Hi All!
My name is Mary Church. I am the proud author of two children’s books. Book 3 is in the works. You never know what you’re going to accomplish in a lifetime—I never knew I was an author in hiding but here I am working on my 3rd book. I’m a lady of many interests. I enjoy outdoor activities of all kinds, love to play board games and domino’s, and enjoy sports, too. l love playing the sport of pickleball and do so several times a week. I even own and ride a motorcycle. That’s the adventurous side of me. I was widowed before the age of fifty and I don’t have any children. I am, however, graced with nieces and nephews and great, great nieces and nephews. That’s where I get my knowledge of what kids like, a little bit on how they think, what entertainments them, and how to keep their interest.
I am retired from a long career of Federal government service. My retirement status has afforded me time to pursue my many interests. I love to create new spaces and renovate the old. I taught myself several quasi trades through watching DIY programs. That’s the creative side of me. That creativeness is what happened when I wrote my first book. A storyline came to me one afternoon while daydreaming and staring at a houseplant from across the room. I never thought of myself as a writer and author until a day in January nearing the end of the pandemic, my wandering thoughts came up with a storyline for a children’s book. I suddenly found myself reaching for my cell phone and opening the note pad option and I began writing. The words poured out faster than my index finger could move across the keypad. Well, from that afternoon of daydreaming came a hidden talent for storytelling I never knew existed. The story was written in just weeks. And so, it all began.
The storyline lends itself to other adventures. I have now written two other Carly Adventures as I fell in love with the lead character and her animal friends. Never have I been so surprised by something as in the writing of this story and subsequently two others. There is nothing ever forced in my writings. What I mean by that is—the story just flowed from my thoughts and away I went typing as if were the most natural thing for me to do. It wasn’t natural at all actually; I’ve never had a burning desire to write a book. The only professional writings I’d ever done, up until this point, were boring government letters, memorandums and even a how-to manual on running a proprietary computer software program for work. And believe me, those writings were forced verbiage, and technical jargon as part of my job and nothing I’d ever call creative. Yet, here I was writing a story (very passionately) as if I’d done this sort of thing my entire life. I would never have believed this fun, exciting, and slightly risky undertaking and creative process would have come from me and to have reached the point of becoming a published author. My once hidden talent has produced a wonderful story with picture book for kids to enjoy for years to come.
Another part of my creative side was putting together this website. I mainly wanted a website to have a landing spot to host my book and for customers to have a place to retrieve a free professional audio narrated version of my book(s). I also was able to combine my love of travel and my adventures and playful self for an all-around fun website. That meant writing would be involved. My travel articles are short stories, so I guess I’m more than a children’s book writer. Putting together this website was no easy task. I’ve spent countless hours conceptualizing, designing, and developing. You must have navigational structure, organized menus, a media library, written articles, the lists and components are nearly endless. I reached out for help with the backbone design of the website, but most of its organization and aesthetic design came from my determination to make it the way I wanted it. You must learn about domain names, hosting companies, analytic tools, templates, terms specific to web design, and so much more. Let me tell you, no matter how easy it may seem with the point and click concepts and the drag and drop menus of today’s website designs—it’s not easy or quick like the marketers would have you believe. It takes patience, lots of self learning, and trial and error practice to get the smallest steps just right. And, not to forget marketing. Making your presence on social media for marketing your website is yet another important and necessary step. That’s another whole involved and complicated process. Sometimes too, you must cut loose the professional developers and the not so professional one’s, to get things done and to not break the bank.
I knew what I wanted, so I took on the challenge and made it my own. So, if things don’t look quite right, it’s probably all me.
