About Us

Fourteen years ago Zach made me a grandmother. What a gift! He has been followed by three siblings and five cousins on our side of the family, the youngest of which is three years old. I find each one of them delightful, observant, and interesting.
When Zach was little I read to him (as I had read to his mother and his uncle before him) because my mother had read to me. As an adult I found the Strickland Gilliland poem which concludes
          "You may have tangible wealth untold;
           Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
          Richer than I you can never be---
          I had a mother who read to me."
I find that sentiment to be true, having first discovered the world, ancient and modern, with its nooks and crannies,  beauties and promises by listening to my mother read aloud.
So, when Zach was four years old we wrote our first book together. It was Zachie-Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and he played all the parts. He liked that, so we wrote another. That led, over the years, to writing first books with the next six grandchildren when each one turned five. This spring we are taking the pictures for Elsa's book. She has dictated the text to me and the princess costume she will wear in the pictures already hangs in my sewing room. Only one more grandchild to go. That book will develop next year when Liesel is close to five. But we'll talk about it a lot before that and read lots of other books on the way.
When Zach was 10 he asked to write a "real" book. He wanted it to be about children in World War II Germany. I told him, as any good writing teacher would, that he should write about things he knows.
"You know about Germany, Bamma, and I know about being a kid. We can do it together."
I thought that was a pretty good argument so we set about collaborating on Grapevines. His elementary school librarian asked for a copy of the book to put in their library and children in that school are still reading it.
Then Zach moved to England for six months with his family and became fascinated by things medieval. So he proposed we write Bluestone, a book about a boy who goes on the Crusades. I had lived in Jerusalem for three years, so, Zach brought his England interest and I supplied the Jerusalem information.
Zach now writes well on his own, but we still find it fun to develop plot and characters together, so we are writing The Six Towers, a sci-fi book set in the near future where great things are required of young people in developing a new world. We worked together several hours this week and are nearing the end of chapter three. I like best when we bounce ideas back and forth, "What if. . . ?" or "How about . . . ?" Zach's ideas are increasingly mature and well thought out. We'll see what happens next.