When I thought about what I wanted Joey to look like, my first criteria was to have a little boy that was totally relatable, with at least one or more characteristics all boys could see in themselves. Then my author/coach, from Miriam Laundry Publishing, mentioned that I could ask my illustrator to create a likeness to someone in my family. So I chose my nephew, Woody, who has always had an intrepid, adventurous spirit. It was so much fun working with Patrick, my illustrator, in creating the one feature that uniquely expressed Woody, his hair! I always visualized Joey wearing a red top but never shared that with Patrick, and wondered, after approving my black and white illustrations, what color Patrick would choose for Joey’s top. He chose red! We were so in sink during the creative process. It was wonderful!