Spotlight: The little boy who likes to chase pigs

July 25- Austin Joel Williams was born on this day. He is the real-life inspiration for the character, "The Little Boy Who Likes to Chase Pigs". Austin likes all types of animals. He has two guinea pigs, Posiden and Apollo. Austin loves to play video games, learn new tricks on his skateboard, and even plays piano. His favorite cake is chocolate with chocolate frosting. Happy birthday, Austin!

Spotlight: Grandma Arline

May 25- Mary Arline Wigley was born on this day in 1915. She was a very special person I loved very much. I knew for a long time I wanted to write her into a story in a special way. She appears in the story, The Terrible Scary Storm as herself. In the story, she comforts, educates and entertains her grandson during a thunderstorm. Grandma Arline was a delightful, insightful, fun, caring, thoughtful person. I'm glad readers will get to know and her love her too. She did not ever get to read the story I wrote for her, but her husband, Grandpa Jay did, and said it was a wonderful tribute to a beautiful woman. Grandma Arline, thank you for inspiring the story, The Terrible Scary Storm. You will always be in our hearts!

Spotlight: Tall, strong farm worker

April 6- Happy birthday to Ryan James. He is the real-life inspiration for the character "the tall, strong, farm worker" featured in the story Escape to the Orchard. Ryan has a great way of relating to animals, especially when they need to be rounded up. He even chose the Confirmation name "Francis" after Saint Francis of Assisi, the saint for animals. As a small child, Ryan James was not a very adventuresome eater, and preferred cereal as often as possible especially Kix. This trait served as an inspiration for the story, Try a New Food, with the picky piglet using many of Ryan James' same comments about trying something new. Thank you for your inspiration, Ryan! Enjoy your favorite chocolate-chocolate birthday cake today. Love, Mom

Spotlight: Gladys

March 30 is Saint Gladys' day, so it seems like a good day to share about the real Gladys. Gladys came to our farm a small, kind of shy, sweet, black piglet of Hampshire breed origins. The name Gladys, came from a favorite flower in my garden, the Gladiolus. They are strong, elegant and beautiful, like the pig. Gladys' middle name, Louise, was just a name I liked. Favorite snacks: yeast rolls, large chunk dry dog food, cantaloupe and watermelon. Least favorite foods: onions and grapefruit. Favorite past-times: rooting in the pasture, playing in the shallow parts of the creek, and laying under the home-made mister, I made from an old leaky hose and hung over a low place near the pig barn. Gladys was the first pig in the herd to learn the trick of sitting like a dog and catching a piece of food off the end of her nose. She learned the trick faster and did it with more accuracy than the family dog. Pigs really are friendly and intelligent. I hope you enjoy reading about her adventures!