Local Fiction Writer Credits Hard Work & Boost From Baltimore Teachers

PIKESVILLE, Md. (WJZ)—For everyone who dreams of publishing a novel, there are piles and piles of rejection letters sent out crushing those hopes.

But as Mike Schuh reports, one Baltimore native is beating the odds.

Authors are the lucky ones. They're the estimated one in one hundred whose work is published and on shelves.

Baltimore native Michelle Madow is now among that group.

She writes teen fiction.

"Sunday I have my book release party for 'Diamonds in the Rough,'" Madow said.

"Diamonds in the Rough" is her second book published by a large publisher and her fifth book overall.

But to get here it took the Park School grad years of hard work.

Her first three books were self-published.

She and her mom took to the road, driving from Florida to California with many stops along the way.

"And I spoke at high schools across the country literally selling books from the trunk of my car, and from that I built my fan base," Madow said.

So with an established fan base willing to buy, a publisher liked her next book, the first of a trilogy.

"I walked into my local Barnes and Noble, and I saw that on their desk they had a big display of all my books, and I was so excited and took a picture--became my new Facebook profile picture. And then I walked into the store and saw my books on the shelves," Madow said.

She credits her teachers in Baltimore for telling her she can be an author.

"My second grade teacher she'd write little things to us at the end of the year and she wrote I can't wait to read your first book someday," Madow said.

Unlike the countless others who's dreams are crushed, for Madow, that day is now.

If either of her two influential teachers--Marnie Cohen or Jane Ely--is reading this story, Michelle Madow would love to see you at her book premier this Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Barnes and Noble in Pikesville.

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