This is a glimpse of the MerDog, Heinz. Heinz is the family pet that passes away and comes back as a MerDog!
You can sign up here – https://www.shellymateer.com/subscriptions/
Do you have bored kids at home this summer? Try out the Shelly Beach Portal! Kid-tested coloring sheets created by artist Paul Sewell will keep your youngest children busy while informative downloadable documents will teach the older kids all about their favorite ocean creatures. Animations (also created by Paul) will bring them into the magical world of The Adventures of Shelly Beach, while fun printables will entice them to learn more!
Sign up today! Try it out for a month for only $3.99.
I’m not big on being dramatic, but I believe in telling the truth, and I don’t hide much… But as I sit on the eve of a horrible (it sounds horrible) lymph node procedure which is on the eve of my (even more horrible sounding) unilateral mastectomy, I wanted to share something before I go under.
About ten months ago I began work on a section of my website, a portal, where kids can learn about the sea creatures in The Adventures of Shelly Beach series. I wanted a way to bring the characters in the books to my site, in a fun way that kids (and adults) could learn about these creatures that many do not have the opportunity to see firsthand, out in the wild. I also wanted to offer educational downloadable material for parents and students who want to learn, and even coloring pages for the youngest kids.
I added real-life videos of some of the sea creatures as well as photos of them in the wild. To make it even more appealing, my illustrator, Paul Sewell, created some animations for me, straight from my books!
This portal is able to grow and expand to add more creatures and information as well as new characters as the stories progress.
It’s been a fun project and I hope to continue it for years to come. I hope it can help teach people about ocean life and feed imaginations at the same time.
I’m offering two subscriptions: a monthly fee of $3.99 and an annual fee of $39.99. With that fee, subscribers can access the portal any time and explore the magical world of Shelly Beach!
I hope it offers something to kids and adults. Have fun! See you on the other side!!
In the second installment of The Adventures of Shelly Beach series, A Hermit Crab’s Home, Shelly and her brother Sunny continue on their adventures in the Florida Keys. Young readers can continue to learn about the wildlife found in the Keys while they join Shelly in her magical paddle boat. In this installment, readers will discover hermit crabs, as they meet Herbie the Hermit Crab and Uncle Shrimpie, guided by a MerDog! The print copy comes in large font, to assist those computer-strained eyes. With so much being done on the screen these days, I know firsthand how much damage can be done to eyesight.
My hope is that the series will teach young kids the value of wildlife, nature, and the ocean in a fun and magical way.
Available in eBook and print!
Get ready to meet Uncle Shrimpie, and be led by a MerDog on some magical adventures!
As always, thank you to my young readers for supporting my work!
As many of you know, I recently became a referral agent for RanMarine Technology. These are the people who created the WasteShark, the TenderShark, and the soon-to-be-available MegaShark. Now, as many of you also know, I am a horrible salesperson. But, not to worry, I am simply a referral agent, which means if you are interested in buying, leasing, or pursuing sponsorship opportunities for one of these products, you simply have to let me know and I will get you in touch with the person who makes the magic happen – I get a commission, and the world gains another plastic and biomass gobbling robot to help clean our waterways! It’s a win-win! Where I live, it would be a great addition to the canals, but …. seems I cannot get anyone interested just yet.
If you haven’t heard about these fantastic inventions, I have downloadable brochures here.
I’ve also written a couple of articles about the WasteShark:
A New Hero In The Battle Against Ocean Pollution: The WasteShark
An Accidental Environmentalist
And here, you can see a video of how these sharks work:
My elementary-grade chapter book series, The Adventures of Shelly Beach, aims to teach children about ocean life and the accompanying subject of ocean health, without being preachy. Book #2 in the series will be out soon, by the way.
I don’t think there could be a better partnership than the one between Shelly Beach and RanMarine’s WasteShark!
Feel free to contact me if you are interested in learning more. [email protected]
Here’s wishing a very happy and peaceful Thanksgiving to all!
It is the absolute BEST thing to receive messages like these from my young readers! And, it’s even better because I have good news for them – The answer is YES! I am currently working on Book 2 of The Adventures of Shelly Beach series. I’m about half way through!
This one has a giant hermit crab and a MerDog!
Stay tuned in 2023!
It’s time for my annual self-promotion, hopefully just in time for your holiday gift-giving. If you have any book lovers on your list, try out one (or more) of my books this year! I’ve seen some delays in shipments of hardcopy books, but e-books won’t have any delay and are perfect for last minute gift-giving. I have adult-themed books about my time working as an intelligence officer in the CIA, and I have children’s books that have nothing to do with the CIA – both picture books and a new elementary-grade chapter book series, just begun this year! My books are available online anywhere books are sold, and are likely in some brick and mortar stores (authors always love it if you request their books in brick and mortar stores because then the stores will order copies!).
My first book, Single in the CIA, is a comical memoir of my life in the Directorate of Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency. It takes you through my adventures as a young, single woman in the intelligence world, and focuses only on my personal relationships while I was there – no work talk! It’s meant to be fun, but it ends up being sort of sad, if you realize that the book is set in the “premier spy agency”. Kind of disturbing, actually. This is the book I am most known for, and it began the series of books that I have now written, and continue to write.
My series, Mingling in the CIA, takes readers into the lives of officers in America’s premier spy agency. These short novelettes each focus on an actual real person I knew at the Agency, and takes the reader on a (hopefully fun) journey into their lives. I am currently working on the latest in this series, where you will meet a new character!
Mission: Stand Down, is a true-to-life spy thriller – my most controversial book yet. This one had the censors up in arms! It is highly redacted, but I still think you can get the gist of the book and it is one of my best.
Mommy Thinks She’s a Monster is a touching children’s picture book about moms and motherhood written from the perspective of a young child, who only wants their mommy to be present in their life. This was my first children’s book, and it was so much fun to do. I worked with a great illustrator, Paul Sewell, on this one – he was a delight to work with and he really brought my idea to life.
The Lemon Seed is a children’s picture book about thriving in adversity and flourishing, even in dismal circumstances and environments. This was my Covid shutdown project. In the very beginning, when we were the first in the country to be shut down and masked (Washington state had us beat on the first shutdown), I decided to challenge myself and see if I could illustrate my own book. It might not be perfect, but it is meant to look “homemade” and I’m really glad I did it.
A Manatee Miracle, the first in The Adventures of Shelly Beach elementary-grade chapter book series, takes young readers on adventures in the Florida Keys with a magical paddle boat. This book kicks off my newest series – this time for young readers. With this series, I hope to introduce kids to the wildlife of the Florida Keys that I was so lucky to grow up surrounded by.
Did you know? Manatees have what researchers call a “prehensile snout”. They can use their upper lips individually to grasp vegetation – almost like the trunk of an elephant (their closest living relative).
I know where to find a magical manatee…..
This manatee fact was brought to you courtesy of savethemanatee.org/facts.