Meet the Author
The first poem I recall writing was for an assignment in fourth grade. I wrote a lot of silly poetry when I was a kid, as well as little plays for the neighborhood kids and me to put on for our parents.
In high school, I continued to write poetry and prose, became a writer for the school newspaper, and was an editor for the Features page my senior year.
In college, I spent summers working as a day camp counselor. Each summer, I had a different age group — 5–6-year-old boys, 5–6-year-old girls, 7–8-year-old girls, and 12–13-year-old girls. My older girls wanted to do a puppet show for the camp talent show. So, we put our heads together, and we came up with ideas of what we wanted to write. I polished their final draft, and we had a very successful production!
My major in college was Technical Theatre. I mostly worked in lighting design, but I also took playwriting. Two of my adult plays were produced in the lab theatre and one of my children’s plays, about a caterpillar, was produced by a community theatre.
Before apple season, I was approached by the apple festival committee because they’d heard I wrote another children’s play about apples. When they found out it included inchworms, well, that blew THAT production! They didn’t want to offend the apple growers with a play about worms!
Eventually, 10 nieces and nephews came along, and I started focusing more on writing for children.
The first book I wrote was for my nephew, John, when he was 3 years old. He loved trucks, and while waiting to board a flight at O’Hare Airport, I watched the ground crews drive all the different equipment around. That inspired me to write a story about a truck for John, titled "Willy & Hector: Beyond the Junkyard."
When John’s sister, Katie, was a year old, he asked me to write a story for her. Katie had a habit of saying “oo” a lot before she really started talking. I thought if I came up with words that ended in o-o, she might relate to the sound, and so, “Ooo” became a story!
More stories to come!
Meet the Illustrators
Beth Georgen Geib is a Mom on the go with two little ones. She and her husband keep the kids busy with soccer, dance and swim lessons (among other things!).
Quite the artist at a young age, it led to an interest in interior design. She currently works part time as a designer of work environments for large companies.
“Ooo” is her first venture into illustrating books. Her next project will be illustrating another “sound” book for Mary.
Joe Bauman - Illustrator for “Willy & Hector: Beyond the Junkyard”.
Joe Bauman is a self-taught multimedia artist and illustrator based in Danville, CA. Joe’s interest in drawing began at a very early age. He would draw characters from cartoons, old movies, and superhero comic books. Godzilla and Spider-Man were his favorite characters to draw.
Joe is a huge believer in having a growth mindset and sees himself as a student of life. He is always challenging himself and learning new things. He has multifaceted interests which makes him a well-rounded individual who brings a diverse perspective to his career as an illustrator. Joe enjoys drawing (of course), reading, watching movies, eating healthy and working out. He is also teaching himself guitar, mandolin and Italian. (Whew!)
Joe is currently working on multiple children’s book projects. He is busy creating new characters, exciting worlds and engaging stories. So from this point forward, he’ll be at his desk, drinking lots of coffee, listening to music, and talking to his dog Frankie!
Putting the Story Together
