My name is Doreen E. Lepore and my addiction to crayons started when I was three years old. Over time the addiction grew to include oil paint, pastels, charcoal, watercolor, ink and anything else that looked tasty in the art supply stores.

There is nothing that makes me happier than a newfangled medium, paper, or method of joining the two. I’ll admit I haven’t tried absolutely everything but should get an “A” for trying a lot.

A short time ago I had a wonderful therapy dog named Jenny. Her blog is here: https://mybffjenny.wordpress.com/ Jenny and I would visit elementary schools to help children with their issues. We spent many hours in the library. The children and I looking for books and Jenny making sure there were no lizards on the shelves. It was there that I first thought of writing and illustrating children’s books.

The Mokie Chronicles on my fine art blog https://doreenelepore.com/ are about our new dog Mokie, who is not a therapy dog, other than to us. If she could curb her barking habit she might be able to pass the therapy dog tests. However, she is fun to draw and might make her way into a book some day. She will also be moving over to this blog because she follows me everywhere.

For the past few years I’ve been a member of SCBWI, Julie Hedlund’s 12 X 12 Picture Book Challenge, Tara Lazar’s StoryStorm, formerly PiBoIdMo, Mark Mitchell’s Group Critique, Nerdy Chick’s Summer School and several other groups and challenges that pop up. The Art of the picture book is intriguing and I wish I had discovered it sooner.

Oh, wait – maybe I did.