Cheri Cameron Newell: From Top Model to Children’s Author By Contributor, Author Kari H. Sayers
Cheri Cameron Newell: From Top Model to Children’s Author
By Contributor, Author Kari H. Sayers
Although she lives a life of luxury with all the trimmings—a palatial home by the ocean in Palos Verdes Estates, the latest model German sports car, a supportive husband, and two successful children who have flown the nest—Cheri Cameron- Newell spends much of her days with a bunch of swamp creatures in the Okefenokee Swamp. In a series of children’s books, she takes young readers on an adventure with the abandoned Swamp Dog Sam, who is on a quest to find his lost brother. Slogging through the expansive swamp, Sam meets many of the swamp’s animals—a flying squirrel, a tortoise, a chameleon, and deer to name a few-- who eventually become his family. He has a crush on Misty Sue, a dwarf doe, or a no-grow doe as her mother calls her, because she has lost her spots and is not a fawn. But the evil buck wants to kill Sam so Misty Sue will go away with him; she is, after all, his kind. But the evil buck fail; Sam and Misty Sue eventually get hitched, and puppies follow.
“One theme of the story is that you don’t have to be the same kind to be a family. You just have to love one another,” Cheri said in a recent conversation. “And home is not a place, but it’s being with the ones you love.” Other themes include abandonment, friendship, trust and diversity.
And why a swamp?
“Growing up in North Caroline, I had always heard about the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia and it sounded so cute to me. And all through college, I used to call my friends Swamp dogs, so I had to have a swamp dog [as the main character.] Swamp Dog Sam is a Yorker mix.”
Born in Winston Salem, North Carolina, Cheri grew up with all kinds of animals. “We had a dog, a cat and a crow at the same time, and they all ate together. It was hysterical.”
At East Caroline University, Cheri majored in early childhood education. “So I have a teaching degree, but I never became a teacher,” Cheri said. “Instead, I went to New York on a whim and got on with Wilhelmina Model Agency.” There she met Kimberly Ross, and the two became best friends. “We were the shortest models there (5’6”) but we hit it off and had a great time together.”
They both succeeded in the business, and Cheri worked for Vogue among other publications and appeared on the cover of both Vogue Mexico and Vogue Japan. But always looking for more adventure, they decided to go to Los Angeles together. “Kim really wanted to go into acting more,” Cheri said. “And I didn’t know what I wanted to do.” They both continued modeling, and some acting until Cheri met her husband Byron. “I met my husband when he interviewed me for a cable cooking show,” Cheri said. “The cooking show never came about, but we started dating.”
Byron worked in advertising and soon started his own advertising firm, Cameron-Newel Advertising, where Cheri also worked until she got pregnant with twins. “It took ten years to have kids,” Cheri recalled. “I didn’t think I was ever going to have any children.”
Their advertising agency prospered, but when print publications started to go digital, they sold the business to TMP Worldwide. “They owned Monmster.com which was big at that time,” Cheri explained.
And how much did it sell for? A lot!
“Part of it was a stock deal and it doubled. We did very well. I’ll just put it that way,” Cheri said with her characteristic crooked smile.
At age 40, Byron retired, and Cheri started writing. “When the children were little, I loved shooting pictures of them in black and white., and I hand painted them and did greeting cards for a while,” she said.
Then Kim, still Cheri’s best friend and only in her forties, died of breast cancer, leaving a young daughter behind. “I was trying to figure out a way to honor her,” Cheri said. She gathered many of the photos from her cards and put them together in a book titled An Angel just like you. “I submitted it to a publisher . . . and got the Mom’s Choice Award.”
That was also the time when the stories about the swamp animals started to take shape. Although she was fascinated with the Okefenokee Swamp, she had never been there. “Now that I’ve finished my project and when I get an agent, I’m going. In the back of the books, there’s a fun-fact section that tells about the animals in the story and their real counterparts in the Okefenokee Swamp. Supervisory refuge ranger Susan Heisey vetted these fun facts for me. I gave her the opening of each book so she could see how it started. She was so excited. ‘We have field trips every day and we do classroom stuff,’ she said. ‘We’d love to put your book in our nature store, and we’d love for you do a book signing here.’ They get half a million people a year there, so I’m excited.”
However, the publishing business is competitive, but while attending a writing conference, she submitted her work to a panel led by award-winning author Katherine Applegate. “The panelists picked ten manuscripts and read the opening pages,” Cheri said. “All of a sudden, I heard the opening of Swamp Dog Sam, and I turned so red. They had already read four manuscripts, and the comments were so mean, just horrible. So, they got to me, and Katherine Applegate said, ‘This starts out kind of dark for a kids’ book. I love it. And it’s in present tense, and I like that too.’”
Those encouraging words have motivated Cheri to go traditional with an agent rather than self-publishing.
Her swamp books are written for children ages six to nine, but Cheri has also written and put together picture books and inspirational books for beginning readers--eight books in all. Cheri donates all proceeds from her books to breast cancer research. For more information on Cheri’s works, visit her website at www.CheriCameronNewell.com.
Kari H. Sayers BIO
With a BA in English and an MA in linguistics from California State University, Long Beach, Kari Sayers went with her husband to Saudi Arabia, where she first worked as a music teacher at Riyadh International Community School and then as a journalist for the English newspapers the Saudi Gazette and the Arab News as well as in-flight magazines. When she returned to Southern California, she taught literature, college composition, and English as a Second Language at Marymount California University in Rancho Palos Verdes, while freelancing as a theater, classical concert, and opera reviewer for local newspapers and magazines in the Los Angeles area.. In addition to authoring the novels Roses Where Thorns Grow, Under the Linden Tree, and the soon-to-be-released Justice for Lizzie, all published by Melange Books in Minnesota, she is the developer and editor of the anthology Views and Values, published by Cengage. Now widowed,. Kari lives in the Los Angeles area.
