Diane and Amy are new rescue tortoise owners. Each day brings a new discovery and a Google Search. Tattie came to live with Amy after our late summer fundraiser, Beer for Turtles, at Lone Pine Brewery in Old Orchard, Maine. Nate, a volunteer with the organization, brought several tortoises to the event and was an…
First time authors, Diane Madden and Amy Johnson are two women who dreamed about writing a children’s book but never did it until their late 50’s. Until that point, they were raising children, building careers, trying to find time to eat right, exercise, support their families and friends and the myriad of things women do…
The Story of Neeps and Tattie was specifically designed to be a gift book and a book to hand down through the generations. It is a large book measuring 10” x 12“. Our book also has a dust jacket. Both Diane and I are old school -we wanted our book to totally embrace the child…
I was in the Sunshine State for a book tour and a little holiday R&R. On one of my beach walks I found a lot of sea turtle egg casings. At first I thought I stumbled into the leftovers of a beer pong party. Tortoises in the wild will lay 4-8 eggs in a sunny…
I spend my holidays hiding in Boca Grande. It is quiet and a perfect place to walk the beach and reflect. My daily beach walks this year have not yielded as many shells as I would like, but I have found a large number of empty sea turtle egg shells. The shells look like broken…
My secret – the winter solstice is my favorite day of the year. Today, December 21st, is my favorite day. Living in the northeast, the day is dark by 4:30pm, and winter has begun. Some call it the longest night. Tomorrow we will gain two more seconds of daylight. It is the season of dormancy…
Migration is a theme in our book “The Story of Neeps and Tattie.” Here in the North East, bird migration started at the end of August. With deep connections to the sun, atmospheric temperatures and temperatures of the ground, the creatures around us began their preparation for winter. Some birds will stay, some will fly…
With the current-state of the world, a small abandoned tortoise has shown me a way to navigate this life. There are dark sides and light sides. Choose the light. Sometimes the lighter side is man made and sometimes it is natural sunlight. Both are welcoming and life sustaining. Greens are necessary but a ripe…
When Diane and Amy set out to write the Story of Neeps and Tattie, neither one had experience in any part of the book world. There were books in book stores and they bought them. How they got to the book store was a complete mystery and truthfully, not of interest. The Story of Neeps…