In The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea, I’ve written about an entire family of sock monkeys. Each time a new person is born into the family of Ethel Constance Easterling, who celebrates her 90th birthday during the book, she creates a sock monkey for them and names each one. Within this story, we meet: Throckmorton S. Monkey,… Read More
Throckmorton S. Monkey, one of the main characters in The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea, is a red-heeled sock monkey. Do you know the history behind these easily-recognizable stuffed animals? Did you know that Rockford, Illinois calls itself the Home of the Sock Monkey? That’s because John Nelson, a Swedish immigrant to America, patented a sock-knitting machine… Read More
Early on the morning of Friday, January 29, 2015—a bitterly cold, snowless and windy day in Minneapolis—I sat at my kitchen table and signed multiple copies of my two published novels for middle-grade readers: Tango: The Tale of an Island Dog and The Secrets of Eastcliff-by-the-Sea. I packed the books in boxes, put the boxes… Read More