NORTH BEND - After 45 years of writing, North Bend author Susan Anderson Coons struck gold, winning an award for her first children's book, “The Lighthouse Mouse.”

The book, which was published independently last year, was partially inspired by the many picturesque lighthouses along the South Coast - especially the Umpqua River Lighthouse.

“I would just crawl around the lighthouse and look around, thinking about how a mouse would get inside,” Coons said, sweeping her blond curls aside as she shook her head with amusement. “It was such fun.”

Featuring illustrations by Coons' niece, Pat Undis, the book is about the antics of a mouse trying to find a home. Once he spots the warmth and security of a nearby lighthouse, he does everything he can to make it his new home.

Coons said she has spent most of her writing career working in poetry, but a few years ago she started working on projects for children. But, according to Coons, she didn't come up with the idea for her book on her own. The entire project has been not only a family enterprise, but a community effort, she said.

While at her hairdresser in Reedsport, the pharmacist around the corner, Dean Warner, gave Coons two paragraphs on a mouse's plight that had been going round in his head. That began the six-month enterprise that led to self-publication and a Bronze Medal Ippy Award, from the Independent Publisher's Association, an organization that works to help and encourage independent writers. The award is in recognition of the excellence of writing and illustration in “The Lighthouse Mouse,” and was awarded to Coons in New York on June 4.

She said many others should get acknowledgment for their help, too.

“I don't feel that I can really take all the credit,” she said. “So many people contributed to this effort, reading my manuscript, working on the illustrations - this is truly a project of community spirit.”

Filling buckets

To Coons, writing for children means providing a story that is entertaining and educational. She said it's one of her greatest hopes that children should learn a life lesson from her writing, if only a minor one.

“Our minds are like buckets, they hold whatever we pour into them. What children pour into their minds shapes them as much as their parents do,” Coons said. “So I just wanted to put something positive in their buckets.”

To accomplish that, Coons said, she made sure the story of “The Lighthouse Mouse” provide examples of responsible behavior. In the story, the mouse meets Molly, the little girl who lives at the lighthouse. She agrees to let him live with her if he helps clean the many windows.

Coons said this lesson is a way for children to realize that accomplishments often require cooperation and hard work.

“I call these my seed-planter books. I hope to plant these seeds in children's minds and see them grow,” she said. “Would it not be awesome if bookstores and schools had young people asking for space for meetings to find more ways to make their own community less selfish, more just, more honest - with more old-fashioned work ethics?”

Changing the world with a single book might sound like a challenge, but Coons said working with the many others who assisted her to create, cultivate and grow her book helped her see how powerful community cooperation can be. Working with not only her niece, but a group of local writers, friends and family helped to stimulate her creativity and keep the project going, Coons said.

One friend in particular was a great help.

“Pat Flitcroft, the children's librarian at the Coos Bay library, was a great encouragement to me,” Coons said. “And I feel a lot of the credit for this work should go to the people who were willing to stop and read my manuscript - even when they didn't have to.”

Flitcroft said she was glad to help a local writer interested in working on children's projects, especially someone as enthusiastic as Coons.

“It's always fun to encourage someone who is so dedicated. She puts her whole heart into her writing,” Flitcroft said. “We have the book here at the library and people seem to be enjoying it.”

The illustrations also were a joint project, and included many conversations between Coons and Undis on how to adjust the drawings and pictures to more accurately portray the story.

“We had lots of silly conversations, like how to make the mouse more sad, or the picture have a more lonesome feeling,” Coons said.

According to Undis, it took about 20 paintings and many drafts of each one, to illustrate the book.

“Usually the illustrator doesn't work with the author, usually there's a middle man,” she said. “But here, the author had a vision in her head and we had to create an entity that was a little bit of both of us.”

That process took longer than Coons had expected, as she gave Undis only a month to complete the project. Within weeks it became clear the project would take far longer, due to the many drafts and changes involved, Undis said.

“I actually almost bought a mouse but the pet store had none the day I went, which was actually good because could you see me trying to pose a live mouse?” Undis said with a laugh. “In the end, I re-did every single page in the book but one. I always wanted to take a class on how to illustrate a children's book, but this was my crash course!”

The illustration project wasn't just another job to Undis, who hadn't worked with family members professionally before, but also a chance to rekindle her relationship with Coons.

“I've only seen Susan three or four times since I was around 4 years old. She moved away when I was young and she would come back to visit, but she was living far away on the West Coast,” Undis said. “This has really reconnected her to her siblings, and me as well.”

Finding a home

The story of the “wee little mouse” in Coons' book strikes a chord with the author, as she was searching for a new home herself only four years ago. After living in the San Francisco Bay Area for most of her life, Coons sold her house and spent several months at a friend's home considering her next step.

Taking a drive up north, she crossed the Oregon border and burst into tears.

“I said, ‘Susan, you're home,'” Coons said with a smile as the bridge of her nose wrinkled in pleasure. “I found a place where the pace of life lets people take time for each other.”

Earning her first award after writing for decades was a big surprise, Coons said, but she considers herself lucky to have been a part of such a great project. In particular, friends such as Flitcroft, Bonnie Hibbert and Penny Brandon made a huge difference, she added.

“When you go beyond yourself, to connect with others, to connect with God or the muse, it's just so exciting,” she said. “But without Pat's help, the help of my writing group and so many others, I think this book would have been quite ordinary.”