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Where did a children’s picture book come from?! Not my usual fare, I know. It started when my girlfriend (whose best friend affectionately refers to her as “Gabatha”) asked me if she were a book character, what character would she be? And so, based on the green outfit she was wearing at the time, Gabatha the Green Bean was born!
Fast forward a few months and real-life Gabatha asked if, for her birthday, our green bean character could make her literary debut. And so I put pen to paper…but what to write about? What would make for a compelling story about a green bean? As it turns out, the best place to pull from was real life (and the real-life Gabatha, more specifically). The story of a small town girl who ventures to the big city to pursue a career in fashion practically wrote itself! And in fact, in an hour the first draft of Gabatha the Green Bean was ready. But what to do about illustrations?
As someone who is illustratively challenged, I was thankful to have a connection at work to someone who has illustrated for the popular Dork Diaries series. I approached her with the story and she fell in love with it immediately. Better yet, she loved the chance to bring these veggie characters to life. Soon we had a rough draft of ready to present for the highly anticipated birthday, but we couldn’t stop there. A few months of illustrating, developing, and reworking the story and now Gabatha is ready to launch!
Michael Ciccarelli Walsh 