We’re two sisters and teachers who share a love of Life! Dedicated to our students (Suji teaches seventh and eighth graders language arts, and Mary, retired from teaching K-8, mentors teens in her city), we write books with the intention of inspiring children and adolescents to cultivate positive character traits. We feel passionately that our world needs some very tender care about now.

We both like playing tennis, gardening and traveling. Mary returned recently from a bare-boat sailing trip in Tonga. We’ve also sung professionally with our third sister, Judy (Dr. Judith Hochenauer, a marriage, family and child therapist in Pasadena, Ca) and still get together with our families to cook, laugh, sing songs (some written by Suji) and talk about how we can all help heal the wounds of our planet and live in justice and happiness.

They’re the main characters in our new book, Sunny and Wondrous, Cat Cousins. As our beloved real-life kitties for the duration of their long lives, they led us to write this story which (more or less) parallels their meeting one Thanksgiving weekend not so long ago.

Like the characters in our book, Sunny lived with Mary near the beach, Wondrous with Suji in the “country.” They looked and acted just like the kitties in the story.

(1) We meet halfway in a coffee shop, bring a laptop and get to it. (2) One drives to the other’s house and, with our spouses, work and play for a couple days. (3) We write on our computers using remote assistance, phones and head sets. (4) We write separately and email each version.