MARKLEVILLE — Tami Eytchison has always been looked to for answers.

Eytchison, 60, Markleville, said since she was 10 years old, “people have come to me to answer all kinds of questions.”

With one book published and a series of books in the works, Eytchison is hopeful her family-oriented Christian books for children will solve some of those inquiries.

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Eytchison said she has always been creative but hasn’t always been a writer. In fact, she didn’t care much for writing when she was in high school in Daleville, Indiana, or in college at Lipscomb University, a private Christian liberal arts institution in Nashville, Tennessee.

“In school, I had to have help with spelling and grammar, and I didn’t enjoy it,” she said. “In high school or college, you have to write what they want you to write. Here, I write anything I want.”

It was 19 years ago when she decided to put pen to pad. It started shortly after losing a stressful job in the prison system when she lived in Tennessee. She was confronted one day by a prisoner. She left and never went back.

While writing may have been a stress-relief method to start, it has become more of a way to express creativity.

“I do write when I am stressed, but I don’t always write when I’m stressed,” Eytchison said. “I write when I feel creative.”

At home on her porch is where she often finds inspiration, and it was there one day while writing that she thought she had written something that might be worth sharing with others.

“When I got to the end of it, I thought, ‘This will work. This is printable.’”

The whys and wherefores

The setup of the upcoming series falls right into the author’s comfort zone.

Her series’ premise is children seeking answers to questions. The titles for the first three books of the series are, “Where does dirt come from?” “Why do people lie?” and “Why do people die?”

“When I get done, the questions will be answered by a Scripture, or two or three Scriptures of the Bible, at the end,” she said.

Eytchison said there isn’t a title for the series, but the same children will be the main characters of the books.

Daughter-in-law Sophia Young is going to be the illustrator for the upcoming series of books.

Eytchison said the series goes back to when her three sons were young and used to ask questions such as, “Why is the sky blue?” “Why is the grass green?” “Why do we have to take a bath?”

Family has been the inspiration for much of her writing. Her initial book, “Stop and go Potty” — published by AuthorHouse and meant to be read to 1- to 3-year-olds — came after a request from one of her sons.

“I put it together because my son had asked about the book I read to him and his brother when they were younger. I couldn’t find it, so I made the book and put Lola, his firstborn, as one of the main characters,” she said.

Her first book is 28 pages long. She said her others works will be about the same size.

The current book is available through her publisher, as well as through Amazon, Books-A-Million, Thriftbooks and other retail bookstores. It is also available on Kindle.

Eytchison is working on the upcoming series along with other writing projects.

“When I get an idea, I am ready to go,” she said.