Christopher Cook, Sandy Vassallo, and Myra Davis- Branic

Three staff members at Crayton Middle School juggle teaching careers, families, and writing.

Myra Davis- Branic is a native New Yorker with roots in South Carolina. She is married with two sons. She worked for the New York City Department of Probation for 11 years before relocating to SC. She is currently the School Suspension Supervisor at Crayton.

Davis- Branic started writing when she was very young and won awards for short story writing. She says she always knew she wanted to write even though she had never taken her writing seriously. She finally got serious when she mustered up the nerve to join the Columbia Writer's Alliance. She has published a short story called "Worth the Weight," which was featured in the anthology, Potpourri. She received honorable mention with a short story entitled "The Settin' Up" in an

Essence Magazine short story contest. She is currently in the process of publishing the novelette,

Mita, a story about a young girl coming of age in Spanish Harlem, and has a 

novel, Funny How Thyme Flies in the works.

Davis- Branic says it is definitely a unique experience working with people who have the same love for writing. They have been a source of great encouragement to her.

Christopher Cook is a co- chair in the Department of Theatre at Crayton and teaches theatre to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. He has been married for six years and has a three- year- old daughter who was recently diagnosed with autism. He hopes to, one day, write horror novels in which the protagonist is an autistic child who wins the battle between good and evil.

Cook is the author of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, A Play in Two Acts," published by Authorhouse. He held a book launching event at the West Columbia Riverwalk Amphitheatre where his adaptation of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is presented annually every October. It is now in its seventh run.

Cook is currently working on a second publication entitled "Theatre Macabre: 30 Plays of Horror and the Bizarre," expected to be released by Authorhouse the end of June 2009. A novel is also in the works. More information may be found at www.authorhouse.com and www.headlesshorsemanriver. com.

Sandra Vassallo is originally from Ohio but moved to SC in 1973 when she married her husband, John. She is the mother of two sons, Jason and Josh. Upon completing her masters in education at USC, she began teaching art at A.C. Flora High School, working there for six years before moving to Crayton. She currently serves as the Curriculum Resource teacher at Crayton.

Vassallo says she has always loved sharing stories, which were usually told over lunch with a circle of friends. In 2003, she decided to put some of her stories down on paper, beginning with a collection of short stories about her life, love, and family. The process was interrupted in 2004 when her mother lost a battle with breast cancer and two months later, Vassallo herself was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy.

After facing these obstacles, Vassallo turned to writing, completing her first novel, Constant Blue Skies, published in 2006, about an educator who discovers she has breast cancer, a story of family, friends, faith, and hope sprinkled with a great deal of humor. She completed her second novel, Henry Maxwell's Gift, published by Authorhouse, in October 2008, a story of caring, hope, and the need for all of us to feel valued and needed. A third novel, The Rosewood Book Club, is in the works.

Vassallo says it is a great feeling to actually see her work in print but even more rewarding to know that someone enjoys and relates to her characters. She says as long as there is someone who cares to read her stories, she will continue to put them down on paper, even if she still hesitates to call herself a writer.