Tom Campbell is well aware of when his love of stargazing took root, largely because it was one of his first memories as a child.
Campbell — maybe 3 or 4 at the time — was playing at home with his toys, when a special report came on the television.
Suddenly, all of Campbell’s thoughts of toys and games had evaporated. He found himself transfixed, watching his family’s small black-and-white TV.
“It was a news report about one of the Apollo moon landings,” Campbell recalled.
The memory jumpstarted what has become a lifelong passion for all things celestial for the Iola native now living in College Station, Texas.
Heck, Campbell even applied in his younger days to become an astronaut.
Even though he was never selected, the love of space remains.
Campbell’s love of astronomy turned into a recent passion project with the release of “Stargazer Sue,” a children’s book he self-published in July.
The story follows young Sue, whose love of astronomy is not shared with her friends and classmates, who think her time with her telescope is silly. They even give her the nickname “Stargazer Sue.”
Undaunted, Sue uses her knowledge of stars to help find the way home on a fishing trip with her family.
“I’d written short stories before, but had never published anything,” Campbell said.
Wife Juliana, who taught kindergarten for 30 years, convinced her husband to give it a try.
But while the story came easily — he estimates it took him less than four weeks to write — getting something in print was a harder task.
“I couldn’t find anybody to draw the illustrations,” he explained.
Campbell’s search for an illustrator took him to Fiverr.com, a website dedicated to connecting freelancers from around the globe.
It was there, he met Tayyaba Riaz, an illustrator living in Pakistan.
