A Little Something About Madeline

Madeline Smoot is the former publisher of CBAY Books and, before that, the Editorial Director for Children’s Books at Blooming Tree Press. In other words, Madeline knows a lot about publishing and the process of bringing a book to market.

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

She also publishes under the names Lori Bond and Elliot Addison.

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 channel 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.

Books