A longtime waitress debuts her first book of illustrations next month.

by Jonathan Rich . photo by Matt Rose

Yes, Holly McGee is a server. But she has much more to offer than a list of daily specials.

The New York native has waited tables for 17 years, the last six at West Asheville’s bustling Westville Pub. Four days a week, she stays busy toting beers back and forth to the bar and ushering soups and sandwiches out of the kitchen. But when she gets a break, she can be found etching out a world of her imagination on a sketchpad. In March, her first published work, a children’s book called Hush, Little Beachcomber, will roll out in stores around the country. The book is written by Dianne Moritz and includes 28 pages of McGee’s pencil and acrylic illustrations.

“I’ve been sending out my portfolio to publishers for years, but this is a really hard field to break into,” McGee said as she prepared for another evening shift at one of Haywood Road’s most popular hangouts. “In 2000, I took a trip to the library and picked up a children’s book. Looking through it made me remember how much I always wanted to [be an illustrator], and I started trying to make that happen.”

One initial obstacle to breaking into the field was her lack of formal training. Aside from a few college art classes, McGee had to teach herself a specialized way of drawing for book illustration. One helpful step was joining the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, which has a local chapter. The group offered both critiques of her work and networking connections, she says.

After Kane/Miller Book Publishers, a California company, chose her for the Beachcomber project last year, McGee had two weeks to submit rough images and three months to finish the project. She did all the sketches late at night at the Westville Pub. “The big paintings, obviously I had to do at home, but the ideas came to me right here after my shift was over,” she says.

Surprisingly, McGee had no contact with the author and didn’t even know who Moritz was until after the project was finished. The story, which feels “very multicultural,” she says, is a simple, whimsical story about children taking trips to the beach. She’s hoping to land another project. Until she can support herself full time with her art, however, she’s quite content to keep her day job. “Westville Pub has become kind of a second home to me,” she says. A home where she scribbles out big ideas on the backs of cocktail napkins.

To see more of McGee’s work, check out www.hollymcgee.com.