M. Jane Hawkins has been a junior high school English teacher, a stay-at-home-PTA mom, and a part-time employee at a regional running magazine where she sold advertisements, wrote and edited articles and eventually became editor. She has been a reading mentor for children and helped start a newspaper club in an elementary school. After staying busy with church work and volunteering, Jane dusted off the 10-year-old original draft of her story about a truck and a boy. She got serious about writing for children, joined SCBWI-OK, went to conferences and work-shops, and learned, learned, learned. That truck and a boy story became A Truck Named Tony, her debut picture book.