Dear Customers:

Looking back, it’s hard for me to believe that it’s been twenty-two years since I started Cottonwood Press. In 1986, with no background in the field and no savings account, I naively plunged into the world of book publishing.

Keeping my day job as an English teacher, I borrowed $2000 from a friend and sent out 1000 flyers advertising two books I had written—Surviving Last Period on Fridays and Other Desperate Situations and When They Think They Have Nothing to Write About. Then I held my breath. To my vast relief, people started ordering.

Eventually, I quit teaching and operated Cottonwood Press for several years out of the spare bedroom in a tiny, rented house. When I answered my only phone line with, “Good morning. Cottonwood Press,” friends would often respond with remarks like, “Don’t sound so official! We know you’re working in bed in your pajamas!”

Today, I have a real office and several employees, and I no longer work in my pajamas. My company is still small and operates on a shoestring, but we work hard to produce practical, interesting, creative materials that really help students learn.

I will never stop feeling grateful to all the teachers who have purchased and used Cottonwood Press materials over the years. Here’s a big “thank you” to all of you!

Sincerely, Cheryl Miller Thurston President

Check out www.scattershot.typepad.com to read Cottonwood Press author and president Cheryl Miller Thurston's blog on creativity, humor, education and more. She writes several times a week on a wide variety of topics.