August Featured Author | Katie Pye
Thank you once again to Ashley Mills Monaghan for being our July Featured Author! If you missed any part of the month’s fun activities and interviews, you can check it out here.
This month’s featured author is the creator of the Fairytale Fraud series, Katie Pye.
Katie’s children’s stories are a twist on traditional fairytales we all know and love. Her stories are funny, rhyme-filled, and tach valuable lessons for (roughly) ages 4-12.
This month will be fairytale themed, with Katie Pye at the center. We will be sharing fun content from her site, reviewing her books, and much more. We will also be celebrating all things fairytales.
To kick off this month of fun, I interviewed Katie to find out more about her.
Here is what she had to say:
Who are you and what have you written?
I am a New Zealand-based author with a daft sense of humor. I have an uncanny ability to make anything rhyme, probably because my mother was also a children’s book author and rhymed me through my childhood!
I sometimes call myself a ‘super-sleuth’ instead of a writer, because my Fairytale Fraud Well-being series exposes the falsehood in traditional fairy tales. It is a lot of fun and I love it! Best of all, I love that my books provide families great memory hooks into resilient thinking, including my own young family!
How did you first get started writing children’s books?
It all started with a crazy turnip, actually. My son was upset under his bed. I climbed under with a piece of paper and a pen and no idea what to say or do. I did the first thing that I thought of – I drew a crazy turnip. Next minute I was explaining his situation through the journey of a turnip, and he stopped crying and listened wide-eyed.
That instance with my son morphed into a cartoon series to help us chat through healthy thinking. From there, I did a bit of hobby writing for my kids, all with themes to help them have helpful thinking. It wasn’t until I had the best-idea-ever for teaching wise trust that I started writing properly. I enjoyed writing my ‘Three Little Pigs’ retelling that I launched headlong into the next fairy tale retelling, then the next, and the next… 12 fairy tales later!
What age of kids would you say your books are targeted at?
I hate answering this question because people of all ages love a fun story, but my Fairytale Fraud Well-being series and resources were crafted for kids aged 6 – 8. I’ve had parents saying that their three year old enjoyed them, a classroom of 12 year old boys engaging with my stories, and a review from someone with no kids who read one for her own pleasure and said that it made her day! I think people of all ages get enjoyment out of a great story.
If you could teach a child one thing, what would it be?
When I was a kid, we didn’t have much. I was the middle child in a large family and my home life was pretty volatile. As a result, I took on messages about me and my situation that were simply not helpful and often not true.
My Fairytale Fraud series is a fun way of providing kids healthy messaging and resilient thinking. Whether it be coping with change, accepting failure, learning to trust, or managing conflict, I want kids to have a healthy frame and to not struggle unnecessarily – especially my kids!
Why do you write?
Writing is my relaxation, it is my expression of creativity, it is my voice and it is my legacy, but most importantly it is my platform to reach into people’s lives. I’m really driven by the idea of creating ‘moments’ for parents and their kids. I find moments of laughter, moments of connection, or moments of learning to be the ‘gold’ of parenting.
I write to help create those special moments for families and to provide a fun memory hook into an important concept, that will hopefully serve the whole family.
What has been the most challenging aspect of your writing career?
To be honest, I don’t like NOT writing!
You would think that that wouldn’t be a challenge given my job IS being a writer, but when you are self publishing not many of your hours can be dedicated to writing. Keeping the joy of being a writer alive when you spend most of your time navigating self publishing or providing creative direction to your wonderful team of illustrators and designers can be challenging.
Who/what is your favorite Children’s Author/ book and why?
Enid Blyton created a world for me when I was a child. I lived up in the Faraway Tree with Silky, Moon Face, the Angry Pixie, and the Saucepan Man (etc) in my imagination. I read and re-read the book and will forever be thankful to her for creating that wonderful world.
I love encouraging kids to read. I believe it was my ability to completely enter the world Enid Blyton created for me that helped me create my own worlds for kids to enter. Get reading kids!
What is your desert island book?
Perhaps, ten steps to get off a desert island? There is no ‘one’ book that I would view as a must have, but I would definitely look for something in the survival genre!
Where can people buy your books?
Amazon and progressively on Barnes and Noble and the like.
I have a website www.fairytalefraud.com that has extra resources that go with my books, including my conversation Meal Mats. These are free printables that help start a conversation over dinner time and were so fun to prototype as a family. I hope they stimulate fun and memorable conversations for other families.
What’s next for you?
I have an ambitious goal! I’ve got 25 Fairytale Fraud themes up my sleeve, and only 12 penned! I will set to work launching my existing stories over the next year or so, and then perhaps I will flip a coin.
‘Heads’ means I will then complete my parenting resource book for adults – ‘25 Important Conversations to Have with Kids’
‘Tails’ means I will then finish up launching my 25 Fairytale Frauds.
What will it be?
I guess we will just have to wait and find out won’t we?
Thank you to Katie Pie for such awesome answers!
I look forward to a fun month of reviewing her books and sharing them with you, as well as our fun Would You Rather? Interview at the end of the month.
If you have any other further questions for Katie Pye, or want to know more about the Fairytale Fraud Series, you can follow her on Facebook and Instagram@authorkatiepie.
