One for the books

As Director of the Ohio County Public Library, Melanie Warga has seen a lot of books throughout her career. None perhaps as special as “The Adventures of Maggie Jane.”

The author of that particular book is none other than Warga herself.

“Being around books and being around the children’s programs (at the library) over the years, (writing a children’s book) seemed like a natural fit.”

But it really wasn’t something she ever thought about doing until a real-life event years ago seemed to be tailor-made for a children’s book.

About 10 years ago, Warga and her husband returned from a shopping trip with their infant daughter to find her unfinished bottle lying in the hallway with the end chewed off.

The Wargas didn’t own animals so they assumed a mouse had found its way into their home. Warga went to get her daughter’s bed ready for the night and as she reached into the crib and moved the blanket she noticed there was a stuffed animal underneath it. Her daughter was too young for stuffed animals at the time, so as Warga

reached into the crib to move what she believed to be a stuffed animal, a squirrel ran out from underneath the blanket.

“A squirrel had come in through our chimney, gotten her bottle, drank its fill and gone to bed,” Warga said. “Through the years, I have kept talking about this event and my husband kept telling me that this would make a really cute children’s book.”

Through the years, Warga would put a paragraph or two down on paper and eventually, she had written enough to make it into a book she called, “The Adventures of Maggie Jane.”

Maggie Jane is the squirrel that Warga named after a dear friend, the late Abby Jane Embry.

She took her book to three different publishers. One required that she have an illustrator for her book. She reached out to a teacher who recommended Samantha Tierney. Warga reached out to her on Facebook Messenger and she agreed to illustrate her book provided that she gave her plenty of time.

“A year later she finished the illustrations and it is beautiful. She really brought the story to life,” Warga said.

Despite going to three different publishers, who she said all liked the book, Warga decided she wanted to go the self-publishing route.

“The more I looked into (publishing), the more I realized that wasn’t the route I wanted to go. I wanted something simpler. I wanted to be able to do this for me. I wanted to be able to say, ‘I did this and have it for me.’”

Warga said she didn’t want to go through all the “extras” required with going through traditional publishing, so she decided to self-publish through Barnes and Noble Press. It was a very easy, streamlined process, she said. About a month after the process began, she got a proof copy in the mail and once she had approved it she was able to put it up for sale on their website.

The book, which was recently made available on Barnes and Noble’s site, was a best seller for two days earlier this month.

“That absolutely humbled me,” Warga said. I was not expecting that. I told everyone that I printed it because I wanted to be able to look at it on my shelf and say, ‘I did this. I was able to accomplish this.’ To have so many friends and family support me like they have has been surreal. I am very blessed.”

While it took her several years to complete, Warga is proud she was able to complete the book.

“It has been one of those things I wanted to do but when you are working on something for yourself you don’t always take the time and the effort to do it and you lose confidence that maybe it is not as good as you think its going to be, but I have had some fantastic friends along the way who had read it as it was in development who really encouraged me to push it through,” she said.

Are there more books in Warga’s future or is Maggie Jane her one and only?

“Fortunately or unfortunately, about three weeks ago I was awakened by a scratching outside my bedroom door,” Warga said. “I got up to see what the noise was and there was a bat in the house, so Maggie Jane may have a friend. We will see.”