ALAYNE SMITH had a successful career in education before breaking into the literary world.
Smith taught in Gwinnett County, part of metro Atlanta, first as a middle school media specialist, where she created the Community of Readers program. After moving to Brookwood High School, Smith initiated the first program of broadcast journalism and video production in Gwinnett County. Her students aired a daily news show while advanced students produced a monthly video magazine. Her students interviewed and shot footage all over metro Atlanta, aired feature stories on CNN, and won numerous awards.
While at Brookwood, Smith was elected Teacher of the Year, Bell South Teacher of the Year, CNN Student Bureau Advisor, and member of the International Student Media Festival Committee.
Smith spent the last five years of her career in education training other media specialists and teachers in video production and broadcast journalism.
After 30 years of teaching, Smith was signed by a literary agency, and a new career was born—one of writing about the things she knows—women of achievement, the historical South, and, of course, broadcast journalism.
“Writing is an extension of my teaching career,” said Smith, “Because—good or bad—when I create a story, I can’t resist the urge to teach as well. Examples are in the Ellen books: in the back of each book is a notebook of Ellen’s notes on broadcast journalism. In Educating Sadie, Amanda devises creative ways to teach, including taking her students on imaginary train rides to historic locations.”
Smith’s first book, Ellen and the Three Predictions (Cactus Moon Publications, 2017), is a YA novel set in Alabama. The town soothsayer, Old Luella, makes three predictions for Ellen’s life.
Educating Sadie (Cactus Moon Publications, 2019) follows one woman’s struggle to help another woman rise above a life of poverty and abuse in nineteenth-century Alabama. Educating Sadie was a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom Creative Writing Competition.
This Is Ellen Jones Reporting is a sequel to Ellen and the Three Predictions. Ellen is now a college student in the early ‘60s in Miami. She is dealing with Cuban politics, racism, and marriage vs. career while pursuing her dream of becoming a broadcast journalist.
The third novel in the Ellen Jones series, A Mystery Solved, A Prediction Fulfilled launched in October 2022.
Smith grew up near the small town of Marion, Alabama, and lives in downtown Lawrenceville, Georgia with her husband of over 50 years. She’s thrilled to be a city girl.
