By Jennifer Henderson
Clear Message Media has been super busy lately! We recently launched Clear Message Press, the publishing arm of the company, and Shelley Johnson Carey is our first author. Her book (and e-book), Thin Mint Memories, is now available for purchase on Amazon.
Along with celebrating our fourth anniversary this month, we are also excited about our new publishing adventure. On January 9 we held a launch party for Thin Mint Memories in the Jane Fox Reading Room at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda. The room filled with fans, friends, and family eager to hear more about Shelley’s new book and to celebrate its launch. A few fans came wearing their Girl Scout sashes and pins from their scouting years.
The launch was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scout cookie and the start of the cookie-selling season. In keeping with the spirit of the theme, Shelley entertained everyone by reading several passages from the book to give everyone a real sense of the treat in store for readers, drawing names for Girl Scout cookie-related prizes, and answering questions from the audience.
The passages Shelley chose to read included a bit of Girl Scout cookie history, a humorous account of her attempt to find a Girl Scout cookie baking facility, an account of how one troop used its Girl Scout cookie earnings, and a few of the Thin Mint Memories that are sprinkled throughout the book.
Following the readings, Shelley answered several questions about the book and her experience writing it. Someone who had already read the book asked Shelley to elaborate more on her inspiration for writing the book. Shelley shared the story of her mom being her Girl Scout leader and how selling cookies was nothing new to her mom. Gwendolyn Bacoats Johnson was a Girl Scout herself in the 1930s, a member of the first African-American Girl Scout troop in Tulsa. Shelley’s 92-year-old mother was in the audience, and everyone enjoyed hearing Mrs. Johnson recall that cookies cost fifty cents a box during the Depression. “That was a lot of money!” Mrs. Johnson recalled. “We would take the orders in advance, and sometimes when we went back to deliver the cookies, people couldn’t afford them anymore.”
Fans lined up to buy books and patiently waited to get them signed by Shelley. They shared some Thin Mint Memories of their own with each other. Everyone was able to choose a bundle of their favorite Girl Scout cookies to go with their book. There were Thin Mints, Caramel Delites (or Samoas, depending on where you’re from), Trefoils, Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies (Do-Si-Dos), Peanut Butter Patties, Lemonade Cookies, and the newest cookie, S’Mores, launched this year in honor of the Girl Scout cookie centennial.
We’ll keep you posted on future events for Shelley Johnson Carey and Thin Mint Memories. And, of course, we’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest Clear Message Press publishing adventures.
