About

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Mary Milisande Gray spent the summers of her childhood in the Southern United States. Her debut, Journal One of the Gardenia Guild series, is a journal which was kept during the three months that she attended the Vaudner Academy Finishing School & Debutante Program in Charleston, South Carolina. It includes photographs, letters, recipes, notes from etiquette classes, and more. Mary has recently created an interactive website for her readers, www.GardeniaGuild.com, which features an online competition that mimics the Gardenia Queen competition in Journal One of the Gardenia Guild series of journals. Readers can earn points via a detailed point system and the reader who earns the highest number of points by the competition deadline will receive the title of “Gardenia Queen” as well as a crown and various other real-world prizes. Mary is currently editing Journal Two of the Gardenia Guild series and living Journal Three.