Paula B. Puckett

When Paula B. Puckett was a child and received a new box of crayons, she promptly peeled off all the paper and broke
the crayons in half. "I knew then...I loved to look at the pretty colors and drew all over everything. I did similar things
with pencils. Even now, I prefer short pencils with no eraser on the end as one of my favorite drawing materials. I
usually keep one in my pocket."

Paula is a writer, artist and art teacher with over 23 years of classroom teaching experience. She considers herself a
creative consultant and says, "Most of my customers are under the age of twelve. I work with children in Kindergarten
through Fifth grades. That means I have the unbelievable opportunity to draw, color and make artwork with children all
day!"

Paula has been a member of Southern Breeze SCBWI since 1995. She has worked with several critique groups--some
online, as a moderator of a short story workshop, and with Donna Bowman and Robyn Hood Black before the
formation of the Book Bound WIG. In 2006, Paula became the Critique Coordinator for the Southern Breeze Region.

Paula's illustrations have appeared in the SCBWI Bulletin and in previous Southern Breeze newsletters. She has been a
workshop presenter for a Georgia Book Awards conference and created brochures ("Who... Are You?", "Attending
Your First Conference" ,"Getting A First Book Contract" and "Beyond The Dream...Dare to Write") which have
appeared at Southern Breeze Conferences.

Paula says, "The road to publication is a journey where each writer has to be able to take what they learn along the way
to make their own path. Look for signs and leave a trail for others to follow." She knows about the thrills of
acceptances and the lessons of rejections in the pursuit of publication ("A Writer's Fairy Tale") and says, "Three things
have to happen, and so far, I've gotten two out of three."

Paula is currently working on story poems and illustrations, research for manuscripts in several chapter book projects,
and experimental artwork and photography. She is collecting material for a series of humorous personal essays and
plans to call it either "In Pencil" or "The True Confessions of a Sports Mom."

She enjoys spending time with her husband and three sons, who are active in collecting and restoring old things ("Cars,
furniture, whatever strikes our fancy") and watching her boys in their sports activities which include mountain biking,
football and wrestling. They live on enough land to have numerous trails through the woods, which Paula now explores
while driving an old mail jeep "which will be in the restoration stage forever."

Paula can be reached at: SheSails2@AOL.com. She'll be out on the trails, of course.