Working with off-beat colors every day, she wanted to create a book that introduced some of the cool alternative colors into the primary color world of children's books. She teamed up with her good friend of many years, photographer Ann Cutting, to produce this whimsical book that will appeal to all ages. Her favorite color in the book is byzantine. Gates lives in a Xanadu house with chartreuse chairs with her husband and two children, and a large taupe cat named George.