How we started writing children’s books…
Debbie and Marcia used to be teachers at the same elementary school in Lexington, Ky.
On one fateful day… it happened.
Horns shooting from our heads… Fangs as long as swords… No kid would dare misbehave if only we had horns and fangs! At least that’s what we thought…
It started as a bad day. The kind of day when no one listens to you. Marcia was the third grade teacher and Debbie was the librarian and it was a day when the kids did not want to behave at all! (Hard to believe, huh? 🙂 We figured if we sprouted horns two feet long, fangs the size of swords, and blew smoke out our ears the kids would finally behave and pay attention to us. (Are you paying attention? We hope so. It is very hard to sprout horns and fangs!)
Well, that’s how we came up with the idea for Mrs. Jeepers in our first book, Vampires Don’t Wear Polka Dots. She is make-believe, but we have to warn you to watch out for teachers wearing polka-dots… you never know, they just might be vampires! And let’s hope they’re not having a bad day, too! Sometimes Eddie (the mischievous 3rd-grader in our books) forgets about that. And then there’s trouble, with a capital “T”!
Having been kids and teachers ourselves, we understand both Eddie and Mrs. Jeepers. Not that we ever caused trouble…well, maybe just a little! 🙂 And we’re definitely not vampires. (At least we’re pretty sure about each other. We’re not so sure about John Steven Gurney, Nathan Hale and Pearl Low, though. The pictures they draw of our “creatures” for our books are very good. Do you ever wonder how they know to make them to look so real???)
Of course, it has been a while since we’ve seen each other and it is hard to tell about a person over the phone. (Oh no, maybe Debbie really is a werewolf and Marcia is an alien!) You see, Marcia lives in Kentucky; Debbie moved to Illinois, then Colorado, and now lives in Pennsylvania. We used to sit down and write our stories together. (Many of them were written during lunch in our school cafeteria. Did you notice the mustard stains on Werewolves Don’t Go To Summer Camp?). These days we write and communicate with each other and our publishers on the Internet, using our computers and e-mail. Cool stuff!
Really, though, we’re pretty normal ladies. Marcia is a beauty queen and Debbie just swam the English Channel. Just kidding! Marcia and Debbie both write full time. They also visit schools together and separately. When they get together, things can get pretty silly.
We didn’t know each other very well before we started writing, but we are good friends now. The neatest thing is that we can make anything happen in our stories and it can be a lot of fun! We laugh a lot when we’re planning our stories together. Every once in a while we still have a bad day, but now we know exactly how to handle them.
(Huff… and puff… and… start WRITING!!!)
Here’s a Bit More About Us:
- Meet Debbie Dadey
- Meet Marcia Thornton Jones
- Meet John Steven Gurney
- Meet Pearl Low and the other illustrators of the Adventures of the Bailey School Kids and Mermaid Tales book series.
- FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions which our readers and fans ask
Eight things people don’t know about me:
♦ I was top man on the seven man pyramid in a ski show.
♦ I was an extra in a movie called The Music Never Stops.
♦ I was a cheerleader and played basketball on a winning team in Junior High
♦ My tennis team won second place at a state-wide competition.
♦ My brothers used to hide under my bed to scare me at night. My oldest brother now owns a great BBQ place!
♦ I was a very cheerful McDonald’s employee in High School.
♦ My 77th grand-mother was Cleopatra of Egypt!
Hi! I’m Debbie Dadey.
I used to be Debbie Gibson when I was a little kid growing up in Kentucky. I got in trouble for talking too much in school. In fact, I learned Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address by heart because I had to write it so much in fifth grade (punishment for talking). My older brother still lives in Kentucky. If you’re ever in Henderson, KY. stop by Thomason’s BBQ for the best beans and mutton you’ve ever tasted and say Hi to my brother Frank.
Now I live in southern New Hampshire with my husband and our dogs, Carmen and Blue. Change He worked in industry, but now he is retired. He worked in industry, but now he teaches pharmacy. Of course, he’d have to be special to put up with a kooky writer like me! My kids are awesome too. My oldest son graduated from Penn State and the University of Colorado and now I call him Dr. Nathan. Hurrah Nathan! My daughter attended Penn State, but now she is in graduate school. My youngest son was the nicest guy I ever knew. He would have given you the shirt off his back if you needed it. Sadly, he died in 2020.
Some people think that the Bailey School Kids series was named after my dog Bailey, but that’s not so. My grandmother’s name was Lilly Bailey and I loved her very much. Marcia suggested using the name Bailey for our books and I liked it. Later, when my family got our new puppy we named her Bailey, too. Bailey was a wonderful dog and it broke my heart when she died. Her buddy, Skippy, died just about a year later. I like to think they are playing together in puppy heaven. Many years ago, we had Cleo and Comet. They died within months of each other as well.
I think my Grandmother had a lot to do with me being a writer. She always kept a diary and I thought that was so cool.
I spend lots of time watching my kids do their activities, like soccer. My youngest son was also into skateboarding and my daughter was really involved in the plays at her school. I also like playing the piano, hiking, scrapbooking, fixing up my log cabin, tennis, reading, and writing of course!
Here’s another interview that tells the three people from the past that I’d like to have dinner with.
(photo (c) Portrait Innovations 2008)
Here’s a bit more about me:
1. Besides Marcia Jones, Nathan Dadey, and Becky Dadey-Richard Peck is my favorite author.
2. I like to visit schools. I even visited one in Cairo, Egypt.
3. I was a terrible waitress in college. I went to Western KY University.
4. I collect birdhouses.
5. My office overlooks the Smoky Mountains.
6. I love to watch Broadway plays (actually any plays, especially musicals.)
7. My father-in-law met John Wayne during WWII.
8. My ancesters, Joel Gibson and Andrew Slack, fought in the Revolutionary War.
9. I play the piano.
10. I sky-dived to get ideas for a book.
11. I have two states I haven’t visited: Oregon and Washington.
Click here for answers to frequently asked questions.
Click here for Debbie’s Events Schedule.
Click HERE if you need more Debbie Dadey biography information for book reports. Click Here for a book report form.
Here are my dogs:
Debbie and Shadow with Carmen standing in front.
“Hey, what-cha got there? Doggie treats?” Skip passed away on January 18, 2016.
Bailey was the sweetest dog I’ve ever known. She was a beloved member of our family, as was Skip. She passed away in 2014 at 17.5 ears of age.
Meet Marcia Thornton Jones
Meet John Steven Gurney, Nathan Hale and Joelle Dreidemy
Hi! I’m John Steven Gurney.
I was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I grew up loving animated films of Walt Disney, Mad Magazine, and much later N.C. Wyeth. After attending Pratt Institute, I hiked around Europe for several months. I continued my studies at the New York Academy of Fine Art and The Stevenson Academy of Traditional Painting.
My first illustrated children’s book was “The Temptation of Wilfred Malachy,” written by William F. Buckley. My illustrations for The Bailey School Kids and The Bailey City Monsters series are my most familiar. I enjoy using people from my community to pose as models for the book characters. In the book, Trolls Don’t Ride Roller Coasters, my wife posed as the troll!
I live in Brattleboro, Vermont, with my wife Kathleen and our two children.
Click HERE to visit my website!
You may have noticed a new look to some of the Bailey School Kids books. Indeed-e-do, a good fellow named NATHAN HALE has put some scary new covers on some of our favorites.
Hi! I’m JOELLE DREIDEMY
Joëlle Dreidemy is a little illustrator full of beans and energy. She lives in Paris and also teaches illustration to students in an art school in Lyon.
Next to her work, Jojo has an other hobby: she practices karate (black belt !).
She also has a cat called Juju who looks like the scary saber-tooth cat in Caveman Do Drive School Buses !
…Sometimes Jojo thinks that karate is very useful when Juju is in a bad mood….
About Pearl
Hi! I’m Pearl Low
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