All the writing gurus say steer clear of collaborative work as it can cause bad feelings, and worse, take away some of your profit margin. To me, that seems like a shallow way to live life. Meanwhile, I have this series of children's books growing in my head and in my computer.

Every day that I work on the series, I become more enamored with The Adventures of Boathouse Mouse. I knew early on that Boathouse Mouse needed an artist to love him into existence with pictures the way I do with words.

When I asked Shawna if she would be willing to do the illustrations for the series, I'm not sure she had any idea what was coming. I didn't either. But she was a trooper and jumped in. I've never regretted that decision. Shawna has drawn my words into life. I love what she is doing, and I am out-of-my-mind excited about releasing this book!

Here is a shameless teaser of one of Shawna's color test pieces.