My call came in June, while I was driving down to the beach with my sons. My husband called me o­n the cell phone and it was during that conversation I realized I had married a sick man. He teased me. He tormented me. “You have mail.” He stops. “Want me to read it?” Does a bear…. “Well yeah.” He then reads the call while leaving out the publisher’s name. I could have killed him. Thank goodness I was three hours away and moving further. Finally, after much pleading he told me Phaze had offered to publish “Waking Annabel.” I immediatly hung up o­n him. Why waste time talking to someone who already knows the good news? By the time I reached Wilmington, every person whose number I could remember or had programed in my cell knew that Phaze had made an offer. (They have contracted my second story “Second Chances” too.) I know you’re wondering why my husband was reading my email. o­nce upon a time we shared an account. Now I get more email than he does so we have separate accounts.

Jayelle grew up o­n the coast of North Carolina and lived there until she met her future husband. He was from the mountains and she found it far easier to move to the mountains than to remove him from them. Jayelle’s been an avid reader since middle school. Seeing as she spent so much time reading, family and friends continually asked when she planned o­n becoming a writer. Finally her husband and mother bought a lap top and ordered her to write something. She did. She has two stories under contract with Phaze and a third with Liquid Silver Books. She now struggles to balance the roles of mother, wife, teacher, and writer. She loves every minute of it.

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