Time For a Relaunch! (Indie Middle Grade Book, Plus Author Interview!)

A couple weeks ago, I got to meet Kylie, over on Writer’s Vision. She was relaunching her animal fantasy book for kids (think ‘The Green Ember‘ series), and I signed up to help with her tour. Let me just say, middle grade books are my passion, so it’s been such a blessing to be able to connect with more and more homeschool MG authors over the past few years!

Today, we get to share the interview we did about Kylie’s writing, author mission, and debut book Rise of the LivingWood.

First, here’s a little about the author:

Kylie Beevers is a young teen who strives to show her faith in Yeshua, our Messiah. She longs to show others the love that He showed her and to search for Truth. She’s a young author passionate about bringing clean, morally sound reads to the middle-grade audience. Her debut novel, Rise of the LivingWood, is an epic saga featuring a battle of wolves and wit, foxes and faith. When you can’t find her writing stories that ring with truth, you can find her in the middle of the woods, engrossed in the spectacular works of Creation (generally wielding a dagger or a sword or whatnot). She loves to encourage young writers seeking to nurture that spark of imagination in themselves as well as to prepare for the next generation and their book content.

Kylie’s Blog

Now for the interview! Enjoy! (book links are at the end).

1.) Hi Kylie! Welcome to the blog. Could you give us a little introduction about who you are and what your book is about?

Hey there! Thanks for having me on here!! My name’s Kylie and I’m a young teenage author striving to deliver clean content to the middle-grade audience. My debut novel, Rise of the LivingWood is an animal protagonist book, meaning the main characters, though they are animals, are featured as humans would be. Much like the Chronicles of Redwall or the Warriors series. In a short, brief explanation, my book features foxes and faith, wolves, and a battle of wit.  It’s a middle-grade fiction fantasy, revolving around the adventures of Bramble, who is just your ordinary fox scrounging the forest floor with his Da, Mum, and kit brother before he is thrust snout first into the warrior life.

2.) What inspired you to write a middle-grade book?

My primary inspiration comes from my mother, who raised me in clean and beautiful literature but also once I read the Green Ember series, I was sparked with the inspiration for writing from an animal perspective and in a middle-grade format.

3.) What do you hope families will take away from this book?

I want my stories to encourage the significance of hope, courage, fearlessness, and life! To spread the light of Jesus Christ and reveal the redemption of our amazing Creator. Books can both build you and tear you. I want to bring you clean books that you can read whether your 9 or 99. I want you to feel comfortable as a parent, adult, or child, and feel reassured, that the content I release is wholesome.

4.) What was the hardest part, for you, about writing or publishing this book?

The hardest part would be learning that you MUST have a backup copy on a separate hard drive or USB. I can not tell you how many final drafts I’ve lost by not keeping a spare on hand. Also, KDP’s (Kindle Direct Publishing), cover uploader was quite finicky to work with and I had to try multiple uploads of the same cover to get it to fit the sizing of the book right. Little writing quirks like that are, in my opinion, the trickiest things that I have to sort out.

5.) Can you name the two most important reasons why you write?

I want to see clean, morally sound content in the hands of children.
I can’t help but think that writing is a form of praise. An opportunity to share the love of Christ, our Elohim, and Creator, with those who yearn for a never-ceasing love.

6.) And just for fun: If you could be any character in your story, who would you be?

Oh! That’s easy! Fenex, my fennec fox girl! If I could be any character it’d be her! With her amazing tree-climbing skills and her stubbornness, I feel like I could relate most to her. There are SO many side characters that are awesome, however!

Thank you so much for the interview, Kylie! It was so much fun getting to know you and your book (Also great advice about backing up your work; I’ll have to remember that in the future!).

Thank you so much for having me here! It was an honor! God bless!!

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Synopsis

Bramble is just your ordinary fox scrounging the forest floor with his Da, Mum, and kit brother before he is thrust snout first into the warrior life. For his whole life Bramble has known the LivingWood to be a safe, secure place. A place where he and his family live in peace with no threats. But one day Bramble encounters his Uncle, who he had no idea even existed, and now he’s got no choice but to trust his gut and blaze a trail into a battle he has to fight. Wolves have besieged the borders. War seeks to devour them all. Will Bramble uphold his call? And what will it cost?

And if you’d like to find the book, check out this handy link!

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the tour below to catch up on more interviews, reviews, and fun spotlights!

Blog Tour Schedule!

Wednesday, March 8th:

livingwoodchronicles – Blog Tour kickoff

Thursday, March 9th:

Our Writers Vision – Interview

Mayim Guerra – Review

Friday, March 10th:

Lady Bluebird – Interview and Spotlight

Tuesday, March 14th:

Annabelle Batie – Spotlight

Lillian Keith – Spotlight and interview


Wednesday, March 15:

Micah Collier – Spotlight

livingwoodchronicles – End of Blog Tour

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And that’s it for this week, folks! What’s your favorite book with animal protagonists? (doesn’t have to be just fantasy either!) Do you like foxes too? Have you ever forgotten to back up your writing before? Let’s visit!