Our Approach
Mr. Jim and Dr. Tim
These guys come from different worlds, but their shared passion for local community outreach is one of the things that brought them together and fueled their desire to become children's book authors. Their daughters, and Dr. Tim's granddaughter, give them their inspiration to bring their perspective to experiences and adventures to life! Together, they also founded two national holidays!
National Smile Day every May 31st.
National Dental Care Month every May.
Our Story
Meet Mr. Jim and Dr. Tim
Mr. Jim is a lead singer. Dr. Tim is a dentist. But they are both dads. Love having fun and are big kids at heart!
Jim Wojdyla
Author & Illustrator
He currently lives in Lake in the Hills, Illinois and has been married to Jessica Wojdyla since 2015. He has a 10 year-old daughter named Tessa, a 2 year-old daughter named Charlotte and a son due in December 2018, name still being disagreed on 🙂
Jim Wojdyla was born and raised in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. He went to high school in a small town called Marengo, IL. He received an art scholarship to McHenry County College. He graduated, with honors, from Columbia College Chicago in 2007 with a BA in Marketing Communications with a concentration on Public Relations.
Jim stands 6'8" tall and has been the singer of the popular Chicago-based band Modern Day Romeos and acoustic duo Jim and Justin. He has been performing on stage 2-5 times a week for over 15 years. His love of improvising and entertaining people was one of the foundations for becoming a children's author.
Jim has worked many jobs before his current one. He has worked in the kitchen on an italian restaurant, auto body mechanic assistant, retail clothing, TV/electronics sales, pizza hut delivery guy, server, bartender, door to door pots and pans sales, karaoke host, overnight radio DJ, copywriter at an ad agency, marketing manager at a theater, outside Medicare program sales to physicians, health and life insurance investment sales and a special education substitute teacher.
He is currently the Director of Business Development for a General Dental, Dental Implant, and Sleep Apnea practices. He does all of the graphics, advertisements, commercials, marketing campaigns, special event coordination and community outreach events. During this occupation he decided to collaborate with friend, and practice owner, Dr. Tim Stirneman to start the Mya Papaya book series. They also co-founded two nationally recognized holidays. National Smile Day every May 31st and National Dental Care month, every month of May.
Jim still loves performing at city festivals every weekend, spending time with his family, playing fantasy football, writing music, and relaxing with friends, but he is really developing a passion for learning, exploring, and thriving in the children's book world. The main goal for his Mya Papaya books series is about inspiring and empowering kids, especially girls, and showing them that fear is nothing more than an idea and that they need new adventures and to try to things to learn, make new friends, and have great stories to tell. He is inspired by Mo Willems and Dr. Suess.
Dr. Tim Stirneman
Author
He currently lives in Lake in the Hills, Illinois. He has three children, Kenny, Kurtis, and Katie. Kenny works for New York Life Insurance, Kurtis, who had a full football scholarship to the University of Wyoming, now helps scout and recruit future college football players. His daughter Katie lives in Colorado and is both a nanny and an office manager at a dental office. His two little grandchildren live in Nashville. He drives out to visit them every month.
Dr. Tim Stirneman was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He went to Wheeling High School in Illinois. He got his Bachelor's degree in Math at Creighton University, then went to Creighton University School of Dentistry. He has owned his own dental practice since 1990.
Dr. Tim owns a practice called Compassionate Dental Care. He loves kids so much that his office has a special room, JUST for kids, with a big TV to watch cartoons and three TV's to play video games on! He became a dentist because he wanted to change how people, especially kids, thought of the dentist. Teaching adults and kids about their teeth and helping them smile everyday is Dr. Tim's favorite thing to do!
Dr. Tim wrote a play called "The Wizard of Teeth" based on his favorite movie, "The Wizard of Oz." Every year, Dr. Tim and his friends have traveled to many elementary schools to perform this play to thousands of kids! They laugh, have fun, and learn about their teeth and how awesome going to the dentist can be! This play sparked the idea for the Mya Papaya book series.
Dr. Tim is a big Chicago sports fan and has season tickets to the Bulls, Bears and Cubs games. He especially loves the Cubs and has had season tickets for 15 years! Another one of his hobbies is to go to concerts, shows, and especially movies! There aren't too many movies out that Dr. Tim hasn't seen and he loves talking about them. He also has an extensive collection of bobbleheads that he displays in his office. He has a bunch of Chicago Bulls players, Cubs players, Bears players, but he also has everything from Donald Trump to Sister Jean from Loyola University. His employees even got him a bobblehead of himself for bosses day!
Another fun fact about Dr. Tim is that when he was younger, he ran TWO marathons!