Joy Allen feels that illustrating children's books is very much a passion as is Mud Pie Annie's mud! Ms. Allen began illustrating children's books in 1997 after a long career in graphic design. She has been profiled in Children's Writers & Illustrator's Market, and was featured as editor's choice in Art Gallery Magazine. Her most recent picture books include Hold the Boat and My Best Friend Bear. Sue Buchanan is the coauthor of the best-selling I Love You This Much. She is also the author of I'm Alive and the Doctor's Dead, Girls Just Gotta Have Fun, Duh-Votions, and Mud Pie Annie, and coauthor of Friends Through Thick and Thin. Sue lives in Nashville, TN. Dana Buchanan Shafer is Sue Buchanan's daugher, a harpist, editor and writer. She and her husband, Barry, have developed a Bible-study product for teens called InWord. They live in Middleton, OH.