Linny and Nancy invite Nancy’s former college roommate, Sue Ray-Smolik, on the front porch to discuss her first children’s picture book, The Evening Walk. Linny and Nancy are big Sue fans and we wax poetic about how creative Sue is and how much we love her singing voice, which is truly beautiful. Nancy dishes a little about their dreams as young coeds and later Sue and Nancy talk about their habit of taking jogs only as far as the nearest Dunkin Donuts. Since it’s December, we choose a children’s book and choosing Sue’s book was a no-brainer. Linny and Nancy talk about how this book and its portrayal of a loving relationship between a mom and her toddler son is like a warm hug. Sue tells us how evening walks with her father and walks with her own daughter first inspired her writing The Evening Walk. Later, when Sue’s daughter, Stephanie, gave birth to Sue’s grandson, Liam, the writing of the book went into overdrive. Sue’s dog, Tiggy, is also a main character in the book, performing as herself. Sue tells us how Tiggy got her name, which Linny was totally enchanted by. Sue tells us about her journey supporting Stephanie in her experience with progressive visual impairment and how she chose to reflect Mommy’s partial sight impairment. Sue talks about how it was important to her to represent children with parents with other abilities enjoying everyday life. Linny liked how Mommy was a strong, competent woman. Sue and Nancy laugh in recognition because that is Sue’s daughter, Stephanie. Sue describes how she consulted with Stephanie because the visual impairment is what she lives every day and it is her story. Sue recounts some of the challenges of ensuring the illustrations reflected her vision for the book, particularly since there were some aspects of the story that were only represented in the illustration and not the text, but were a part of the story Sue wanted to tell. Sue told us about a Christmas surprise she has created for Stephanie, her husband, and Liam which is the book with Braille overlays. Sue told us how Braille overlays, inserts, or clear stickers can be purchased for any book. The Evening Walk will also be available as an audio book. Stephanie are strong proponents for technology and Braille and cane travel as a resource for people or are sight impaired. Sue is working on a novel based on her mother’s life and also additional children’s books, one of which her class is illustrating. Sue tells us about her experience writing the text and the help she received through her childhood friend, Ruth, and her friend and children’s author Carolyn Bennett Fraiser. Linny and Nancy remark on the LOVE flowing through this book, even though Mommy and Liam never express their love through explicit language, but it is absolutely present. Sue acknowledges that love was exactly the experience she wanted to convey when she took toddler Steph for walks. Sue tells us she hopes the book will give Liam a chance to see himself on the library book shelf as the child of a family that is sight impaired. Further, Sue hopes this same representation is important for children to be exposed to so seeing persons with sight impairment will not be strange to them. Sue tells us what it was like when she unboxed her books. Linny and Sue talk about marketing efforts because Linny wants to see this book everywhere. So does Nancy, but she is skeptical Sue only smiled when she unboxed the books and didn’t scream or have a celebratory dinner. Linny and Nancy share some of their highlights from the first full calendar year of the podcast. They also talk about the fun of sorting through all the possible books to come up with the 2023 reading list.