About the Author

Hello, I'm Mary A. Spencer and I have always loved children’s picture books. For many years the thought of writing one drifted through my mind, but as I didn’t know how to actually get to a publisher, I didn’t dedicate time to my ideas. Then one morning I woke up with a silly poem in my head about a bunny, and I decided to write it down. Later that day, I took concepts from the poem and began developing them into a story. I thought it had potential, so I began to research how to actually write a children’s book and get one published. I had recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was no longer able to work as a health educator. This was a huge change for me, and I thought that writing a book was something I could do as I felt able to.

After a few years of working on the story, which included time out to have a baby, I began to submit the manuscript to various publishing companies. After another couple of years of submitting without any interest from a publisher, I wrote some short stories for a children's magazine and these were published. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to see my stories as the cover story for two issues and to receive a small check for my work.

That motivated me to try to publish a book again. I had written “Daddy’s Girl” during this time and wanted to get that published also. In my search for a publisher to submit my manuscripts to, I learned about self-publishing and decided to try that route instead of trying to get the interest of a traditional publisher. It is very exciting for me to see many years of work coming to fruition. But as I continue to learn about the publishing process, I realize that the work doesn’t stop with the printing presses. Rather, it really begins. Marketing to announce to the world that “Daddy’s Girl” is now available is what I’m spending my time on now.

Now that I have actually begun to write a few stories, I always seem to have some idea for a story running through my head. Some ideas have grown into complete stories which are waiting to be published, while other ideas are still waiting to be formed into stories.

I live with my husband, Gary, and daughter, Kathleen. We share our time between Northern California and Orcas Island in Washington State.