Meet Emmie

I grew up on a farm in Southeastern Indiana, the second of eight children. We all had jobs everyday, but also plenty of time to play in the mud, make hay tunnels in the barn, walk in the woods, climb trees, and make leaf houses in the fall. If one of us girls wanted a new dress Mom would tell us to go to the cupboard and get material. She had a stash of cloth feed sacks that our chicken feed had come in! (We had 2000 chickens to feed and gather eggs.) I learned to read with Dick and Jane in a two room school house, with no indoor plumbing!!

My third grade teacher was my inspiration to become a teacher, thank you Mrs. Jobe. On my tenth birthday I received the book LITTLE WOMEN, which began my lifelong love of reading. (By the way, I still have that book.) I graduated from Whitewater High School, Marian University with a degree in Elementary Education, and Ball State University with a Master’s Degree. I married my best friend Bill. I still live on a farm in Southeastern Indiana. We are blessed with four beautiful daughters, who gave us four wonderful sons, who gave us fourteen fabulous grandkids! I was thankful to be able to stay home when the girls were small and went back to teaching when everyone was in school. My dream was always to teach first grade, I started teaching first grade when I was forty. (God has a sense of humor.)

I have always had a desire to write children’s books. I would fill out those – Do you want to write a children’s book form – and never send them in. God gave me the idea for children’s stories about a llama. I scribbled ideas on the back of envelopes, scrap paper, napkins, or whatever was handy. I still like to write first and type later. My publishing journey is nothing like I thought it would be, not even the story I thought it would be, but I am trusting God that I am on the right path.

I belong to the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, a local critique group, and follow many authors and illustrators on Facebook.