Cathy Gilmore

Hi! I'm Cathy Gilmore, and who am I? Well, I'm an Easter Bunny....sort of. While I may feel small and sometimes afraid, God has filled my heart with the JOY of the risen Jesus and I write to share his sweet love with everyone. I'm a native of St. Louis, MO and a married mom of three wonderful children. The story that launched my career as a children's author was the book I co-authored with my sister: Easter Bunny's Amazing Day. It's the story in which a new kind of Easter Bunny shows that Jesus is the best JOY of Easter! My passion is to cultivate each person's spiritual imagination through stories that touch the heart with the transforming love of Christ. With the success of Easter Bunny's Amazing Day, I had found my author's voice...to create animal and insect characters who help children and families step into stories of Christian spiritual history in a way that inspires virtue.

My mom used to keep an ongoing scrapbook of photos of cute animals clipped from the "National Enquirer" newspaper. I think creating faith filled stories of adorable animals are, in a way, a tribute to her. I believe in the power of parables to spiritually strengthen the heart of each child and cute animals and insects are great ambassadors to help welcome children to the experience of a vibrant, virtue-rich, living faith.

My second book, Little Lamb Finds Christmas, is the story of "Lemi" the lost lamb. It was the 2015 winner of the USA Best Books award in the Children's Religious category. This is an especially nice honor because titles are submitted from hundreds of boutique and mainstream publishers and winners are chosen from among thousands of books. Lemi's adventure is a story that weaves together the LOVE of the Good Shepherd, the MIRACLE of the peaceable kingdom, and the JOY of Christmas in one memorable holiday parable. My years of experience with the Montessori-based children's Bible study program, "Catechesis of the Good Shepherd" gives me a unique approach in writing children's literature and especially influenced the story of my little lamb, Lemi.

More recently, I have launched my series: Tiny Virtue Heroes™. These stories truly crystalize my efforts to create: "Characters who build character in children!" Each story is told by an adorable animal or insect character who acts as a first-person storyteller of an important moment in Christian spiritual history. Each hero is the icon of one specific virtue who invites children to admire and emulate a role model biblical or missionary "real life" virtue hero, whose story is told in the book. This series will gently empower children to embrace the supernatural strength of virtues as their very own "super powers"!

My tagline for all the writing I do is "Faith that Smiles!" I hope you'll be inspired pretending with me!

Visit me at VirtueHeroes.com!