The coronavirus quarantine took Eureka artist Barbara Scheer from A to Z.
Scheer, 72, used the forced time at home to finish illustrating a book her daughter, Kim Langham, wrote.
It was the third book collaboration for the mother-daughter team. Langham, a Eureka High School graduate, now lives in Alabama.
Scheer said her daughter’s concept was an alphabet book, which would require at least 26 illustrations.
“At that time I had a life, so I was trying in the beginning to find like an hour a day to paint, but I was busy,” Scheer said.
The book, “An Animal Alphabet Adventure with Gerty and Gus,” is about a monkey named Gerty and a turtle named Gus.
Scheer said she started with the letter “A” in late February. Soon, the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to “shelter in place” allowed lots of time to work on the illustrations.
Scheer finished the project in about 90 hours, spending about six hours a day painting.
“It wasn’t really anything planned, but it helped me through the first four to five weeks of sitting at home. It gave me a purpose and I was getting great pleasure out of it,” Scheer said.
The book will be published later this month, available on Amazon either in hard copy or digital versions.
Scheer, who uses her artistic skills in the Eureka Scarecrow Festival every October, said before the quarantine she was also working on scarecrows. But that work has stopped for the time being.
High Ridge author
Scheer is not the only local resident to devote time to a book project during the quarantine.
Angel Williams, 43, of High Ridge wrote and published her first book with her extra time.
“Language arts has always been a strength of mine and I’ve always wanted to write one (a book), but never really knew how to go about it,” Williams said.
COVID-19 provided inspiration. She decided to write a book to help explain the situation to children.
Williams’ digital book, “Why Can’t I See My Friends?: Please Mom and Dad, Help Me Understand” is also available through Amazon, in both print and digital versions.
It was illustrated by De Soto resident Jamie Drye and Eureka resident Christine Holder, 37.
Williams said she connected with her illustrators on Facebook.
She wrote the book, Drye created illustrations and Holder finished the illustrations with color and put them in a digital format.
“The book came about from seeing my own 4-year-old struggling,” Williams said. “He couldn’t understand: Why can’t we go to school? Why can’t we go to McDonald’s? Why can’t we go to the park?”
Williams said it took her a couple of days to write the book and Drye and Holder did not take long to finish their tasks.
She said her 4-year-old now understands and has been sharing the information with others.
Williams said the price for the paperback book is $7 while the Kindle edition costs $1.99.
She said she wanted to keep the price low.
“If this helps only one child, it was well worth writing,” she said.
Holder said it took her a couple of days to finish the illustrations.
“She (Williams) wanted to have the book done quickly, so that it can be an aid. It wasn’t a long process.”
Holder said she is also working on illustrating another book that has not been published yet.
“So (Williams’ book) was technically my first published illustration,” Holder said. “I’m currently sheltering in place. I was still able to get that achievement unlocked.”
She said she liked knowing her work could help children understand what is going on.
“It feels so good to have a hand in (explaining the pandemic) for somebody younger,” Holder said. “That’s something that’s hard to me, being a mom myself and trying to explain to two boys – why they can’t go play with their friends down the street.”
