Since this site is so new, I will be making up my own frequently asked questions. –Scott Before Naomi’s Gift was printed, I read a Valley Window quote about the book that said, “Freeman hopes to incorporate vintage photos of Loveland with his watercolor paintings (in the book.”) What exactly is the role of Loveland, Colorado in the book? Naomi’s Gift is not a book about Loveland. However, the book is set in a small western town from the 1890s to 1910 or so. In doing my visual research for the book, wherever I could I incorporated photos, artifacts and actual historical buildings from Loveland, Colorado, which originated during this time period. Those of you who love Loveland, as I do, may enjoy spotting the following Loveland references in Naomi’s Gift: In the background of the schoolyard illustration sits the Lonetree Schoolhouse, which is now maintained by the Loveland Museum-Gallery. The doll held by the girl in the foreground is from the Museum-Gallery’s collection and dates from the late 1800s. In the illustration of the Hosea’s leaving town there is a row of building s along the street. The buildings are taken from an 1879 photo of 4th street in downtown Loveland, also from the Museum-Gallery’s archives. The wagon is adapted from a milk-wagon sitting on a roadside in a the neighboring town of Windsor. Some of you may recognize the trio of young ladies. My models were three students from Loveland High School. Rachel Dowd posed as Naomi; Sarah Baker as the cellist and my daughter Sierra posed as the violinist. The church building at the end of the book is actually located at 5th & Pierce in downtown Loveland. This late Victorian building was constructed in 1915 and is now home to the St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church. Interestingly, Mollie and I attempted to purchase this building after we moved to Loveland in 2001 but the owners would not budge on their asking price. As recently as 2002 the building had no indoor plumbing and still had a working bell tower. We had hoped to use the main building as our residence, and the small building directly behind it as our art studio and classroom. Silhouetted against the night sky in this illustration you can see the profiles of Long’s Peak and Mt. Meeker as they appear from Loveland. Is Big Picture Publishing a humongous, multi-billion dollar corporation with international offices and lots of people waiting to answer the phone lines? No. BPP is one guy, (me) with one book, operating out of his art studio in Loveland, Colorado. There are several other book titles in progress, at various stages of completion. If some person of vision and means would like to provide me with a pile of money, I would be happy to complete these projects. Is Naomi’s Gift really a children’s book? I notice it doesn’t rhyme or use incorrect grammar that children can relate to. I think it’s a children’s book because it has lots of pictures. As parents of five children, Mollie and I have spent hours reading aloud to our kids over the years, and we generally don’t believe in “talking down” to them. (We also have found that the best children’s books are fun for adults to read as well.) We like to think of this as part of the antidote for the dumbing down and deterioration of language that now characterizes our culture. A child may have to ask what a word means, but that’s not a bad thing. For example, all of the animal characters in Beatrix Potter’s stories sound like little British librarians, but all of our children have enjoyed her stories. In short, we think it is a good idea for children to learn to understand adult language. Note – Here I use the term “adult language” to mean, “the way adults are supposed to talk.” This is not to be confused with the term “adult language” the way the movie industry uses it: speech laced with obscenities. Ironically, that meaning should be termed “middle-school playground language.” i.e. “Rated PG-13 for some violence and middle-school playground language.” Wasn’t Jesus actually an alien, or gay, or married to Mary Magdalene? No.