Welcome to Hippie and The Bald Chick on the I Love You More Tour. We are author and illustrator team, Laura Duksta and Karen Keelser.
Our first book I Love You More was self-published under our company, I Shine Inc at the end of Dec of 2001. In 5 years we sold 180,000 copies! Wow...pretty great AND we believe our book and it's message is meant to be in the hands and hearts of millions!
In January 2007 we brought on *amazing* agent Cathy Hemming who teamed us up with our *fantastic* publisher Sourcebooks Jabberwocky.
We launched the new and improved version of our book November 6, 2007. This page and blog will document our experience as we set out to fulfill on our mission of generating the conversation of love around the world...
In February 2008 we hit one of our biggest goals and landed on the New York Times Best Sellers List! We were #10 for 2.24 and moved to #7 on3.2.08!In case you were wondering...you can get I Love You More at Amazon, B&N.com and at all great book stores and many great gift shops across the country. If you want to know where it's available in your area send us a message and we'll let you know!
I Love You More (ILYM) is a story of love told between a mother and child. It is a book about love *presented* as a children's book. Yes...it is a picture book but because of its title and message people buy it for loved one's of all ages! It is a "flip-sided" book in that it starts from both sids and reads to the middle. Like love it never ends and there are two sides to love-the giving and receiving.
We thank you in advance for sharing our book and its message with the people you love :-)
Laura Duksta lost all of her hair at the age of 11 to a disease called Alopecia Areata. She wore wigs for 19 years before becoming The Bald Chick. After two years at Boston College Laura graduated from Univ of Maryland with a degree in Sociology...after which she moved to South Beach, Miami and bartended at The Clevelander on Ocean Dr...practicing being social :-) One night she found herself praying for her sister...something clearly answered her and told her to pray for her nephew...as she did the whole idea for ILYM flooded her being...it was definitely the experience of Divine Inspiration. That is how ILYM came to be and how Laura began the transition from being a bartender to a best-selling author.
Karen Keelser loves to garden, surf, recycle, practice yoga and mediatation along with being a vegetarian. For those reasons and the fact that she has a VW Bus that is as old she is people call her Hippie! Karen and Laura knew each other from their days of bartending and when she found out Laura had written a book about love she figured, "I might not be an artist but I know what love looks like to a 5 year old." She pulled out a bag of pastel chalks she had gotten at a yard sale for 50 cents and drew the perfect picture!
