By Tricia Pursell
SELINSGROVE — All of 80-year-old Selinsgrove resident Mariam Pineno’s illustrated children’s books have been written, published, illustrated and printed in Pennsylvania.
It’s a fact she takes pride in, and it’s something for which she can thank her daughter, Marti, a professional artist who provides both the drawing and printing for the books.
Self-publishing books is expensive, particularly picture books, she said, and she does not take her daughter for granted — she pays her for her work.
“I want kids to read my stories,” she said. “We (she and Hess) will never make a dollar, because when you do it your way, you do it because you just want your work out there.”
Pineno said she never concerned herself much with rejection letters from publishing companies over the years.
“It’s subjective,” she said. Many times, they already have it mind what they are looking for, or something just doesn’t intrigue their personal tastes.
Pineno and her daughter began working together in 2002, when Hess offered to illustrate Pineno’s first book, using watercolors.
More than 2,000 copies of that book, “Talented Tabby,” have been sold.
“We are not afraid of making suggestions to each other,” Pineno said of her working relationship with her daughter. “Both of us are okay with that. We can differ, which we don’t do very often, but it’s more cooperation than differing.”
“We have a lot of laughs,” she added. “We get along very well. It’s called respect. She respects my part of it, and I respect hers.”
Pineno’s fourth picture book, “A Box of Bears,” debuted Nov. 13 at Cygnet Studios in Elizabethtown, founded in 1987 by Hess.
“It’s a book about giving,” Pineno said.
Every book, she said, has a meaning, but it’s subtle. And they are based on true life stories.
In “A Hat for Hannah,” for example, each character was created after a family member, Pineno said.
A retired music educator with the Shikellamy School District, she said her junior chapter book, “It Doesn’t Grow on Trees,” is based on a music student she had in 1988.
Pineno has been writing for children since 1993.
“Contrary to what people believe, writing for kids is not easy — it’s the hardest,” she said. “You have to go way back in your vocabulary and thinking and feeling to get it, so it rings a bell for little ones.
“And I love to do it,” she added.
An avid reader, she loves children’s books the most, and does readings to smaller kids whenever she has the opportunity.
“I can get on their level very easily,” she laughed.
But writing is more than just good storytelling. Providing advice for aspiring children’s book authors, she said, “I can’t emphasize enough that they need to study the craft.”
Aside from her degrees in music education, Pineno has also earned a diploma in Writing for Children and Teenagers from the Institute of Children’s Literature. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and her work has appeared in poetry anthologies and national magazines.
Her chapter book is available at Waldenbooks, in the Susquehanna Valley Mall. All books are available at bookstores upon request, and signed copies may be ordered online at www.writingmystories.com, where information is also available on how to purchase special “A Box of Bears” gift baskets, designed by her son, Jonathan.
Pineno said one of her grandsons is planning to deliver a basket and read the story to kids at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia.
Book signing
Mariam Pineno will hold a book signing during Selinsgrove’s Late Shoppers Night Tuesday at the Villager Real Estate office, 23 S. Market St., beginning at 6 p.m.
