Good Goose.
What's In The Name?
Goodgoose.org takes its name from the old Aesop's fable, "The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs." In the story a peasant has a goose who lays one golden egg every day. Impatient, greedy and ignorant of the ways of nature, the peasant cuts the goose open to get all the eggs out at once.
"The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs" is often used as a metaphor for Mother Earth and our stewardship of her.
We'll have more about this metaphor, the symbolism of the golden eggs and our upcoming book in our blog soon.
The Good Goose and the Gun Book Cover Revision History
Initial Design
This puzzle piece with a goose on it is part of an early idea I had for the cover of the upcoming book. I was going to have a big puzzle where none of the pieces fit together, because that's part of the theme of the story. You know trying to understand the whole world and how we fit into it, right?
So I worked with paint and paper and glue and markers. I had fun, but I wasn't creating anything that I liked for the book cover. Then Dani, an artist and illustrator, gave me a few lessons on illustrating to get me started. (I'm an artist and love to paint big pictures, but illustrating is a whole other thing!)
So first we brainstormed different ways I could illustrate the overall theme of the book. We found all kinds of images online of puzzles, geese, golden eggs, guns, Earth and 13 year olds. (That's how old the main character in the story is.)
Dani said AI was helpful to get things going. I had never used a computer for anything much beyond emailing and writing! So I was a little nervous about it, but I said, "Okay let's try it." I described my concept to an image generator and got a lot of weird looking things that weren't even close to what I imagined.
Then finally, after experimenting and experimenting at home, I got this.
Early Version
I liked it, and I worked with this idea and several others with puzzle pieces for several weeks using markers and crayons and various images generated by AI. One image that I'll show you in the link shows the boy in between two giant puzzle pieces. I was going to have the puzzle piece on the left be of beautiful nature and happiness, and the one on the right sad, violent and ugly. It never turned out very well.
Then one morning I woke up and could see in my mind what it was I was going for.
After a couple more weeks of working with this idea I finally feel close to done.
Here it is now, July 30, 2026. There are a few things that need to happen with this image before it's ready. For one, I'm going to use my hand writing and drawing on the notebook.
If you'd like to learn about the book and see more cover image ideas leading from that little goose puzzle piece all the way to the final cover image, Click this link.
Almost Done Version
Early
Version
Almost Done Version
About the Author
One time about 20 years ago, I made this picture of my soul. This image still feels very true to how I feel about who I am. I'm on the Earth and I'm part of a big universe. I love the Earth and all the people and other animals and whole big beautiful ecosystems living here.
I believe if we understand enough about how things work in our own hearts and minds and in the world and through nature we can all enjoy a healthy, healed, peaceful planet.
To find out more about Patty Sheehan's life story click here.