Susan McKinley Ross is constantly dreaming up new ways to have fun.
When a call was issued for fresh ideas for HearthSong, a toy and game company originally based in Sebastopol, she submitted 200 ideas.
When company founder Barbara Kane read her suggestions, McKinley Ross, who was working as an administrative assistant at HearthSong, got her first break.
Kane transferred McKinley Ross to the product development division, and she flourished in an environment where employees were paid to devise new games, craft kits and other projects for families.
Her first idea produced by HearthSong, a fountain-making kit released in 1999, won a parents' choice award . Subsequent kits, like snowman decorating and cake stenciling, have become perennial favorites.
McKinley Ross, 35, designed or developed numerous ideas for HearthSong. When t he company was sold in 2002 and moved out of Sonoma County, she struck out on her own, forming Idea Duck.
She works from her east Petaluma home, conceptualizing and designing toys with computer graphics software, then building wooden prototypes in her garage.
To boost her skills, she studied graphic design and worked on a business plan during a weekend college course. She also has taken woodworking classes to learn how to measure, saw and assemble toys.
As part of her creative process, McKinley Ross goes window shopping in Sausalito, Healdsburg, Windsor and Petaluma. She looks for clever or unusual items that spark her to design a kit, game or toy.
With five years as an independent toy designer, McKinley Ross is ecstatic with the reception she's receiving fo r Qwirkle, a board game that's being sold by MindWare, a catalog company specializing in "brainy" toys for kids.
The game, kind of a cross between Scrabble and dominoes played with wooden blocks emblazoned with colorful shapes, is in demand from toy retailers.
Qwirkle was prominently featured last month at Toy Fair, a huge industry convention in New York.
"I love the game and got so many positive responses from my play testers," McKinley Ross said, adding that this was the first time one of her creations was featured at Toy Fair.
She and her husband, Chris, who is a computer game developer, love playing board games, and they host monthly game nights at their house for friends and family.
Despite the proliferation of computer games, McKinley Ross said board games remain popular. Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, game sales boomed and that segment of the toy market still is strong.
As in the book publishing industry, toy designers get paid royalties based on sales.
Following Toy Fair, Qwirkle, which is manufactured in China, was at the end of its first run, and McKinley Ross expected a second order to be placed.
She's already working on ideas for Christmas 2008, and has a backlog of toys, kits and games she's devised but hasn 't sold yet.
"Sometimes I get rejections and it's almost good to find out why they don't like something," McKinley Ross said.
Since starting work for HearthSong, she has licensed 12 products to the company, including eight this year.
While at Toy Fair, McKinley Ross approached many toy makers to pitch products and was encouraged to submit new ideas to them.
"I'm good at knowing where my toys fit," she said.
McKinley Ross graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in English literature, and her first job was as an administrative assistant at a hospice in Sonoma County. She liked her job, but after working for a group focused on end of life issues, she wanted to switch to a more creative, visual job.
"It forces you to think about what you want to do when you're alive."
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