Ellen and the Three Predictions is a young adult novel set in 1950’s Alabama. It is available at Cactus Moon Publications and Amazon.Smith grew up in Alabama and settled in Atlanta in 1969. She received a B.A. degree from the University of Montevallo and Masters and Education Specialist degrees in Instructional Technology at the University of Georgia. A retired educator who worked for the Gwinnett County School System for thirty-five years, Smith trained Gwinnett County media specialists and teachers in video production and broadcast journalism, initiated and taught broadcast journalism and video production at Brookwood High School for fifteen years, was a media specialist at Five Forks Middle School for eleven years. Smith even served as a CNN Student Bureau Advisor.
Pictured: Alayne Smith worked in the Gwinnett County School System for thirty-five years.
What was Smith’s inspiration for her story? “I began writing my family story for my children and got to the part about my aunt – a very interesting character. I also loved writing about broadcast journalism. So, I combined a fiction story with a textbook,” said Smith. “As my editor once said, ‘broadcast journalism informs my writing.’”
Ellen and the Three Predictions is a story of eighteen-year-old Ellen Jones and the predictions of Luella, a seer in the small town of Marshall, Alabama. Old Luella predicts that Ellen will defend the beauty, foil a dictator, and find the soldier. When Ellen reads the predictions after her mother’s unexpected death, this all seems quite far-fetched. This young adult novel is set against the changing cultural and political landscape of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and it traces Ellen’s emergence into young adulthood. Ellen, an aspiring journalist, is influenced by her Aunt Zia, a CBS news reporter who covers Cuba during the regime change from Batista to Castro.
Ellen prepares a notebook of all she is learning about broadcast journalism and it is included in Ellen and the Three Predictions.
Smith is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Atlanta Writers Club, and the Georgia Association of Instructional Technology. Ellen and the Three Predictions sells for $18 and is available at Cactus Moon Publications or Amazon.
For more information about Alayne Smith, visit: http://www.alaynesmith.com.
(Published May 2017)
