, but it did prove to Madeline that not only did she like creative writing, this was something she wanted to pursue as a possible career.  Many creative writing classes and a MA in Children’s Literature (Hollins University, 2010) later, Madeline has been an editor, and now a publisher and an author.