FAQs

Magical realism is a literary genre set in your world, but with fantastical or supernatural aspects woven into the story as if it's perfectly normal to have a colony of scraebins living in a magnolia tree in the middle of the Birkhead Wilderness in the Uwharrie National Forest! Sometimes, magical realism is referred to as low fantasy.

Middle-grade is that sacred threshold between childhood and the wider world, inhabited by seekers between eight and twelve winters. This is the era of the Awakening—a time when young readers first master the alchemy of the written word and begin to summon their own tastes in voice and vision. It is a realm of pure wonder, not to be mistaken for the turbulent storms of middle school, where the shadows of adolescence begin to lengthen for those aged twelve to fifteen.

The length of the labor depends on the type of seed being planted. A picture book is like a wildflower, blooming fully in the span of an afternoon. Early-reader chapter books, like my Thurston T. Turtle series, take a bit more tending, often growing over the course of a month's tides. But the novel is an ancient oak; it demands seasons of patience and months or even years of quiet cultivation before it is strong enough to stand on its own. Once the story has blossomed into being, the true labor of the craft awakens. Through patient pruning and polishing, I must clear away the tangled brush to reveal true heart of the finalized manuscript hidden beneath.

The path of a storyteller is often quiet, yet sometimes the forest itself offers a sign of favor. It is a humble joy to see these tales recognized by the keepers of lore. Society of the Sentinelia and Blind Fairy were bestowed the AAUW NC Young People's Literature Award in 2022 and 2023. Also in 2023,, the winds carried Society of the Sentinelia to the Long List for the Green Earth Book Award. More recently, the stars aligned for Omega Crag and Kimimila Returns, both named as Golden Wizard Book Prize books in 2024 and 2025.