The author describes herself as “an entrepreneur who happens to be a writer or is it a writer who happens to be an entrepreneur?”
 
Since graduating from the University of Georgia in 1972 with a major in Journalism (Public Relations) and a minor in Business (Marketing), Avery has built a resume that includes banking, advertising design and sales, owning and selling a restaurant, restoring and utilizing several old buildings on her property, and free-lance writing for a national textile firm. 
 
Her first love, however, has always been dancing – an activity she began when she was a toddler – and it was when she spent 20 years teaching private dance and drama lessons that her first book “Sam the Crow” was born. 
 
“When I taught dancing, I wrote the scripts for the plays my students performed,” said Avery. “I guess you could say my little dancers gave me the confidence ‘to put it out there,’ as the industry saying goes.  ‘Sam’ was a beautiful play, so I figured ‘he’ would also be a beautiful book.” She enlisted the talents of two cousins -- one owns a printing/marketing firm and the other is an artist. The result of their collaboration was “Sam.” Another children’s book --“Phoebe’s World” – followed, and Avery says at that point, she “knew writing was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
 
She then spent seven years working as a reporter, photographer, and columnist for five weekly community newspapers – which she says is “the best experience a writer can have.”  
 
Since teaching at the college level had always been a goal, she pursued and received a master’s in Journalism from The University of Memphis and taught media writing at Columbus State University for five years before deciding it was time to write her first novel. After two years of hard work, “The Tanner Side of Town” was born. 
 
“I believe the written word is one of the most powerful tools known to humankind,” says Avery. “The right words communicated to the right audience can move mountains, change attitudes, confirm beliefs, and warm hearts. When the words we write cease doing those things, then it is time to stop; and I certainly pray that doesn’t happen anytime soon.”