Meet the Teachers

Melissa M’Lin Rowley started writing when she was 10 years old, sneaking out of bed to write on an old computer in the basement. She wrote The Falcon Shield when she was 15 years old as a gift for her nieces and nephews for Christmas. She sent it in to Shadow Mountain where the editor loved the story and didn’t realize until much later that she was a teenager. She signed her first publishing contract when she was 16 and wrote the next three books in the series before she turned 18. Their titles are The Silver Coat, The Warrior’s Guard, and The Fiery Gloves. During her senior year in high school she traveled around the state speaking to lots of elementary school students about her books and about becoming knights by making positive choices. She is currently attending Southern Virginia University where she takes lots of classes on great literature and creative writing. She is excited to share what she has learned about the writing process and about getting published with other kids just like her.

Deborah Pace Rowley didn’t get her first book published until she was 30 years old. The title of the book was Family Home Evening for Newlyweds. She had submitted that book three years earlier to a publishing company that sent her a nice rejection letter. Out of the blue, she got a phone call from this same publisher who said he had gotten the manuscript out of the trash (he really meant the file for rejected manuscripts!) and they were interested in publishing the book after all. Since that strange turn of events, Deborah has published six more books with Cedar Fort, Aspen Books and Deseret Book. She has written five picture books including The Miracle of the Wooden Shoes, Easter Walk, White Shirts, White Dresses, and On the Day You Get Married. She has also written one more family home evening idea book called Before They Turn Twelve: Teaching our Children to Live the Lord’s Standards. She loves writing and reading and is excited to share what she has learned about writing and the publishing industry so that other young people can share their talents and light with the world.