Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Author, Daniel Moore with grandson, J.P. Kimmell, 3.
Daniel Moore, a fourth-generation farmer near Dusty, has written a book which came out of what he has seen in the fields.
Often, he would spot an old balloon laying on the stubble during harvest or at other times. It landed after a special occasion, sometimes with a message on it.
Sitting in the cab of a combine, he wondered who they were for.
In the early '90s, when his daughter Miranda was starting home-school, he began to tell her stories about the balloons.
Now a grandfather to Miranda's two children, Moore was sick with a fever last January and started to think about the balloon stories. On the third day missing work, laying on the couch, he got an idea. How could he use them to make a book?
What that became is "Billy the Balloon," a self-published book released Oct. 23 by Elm Hill, a service and division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing.
Moore typed the original story in a half hour, before later edits were made and illustrations drawn.
"The story has been on my mind for 25 years," Moore said.
He grew up on the family farm nine miles south of Dusty and graduated from LaCrosse High School in 1979. He then went to WSU for a degree in ag economics and a minor in philosophy.
"I don't know of any other," he said of people with his combination of major and minor. "My brother and I always have some good discussions in the shop."
Moore went on to get a master's degree in ag economics. He farms the family land with brother Steve.
Finishing the "Billy the Balloon" book was inspired by grandson J.P. Kimmell, 3, who has special needs, also the namesake of J.P. Pies, founded by Moore's wife, Jill, and Miranda.
"J.P. has a great attitude, always," said Moore. "The book is a story about faith, hope and love, with the most important, the third part."
Moore will hold a book signing at The Bookie, the WSU Book Store, on Saturday, Nov. 17, beginning at noon.
"It's exciting, this is kind of a dream come true to have a book at The Bookie," he said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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