Couple teams up to write first children's story

EAST COUNTY — After seeing a group of squirrels watching them through their bay window, waiting for their nightly treat of mixed nuts, Anne Corbett Brown and Patrick Ringley stood up from the couch in their East County home to feed their guests — a fitting scene considering recent events.

The couple started bonding with their furry neighbors while they worked on their recent project — a children’s story.

In September, the duo, through Sarasota-based publishing company Peppertree Press, released a story about a family of squirrels: “The Tree Highway.” It is the first book in a series called “The Adventures of the Nutters.”

The glossy, 43-page chapter book is designed for children ages 6 to 9. The story demonstrates themes of working together and the importance of family.

In it, a family of squirrels, the Nutters, journey to find a new home after a demolition crew chops down their oak tree.

They travel by way of the tree highway — a path of treetops that will keep the family from having to face the dangers on the ground.

The couple came up with the idea for the story in May, days after Brown’s retirement from her 21-year career as a corporate communications manager.

“I was ready to start something new,” Brown said. “It’s neat for me to get a chance to be creative again.”

Sitting beside Ringley in matching lawn chairs behind their cabin-inspired home, Brown enjoyed watching the squirrels playing in the palm trees in their backyard. The sight of a neighbor cutting down one of his trees sparked an idea, and, within minutes, the couple decided on a plot and the main characters.

“It all just fell into place,” Brown said.

After sending a query letter summarizing the story’s plot to Peppertree Press in the spring, the couple received publisher’s approval. Over the summer, they worked with book illustrator Sue Lynn Cotton, with whom they were paired through the publishing company.

“We gave her (Cotton) one-sentence descriptions for what we were looking for in each character,” Ringley said. “The mother was to look like a Southern belle, and the father, a conservative businessman.”

With a bachelor’s in English, Brown served primarily as the editor of the story. She also came up with various ideas for the story, often coming up with ideas faster than she could write them down, Ringley said.

Ringley, a musician and a retired cabinet designer, took on the task of writing the story.

The couple is happy with the sale of more than 100 books so far and continues working on the fourth book in the series.

Next year, they will focus on bringing the Nutters to the big screen by reaching out and pitching their story to animation studios, such as Pixar.

“The Tree Highway” is available on amazon.com for $17, and through personal requests made through the authors’ website — paracba.com. Through website requests, Brown and Ringley will autograph and deliver copies to area residents for $16.

“I never thought I’d be writing a story about squirrels,” Ringley said, laughing. “But, this is the first time I’ve done a project just for fun; it has been a blast.”

Contact Amanda Sebastiano at [email protected].