"Up and Coming Children's Writers"
places around the world on her group sales as a District Manager.
As a result, she and her husband, Terry, have been to Bogota, Columbia and Rio de Janerio, Brazil in South America. Verla went alone to Israel and both of them toured Portugal in Europe. They enjoyed Hawaii and a cruise to Alaska together. The last trip she earned was to Greece and due to a severe case of bronchitis, she could not go, so she sent Terry without her. He says that cruising the Greek Isles with 600 women while his wife was at home was a wonderful experience - and Verla tends to believe him!
* Becoming A Writer *
It wasn't until Terry and Verla had moved their family to Nevada and purchased a laundromat in Carson City, that she found herself thinking about becoming a writer. One of their regular customers was a woman who was a successful free lance writer for magazines. She looked at some of Verla's writing and was constantly encouraging Verla to become a writer herself. The seed had been sown. They lived in Carson City for three years, then the call of the ocean breezes and tall redwoods became too strong and they moved back to Santa Cruz.
For the next few years, Verla ran a licensed daycare from her home. Snaps 'N Snails Daycare catered to six children at a time - most of the children being between five months and three years old. While she read books to the children, Verla couldn't stop thinking about writing stories of her own. Finally, the call to WRITE became too strong and she signed up for a correspondence course through the Institute of Children's Literature. During the next two years, she studied and practiced and learned what it took to write and sell stories for children.
* SUCCESS! *
After selling two short stories, one to Turtle Magazine and one to Humpty Dumpty Magazine, one of her picture book manuscripts was pulled from the slush pile at Putnam Books and she was on her way to being a REAL author. Six months later, Putnam bought a second manuscript.
It was while Verla was working as a desk clerk in a local motel that she found herself checking in a very special couple one night. While chatting with the people, some things she said about her writing triggered events that eventually led to her gaining a terrific agent in New York who was able to negotiate much better terms for Verla on her third picture book contract.
Since April of '97, Verla has been staying
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