By Jo Anne Efird, Lifestyles Editor
Thursday, August 21, 2008
August 22, 2008 09:14 am
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A former Locust resident and West Stanly High School graduate has published a children’s book.
Ashley Evans Wondra, who also taught fourth grade at North Albemarle School her first year, wrote the story, “Kelsey’s Coat,” while in college at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she took a writing class with an author/instructor who helped her improve it. She sent it to various publishers and found a Charlotte publishing company, Xlibris.com, to publish it.
Thr publisher provided her a list of illustrators and in October she began working with illlustrator Thomas McAteer. The completed book was published April 21.
Ashley Evans grew up in Locust from the time she was in fifth grade and went to Locust Elementary School. Her mother, Pam Sibley, now lives in Concord and her father, Doug Evans, in Charlotte.
“I have had tremendous help and motivation from both my parents and my grandma Donna Baldivid. She lives in Matthews,” Wondra said.
Her husband, Joseph Wondra, also provided support in her endeavors and the book is dedicated to him. The Wondras live in Charlotte with their two children, a son, Carter, and a daughter, Kennedy.
While in the publishing process, she used thc story in her second grade class at Harrisburg Elementary School. The children were really excited and at the end of the year a lot of them said she was their favorite author.
“It is still a kind of a new thing to me,” she said.
“I would like to write more.”
Contact Jo Anne Efird at (704) 982-2121 ext. 20.
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