“BeBe” Bakes a Book

Hometown Mentors, Inc. wants to extend our congratulations to Barbara “BeBe” Williams Ryan on the publication of her first children’s book, titled: The Mysterious Monster on Gingerbread Lane, which has been accepted for print by Barnes and Noble Press.

We are proud to represent Barbara in this endeavor, as her publisher. We appreciate her trust in us, as we work to help her realize a 30 year old personal dream to get her story into print.

The Mysterious Monster on Gingerbread Lane, is a magical little tale and we are sure it will be extremely well received by children of all ages. After all, Barbara tested her story on her six grandchildren, who were the cookie designers and the muse for the characters to come to life.

Barb worked very hard, with long hours and some sleepless nights in the writing, editing and designing her storybook from a blank cookie sheet.

Print shops have strict requirements for size, margins, layout, font and design of publications being submitted for print. After asking for help with her project, Barbara received a little help and advice of Cathy Swarmer, volunteer executive director for HMI. She took on each step, grasped the task, researched some on her own and taught herself about graphic software to create Sprinkleville, Blue Bob and the other snowpeople citizens. She was very successful and got to the finish line pretty much under her own power.

Barbara’s story creation started with baking the characters while using a recipe passed down 7 generations within her family. Her children have many fond memories of baking this same recipe with their Poppy, Barb’s Dad. But this time it was BeBe and her grandchildren who were the baker helpers and character creators. The characters of her book are actual cookies, baked and frosted proudly in BeBe’s oven in Emporium, Pennsylvania.

Barbara Williams Ryan was born and raised in beautiful Cameron County, tucked in the mountains of North Central Pennsylvania. She and her family lived in Oakland County, Michigan for a few years in the 1990’s, but returned to their Cameron County roots for a simple, wonderful life. She is a recently retired RN after a 36 year career.

Known to her six, soon to be seven, grandchildren as BeBe, her greatest pleasure in life is time with her husband, three children, their spouses, and her grandchildren. It was during one of these times spent together, that this story was created. Barbara and her grandkids named the snowmen as they were decorated, and Blue Bob was born. All illustrations are cookies decorated by the kids and arranged by the author.

HMI also wants to congratulate Laura McColl, for her inspirational summary of the book, The Mysterious Monster on Gingerbread Lane.

Laura picked up the pen at the invitation of her Aunt Barb and created a clear and fun summary for the book. So good, in fact, HMI chose to print it on the back cover. Now, each time a parent picks up the book, they will be able to know that this story is a fun little fantasy, worth reading to their children.

Here is the summary Laura wrote:

“The Shivering Citizens of Sprinkleville live together in their snowy forest town. Every Christmas, though, strange sounds and noisy
noises bounce out of the forest, nearly scaring their sprinkles off! This year, they are more determined than ever to rid their peaceful
town of the frightening monster. With some new friends, the snowmen (and snowwomen) face their fears and venture into the forest
beyond the end of Gingerbread Lane. The truth about their noisy neighbor turns out to be the biggest surprise of all.”

We look forward to helping the author with marketing and sales going forward.

Only 10,000 copies need to be sold to make the NY Times Best Seller List!