مؤلف: Katie Moak

Katie Moak began writing as a young girl. Born fifth in a family of eight children in rural Southeast Texas, her”s was a happy childhood. The first years of her life were spent drawing on every available surface, but her family could not afford paints or even crayons. Katie had to be content with her school pencil and whatever piece of cardboard or scrap of paper she could find. Ironically, it was this very lack of art supplies that came to launch her writing career. “It happened one day when I was about twelve, ” she said. “I was looking at a sunset that was reflected on the surface of a marsh. It was usually scummy—not very nice to look at, but the sunset bathed it in shades of yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple. It was beautiful!” Katie ran home to get her pencil, but when she returned it occurred to her that she could not draw a sunset. She could not make all those beautiful colors with a pencil. In frustration, she sat on a stump and wrote a description instead. “By the time I finished, ” she said, “I realized how powerful words could be. I could paint beautiful pictures with them and they didn”t cost a penny.” She has written ever since; short stories, poems, children”s literature, and has even started a couple of novels. After she grew up and was married, she traveled with her family in Europe for many years. There, she found innumerable places, people, and events to write about. In addition, her children and grandchildren have provided an abundance of material. Her travels gave her a great deal of inspiration for her writing, but she is convinced that even if she had never left Southeast Texas, she would still have been a prolific writer. Katie”s seven siblings are all reported to be great story tellers, but so far, only her sister, Louise Jetton, shares her enthusiasm for writing. Louise Jetton was born third in line to Brown and Carrie Wilson. The family lived in the Sabine River bottom in rural Southeast Texas, and because of poverty and isolation, the children had to entertain themselves. Louise was born during the great depression. She has vivid memories of hunger and deprivation, so of course, there were no books. She would entertain siblings, cousins, cats and dogs with her stories, making them up as she talked. Over the years, the family grew to include eight children, so big sister had lots of practice at story-telling. At the age of ten, Louise succeeded in having a few poems and stories printed in a publication called “Farm and Ranch.” The column was called “Cousins” League.” She also found many pen pals, from diverse places in the world. She always had a great love of books, and vowed to someday have her name on one or more, as the author. “This hasn”t happened yet, so perhaps I will be like Grandma Moses, ” she said. Louise earned a B.S. Degree, and then a Masters Degree in early childhood education. She went on to teach in many different locations for a total of thirty-four years. She still misses it. She was married in 1952 to Martin Jetton, who was in the army. Military life afforded her opportunities to see places and meet people she would never have had in Southeast Texas. She and Martin have three children. Their son, Art, has his own construction company; daughter Vlynn Reed is a Registered Nurse” and daughter Linda is an elementary school teacher. They have four grandchildren, three boys and one girl. Last but not least is a great-granddaughter, Kenzie, who is three years old, and an endless source of pleasure.