Natalie Totire, all-around artist and writer, is the founder of CourageLit Books. The fiction and nonfiction books presented in CourageLit all give a worldview from a Biblical perspective.

Natalie grew up near Cleveland, OH in a secular school and setting, trying hard to fit in with the crowd. One day, the Lord spoke to her heart and said, "If you really love Me, you would not follow the crowd into doing what is wrong." So around 1987, she began a relationship with Jesus, as found in John 3:16. This is not to say her faith did not have challenges in the following years. During days of challenge, she read and researched many books on what makes Christianity stand out and on Naturalism.

Natalie, wanting to move into children's ministry, obtained an Associate's Degree in Early Childhood Education from Waterbury, CT and a degree in Educational Ministries at Moody Bible Institute. Feeling called to focus more on the media, she later took art classes at Triton College and College of DuPage. She designed and used puppets and taught art on mission trips. She painted murals on the school walls in Bolivia and at a Children's Home in Guatemala. In 2004, she joined the DuPage Art League in Wheaton, IL, and received six merit awards and two special merits for her framed art and photography.  She is also a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.  For over five years, Natalie Totire airbrushed designs on t-shirts, painted portraits, and created greeting cards, but her main passion was creating children's books, with the emerging of "The Littlest Donkey", first printed in 2006.

Later, Natalie illustrated 13 books for different authors, including Pat Brannon, Stephen Goss, and Rosemary Calkins, who are also published on Amazon. Natalie wrote a few more of her own fiction books, but also had a growing interest to write nonfiction.

Natalie's continuing passion and jealousy to read books giving God glory as the Creator led her to write the Intelligent Design Series (not to be confused with the Intelligent Design Movement). These books are aimed at talking more about the animals presented in a Biblical perspective and framework rather than continually debating evolution. Natalie did the illustrations, the research, and the writing, and other writers helped her with the editing.

Natalie has completed 17 of her own books which are also on Amazon and Kindle.

About the logo: Bluebell, a real parakeet Natalie used to own. She was one of four birds that stood out as the leader, the go-getter of the flock. The little bird with the big personality continues to symbolize having a zest for living. She is found in the devotional, "A Little Bird Taught Me".

Natalie Totire does custom work as needed, is flexible in her style of art and medium and knows how to meet the needs of the customer. See more detail under "Services".