Carole Marsh Blog

You never know...

Who you might find still hanging around the pool— like Mary America, First Girl President of the United States, obviously catching up on some top secret eyes only files, and, from the looks of the piggy bank, considering how to balance the budget?  Local actress, Anna Bridgeman, posing for photos for our Mary America book for girls website. Hmm, now do you dare tip the prez in the pool? I think her Secret Service special agent is standing just out of camera range!

MEET MARY AMERICA...

And her Secret Service Agent, Todd!

As you might know, I have a new book out: Mary America:  First Girl President of the United States! (She's an orphan.  She has an IQ of 146.  She's the leader of the free world and the commander-in-chief.  She's 12.) This photo is of our "real" Mary America, Anna Bridgeman, a local Peachtree City girl, and "Todd," her Secret Service agent, aka Pernell Arnold, our really, really good sport warehouseman!

WHO WILL BE...

THE SECOND GIRL PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?

As you can see, Mary America is the FIRST girl president of the United States!  You'll just have to read the opening of the book...to see how that comes about.   Mary is an orphan, has a very high IQ, and is 12-years-old.  Not to fret, the nation is in good hands! 

We've had a lot of pre-orders for this book from some of our best distributors, libraries, and young readers (meaning their parents ordered the book!)  One Dad speculated, "I want to read the book myself and see how Mary got to be president because I have

Labor Day Weekend Report

Hope everyone had a great LDW!

We started by going to an Artworks on the Square event in downtown Fayetteville, Georgia.
One of Gallopade's freelance artists, Yvonne Ford of "Peachtree City Night Before Christmas" book fame has a new line of  "Praise Packs" which are lovely packages for women, men, "get well," new babies, etc. each with a beautiful scripture and, as only an artist can do, packaged just perfectly.  Visit www.praisepacks.com, I believe, to see more!

On Saturday, we hit the gym early, then drove to Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta, for the fifth annual Decatur Book Festival (largest in the nation, they claim) on Courthouse Square, where I signed my new "Mary America:  First Girl President of the United States!" book, as well as loads of Carole Marsh Mysteries.  It was beautiful weather, and 70,000 bibliophiles strong over two days, so we were busy and it was great fun!  We passed up Dragon Con, the Georgia Tech opening game, the Salvadore Dali exhibit, and

The Mystery in the Smoky Mountains

The real mystery, to me, is remembering, I think, that it's Smokey Bear and Smoky Mountains—I still have editorial heart failure every time I see SMOKY instead of SMOKEY.  Nonetheless, the Blue Ridge Parkway celebrates its 75th anniversary this year and the Smoky Mountains, America's oldest mountain range as I recall (that's why it's so worn down in humps and not standing tall in witch pointy hat style) and every holler is filled with Appalachian history, mystery, legend, lore, clog dancing, corn lickin' good cornpone and more. In my new The Mystery in the Smoky Mountains, I try to cram it all in, but truly, you could write mysteries forever and galore set in this complex, beautiful, spooky landscape.  I can smell the rhododendrons steeping in the sun now; have picked blackberries big as Bob's thumb on the ridges, and spotted "foxfire" in the

The Mystery at Cape Cod

What kid doesn't like a mystery set at a beach?!  Bob and I spent some time on Cape Cod when he was in the Army Reserves and left me at Buzzard's Bay while he was on duty.  I fell in love with Sandwich glass, the Woods Hole Oceanic Institute, all the quaint little sandy towns, and more that make up the famous Cape Cod.  If you can't go to the beach, the next best thing is to read about the beach, the coast, especially if a mystery is involved.  The Mystery at Cape Cod should make kids wonder, "What's a cape" What's a cod?  And so is this a fish in an overcoat?"  Well, that sounds like something silly Grant would say, anyway.  I think I'll keep this mystery a mystery for those brave enough to read it.  Any takers, kids?!

The Mystery of the Lost Colony

That's the name of one of my new Carole Marsh Mysteries, just released. Now, this was a story I could chow down on since I lived in coastal North Carolina for a long time and really got hooked on the history, mystery, legend and lore there, which is long, wide, and deep! We all know Plymouth Rock and those other stories, but Eleanor Dare (brave pregnant woman!) and others came to the shores of the New World more than 400 years ago.  They wanted to establish a real colony, the kind with families, including newborn baby, Virginia Dare.  What they found was heat, cold, forest so thick you could not see thru them, mosquitoes the size of dinner plates, oysters the size of a man's forearm (that's big!), and Native Americans. When Virginia's grandpa and others

Twenty Mule Team Borax!

If you know what borax is you're either a historian or old.  I am both!  Actually, today, at Ted's Montana Grill restaurants (a find western style eating establishment created by Ted (CNN) Turner), you can wash your hands with "borax" in their washroom.  Think baking soda, or a clean, white, gritty scrub that feels clean and good.  Of course, borax, or the stuff you make it of, was mined in Death Valley, California.  Since Bob and I are longtime Route 66 fans, it didn't take long for us to start from the west (as in the Pacific Ocean) and traipse thataway toward DV.  Now Death Valley sounds like some kind of cliché, but really...it's a dadgum big valley...and doggone deadly.  Of course we went in summer, when we rarely travel in summer, and it was HOT HOT HOT. 

That Doggone Devils Tower!

I guess it was the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, that got me interested in seeing Devils Tower in Wyoming.   I was prepared not to be impressed by what, in a photo, looks like a big hunk of fake mud that a kid has "clawed" with their sharp little fingernails (the way Christina and Brittany did my new leather sofa one time!)  You approach Devils Tower from the southeast, I believe and it looks, in the distance, a little like an anthill. I was more enthralled with the endless prairie dog "town" where fuzzy little heads popped up and down so fast it looked like a video game (before there were video games)...and you want to go run into the sandy "town" until you read that they often harbor rabies, bite, and maybe hantavirus?  Anyway, it was enough for me to stay in the car and by then, Bob had pulled into the DT parking area.  In the surrounding forest, you could no longer, as I recall, see the Tower, so we just

Does Anyone Love Almanacs?

I always loved the old Farmer's Almanac, and I am a city girl!   I wanted to do a 2011 product featuring all this old-timey the Hunter's Full Moon, and when to plant corn, and folklore and such...but are kids interested in that? I have some wonderful reference!  Also want to do a Western almanac with all the great reference I have collected.  Lots of other ideas too.  Alas, instead I am designing a 2011 product we will sell starting in October that gives teachers a great daily tool for kids to learn/do about a dozen things...it's Top Secret so I can't tell much, but we have had fun looking ahead at 2011 special months,