MARTHA'S BIO!!  
Who she is.....where she's from....what she's like!!
I was born in Georgia many years ago (1949).  I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters, 1 sister-in-law
and 2 brother-in-laws.  My Dad seemed to get a traveling hair about every 7 years.  We always
had a house in Georgia but we would move for a couple of years to another state, usually
Utah where my Mom's family lives.  In fact one of my brothers and one of my sisters were
born in Utah.  But we always came back home to Georgia.  I went to a small elementary school
that is now a bus system parking lot and went to high school at Avondale High for one year
before finishing up at Clarkston High which were both in my area.  After high school I did what
most babyboomers did.  I got married, had 2 wonderful children, one son and one daughter,
divorced, got married again, had another wonderful daughter, and yes, divorced again after 23
years of marriage.  I've worked in several fields, mostly dealing with accounting but did work
10 years for UGA with the 4-H department teaching students the basic skills of life.  I'm now
back in the accounting field.  

My travels didn't end once I became an adult.  I've had the joys of traveling to Oregon, Texas,
New Jersey and New York.  I've lived in Florida and South Carolina and now live in North
Carolina.  I really like North Carolina.  I'm 2 hrs. from the mountains and 4 hrs. from the beach.  

My son still lives in Georgia with my beautiful daughter-in-law and grandson and
granddaughter.  My 2 daughters both eventually moved here to NC.   Both are married to
"Northerners."  My oldest daughter married a Firefighter from Albany, NY and they have given
me a beautiful granddaughter.  My youngest daughter married a man from NJ who is a
policeman.  They have given me  2 more beautiful grandchildren, one boy and one girl and we
will have an addition in July which is also a boy.

I've always loved to cook and used to dream of opening my own restaurant.  But, as time went
on and I got older that dream just didn't seem to be in the cards.   Instead I wrote a cookbook.  
This idea came to me when my youngest daughter told me she couldn't bring deviled eggs to
Thanksgiving dinner because she couldn't peel them without tearing them up.  That made me
begin to compare my life with my daughters.  My mother was a stay at home mom and  I
learned to cook the same way generations of women before me had, by watching her.  

But, as a babyboomer, my adult life differed dramatically from my mom's.   I worked full-time
and by the time I got home,  got the homework started, clothes washed, baths taken, and
dinner on the table, there certainly wasn't time to teach the kids to cook!!  
As I thought about this,  I started remembering some of the foods my kids had attempted to
put together over the years.  One time it was decided that Thanksgiving dinner would be at my
son's house.  He was single at the time. He decided to make chocolate pie for dinner.  He
bought a pie crust, a can of chocolate pudding and a can of cool whip.  He poured the pudding
into the uncooked crust, topped it with the cool whip and put it in the oven to bake!!!!  You can
only imagine what a mess he had.  Needless to say, we didn't have chocolate pie for dinner.  
So with this and other "adventures" in mind I hit on the idea of writing a cookbook filled with
recipes I've always enjoyed that were simple enough for anyone to tackle complete with
suggestions enabling readers to adjust them to fit individual tastes.   

Cooking for me, always came easy....writing a cookbook, on the other hand was a bit more of
a challenge than I expected!   When it was about 3/4 of the way complete, I started looking for a
publisher.  I didn't know anything about publishing so I went to the internet.  I found a
publisher and tried to find a way to submit my book. I'm also not very savvy when it comes to
computers.  I told a friend about my situation and she took down the name of the publisher
and said she would go on-line and see what she could find out.  The next day around 3:00 in
the afternoon I received a phone call.  It was the publisher.  
My friend hadn't  just looked them up on-line, she actually called them, told them about my
book and they wanted my manuscript in 3 weeks!!   I think everyone in my office heard me
scream when I got off the phone.  I was SO excited.  I scrambled to finish the book.  Sent it to
the publisher and waited and waited and waited.  One day my roommate called to tell me there
was a DHL delivery for me.  Rejection?  I had him open it so he could tell me the bad news.  
Did I say "bad news?"  It was an acceptance letter and contract.  That all happened about a
year ago.  My book now has a release date of June 2008.  I'm still floating.  I'm now working on
book #2 that will be even better.   So, by all means....stay tuned!!
BACK TO MARTHA'S KITCHEN!!
NEXT PAGE.... THE LINK TO

STIR, LAUGH, REPEAT !!