BEE HELPFUL: Interview with #Author J.W. Edwards
For Sunny Bee, being truly helpful means going anywhere and everywhere. When his beautiful sunflower friend Myah becomes very ill, Sunny travels to the “far side of the hills” seeking help. Faced with a series of challenges including a raging storm, large spiders, or even the intimidating Grandfather Oak, Sunny’s dedication never wavers! (ages 4 – 8)
About the author:
J.W. Edwards III was born in St. Louis, Missouri and spent the majority of his childhood there. Eventually he left St. Louis for engineering school and job opportunities. He has traveled across most the U.S. in search of a place to call home. He currently resides in northern California with his wife and three boys and works full-time as a software engineer while writing stories for his youngest son in his spare time.
J.W. Edwards is busy these days working on a variety of writing projects which includes the Sunny Bee Book Series. Book number three, Bee Helpful, was the first one to be published. Books 1, 2, and 4 will follow soon in 2014. Learn more about this series at www.sunnybeebooks.com.
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SunnyBeeBooks
website: http://sunnybeebooks.com
Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdZtam93wK4
Follow the Book Tour
J.W. Edwards joins us today for a chat about his work and his new book, BEE HELPFUL
Welcome and thanks for being with us today! Tell us a little about your BEE
books.
Bee Helpful is my first published work. I wanted to make a children’s book that
parents would also enjoy reading while including some subtle life lessons that I
learned from my mother when I was a growing up. I believe it is important to
profile the characteristics we want our children to develop.
You are a dad of three young boys. How do your sons influence your work?
My boys and I are very, very, close. My oldest son has always loved reading
books. He helped out a lot with the initial editing of Bee Helpful and the blob on
the back of the book. While my youngest son loves stories, he actually provided
feed back on the pictures and some of the content in the story. The original
spider picture was too intimidating and ferocious, so I had to have the artist
change him. He also helped with the selection of the characters and some
scenes in the book. My middle son is overall just supportive with overall
feedback.
What prompted you to write children’s books?
I discovered several years back that I really liked to create stories. I started
writing a screen play and a novel. My wife originally gave me the idea of writing a
children’s book for our youngest son Elijah, who loves stories. That’s how the
Sunny Bee Book series was born.
My wife came up with the idea of writing a story about a bee and a sunflower at
our kitchen table one afternoon in 2013. She also named the bee Sunny. I was
then tasked with building a story around these two characters. I began working
on it immediately and recorded the first story on my phone that same day.
Tell us about the illustrations in your books. How did you find your artist?
There is a quite a story behind the selection of the artist for Bee Helpful and
working with an artist to bring your story to life. For the first time, I used Elance
thinking there would be minimum interest from artist in my book project. Boy was
I wrong. I was overwhelmed with the amount of artist that applied. I had to get my
wife, boys, and neighbors involved with the final selection. It was hard to decide
between the final two artist who had completely different styles. The runner up
was eventually chosen to work on my second children series under production,
titled Elijah and the Ant Kingdom.
What writing projects are you working on currently?
I am working on two movie scripts, a fiction novel, the remaining five or so books
in the Sunny Bee Series. I am also working on another children’s Book series
called Elijah and the Ant Kingdom.
I am really excited about my new projects especially the novel. Preliminary
feedback has been very encouraging.
I should also mention that we have a self reading/animated app version of Bee
Helpful that should be released sometime in June or July 2014. I believe children
will love it.
