Billy Mac and Rocky: (W-I-P)

My mother, Betsy Glenn Matthews Chandler, inspired my ideas for this series. Mom was an imaginative young girl. Add fearless to that equation, and you’ve got excitement…and sometimes trouble. Observe the photo to the left. Now, look at the child, seated, third from the left. Yep, it’s a girl. Betsy Glenn herself. Just a day before this picture, she had taken scissors to her beautiful long hair because she wanted short tresses like her blonde cousin Carolyn. Just two days before that, she had visited her neighbor’s chicken coop and stolen eggs to put in her mud pies. Miss Nora Hughes was NOT happy! Neither was my grandmother. I’m surprised she let Betsy see the light of day so soon after the theft!

The little boy in the stroller is my mom’s brother, my uncle, Billy Mack Matthews. He will grow up to be Betsy’s nemesis in their younger years. He will hit Betsy in the head with a hammer, and she will push him off the porch. Little things like that kept my grandmother on her toes.

When I approached my agent about a series of books featuring a girl of grit and action, who believes problem solving to be her forte (yes, of course, she creates most of the problems!), my agent fell in love with my uncle’s name and suggested I call this little female dynamo Billi Mac. I acquiesced. I’ll never forget the shock and disbelief on Mom’s face the day I had to explain the decision, but to her credit, she loved the story ideas.

Sometimes, Billi Mac’s problem solutions don’t go exactly as planned. Lucky for her, her dog Rocky is there to help herd her to safety and sanity – even if it’s after a disaster. Book One in the Billi Mac and Rocky series is THE CHICKEN COOP CAPER, based on Mom’s short run as a thief. In this debut rip-roarin’ early reader, Billi Mac’s spur-of-the-moment decision to take eggs from Miss Nora’s chicken coop, in spite of Rocky’s “ruh-rohs,” sets off a chain reaction of frantic hens, a disgruntled neighbor, and a long road back to a happy friendship.