About Us

Author:  Margaret Chiarella

Margaret has spent much of her professional life producing various types of technical writing.  In addition, she loved making up stories to entertain her children as they grew up.  When she was vacationing on the Jersey Shore she watched the independent, aggressive attitude of the native seagulls as they stole food right out of people’s hands and attacked blankets for the various bags of food laying there.  The seagull’s behavior, in conjunction with Margaret’s love of movies and books of organized crime, led to the creation of the characters in the Joisey Boyds.  She wrote the story as though she were telling it to her son as he was growing up, and to her grandson today.

Illustrator:  Rick Muccio

Rick Muccio is an illustrator/designer living in Warren, Ohio.  Married to his high school sweetheart, they have raised two sons into adulthood.  He is a graduate of Kent State University with a BFA in Graphic Design and illustration.

Rick has illustrated several books, but is mostly busy with his passion of being a freelance editorial and sports cartoonist.  Winning numerous state awards for cartooning, his work has twice been chosen by the “National Cartoon Gallery” as editorial cartoon of the week.

To see more of Rick's work, visit Warren Trumbull County Public Library where you can view the Famous Ohioan's Mural and the lobby of Packard Music Hall where you can appreciate his painting on the Goddess of Speed statue, which was part of the Trumbull County Spectacle of Speed public art event.