A retired teacher turned author uses Ellijay’s apple heritage for the backdrop of her first children’s book.
The title character of “Ellie J’s Apples” is 6-year-old Ellie J. Marsh, who lives on an apple orchard in Gilmer County, said author Nan Flickinger.
“She’s out in the orchard with her mama, and she asks her mama to teach her how to grow apples from apple seeds. That’s what happens throughout the book, and it takes place over several years,” she added.
Flickinger, who retired from teaching in the Fulton County School System, has lived in Gilmer County since 2014. She is a former president of the Friends of the Gilmer County Library. After having back surgery two years ago, she filled the downtime by starting a project she’d had in mind for a while — writing a children’s book.
“I wanted it to be a fun book, but also have some education behind it. It aligns with the first and second-grade science standards for the state of Georgia,” said Flickinger.
The first-time author kept it “as local as possible” with several facets of the book. Her illustrator, Savannah Plumley, is a former Gilmer resident, and Josh Aaron, of Aaron’s Family Orchard, provided editing assistance with apple terminology and photographs of apple trees from the orchard, which were used to help with illustrating the book.
“I wanted my illustrator to be a middle or high school student. Savannah, who lives in Cartersville now, is 16, but she’s probably not your typical 16-year-old girl,” said Flickinger.
The two are already working on a spinoff book featuring a character from “Ellie J’s Apples.”
“There are pictures of Savannah’s cat, Otis, throughout the book, and now we’re working on a second book called ‘Otis, the Orchard Cat,’” said Flickinger. “Hopefully, at some point, (that character) will be featured in his own book.”
Flickinger and Plumley will have their first local book signing from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, July 20, at the George Link Jr. Gilmer Arts Playhouse.
“It’s on Amazon, available at some of the orchards and at Artful Ellijay, so it can be purchased locally as well. I’ve had several book signings at other places and thought since it was a local (book), we could (have) a signing here,” she said.