Blog Archives
Teaching Through Action
Babies on Board Part 2 follows an iguana, a parrot, a squirrel, and a mouse who band together to visit the beach in the middle of the night to help sea turtle hatchlings safely reach the ocean. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I moved to Florida in 2013, and I started to take notice of all the wonderful wildlife and sea creatures that live here in this amazing state. My first residence was right on the beach, and it just happened to be sea turtle nesting season, which occurs May through November ( also Hurricane season). I first noticed the poles with yellow tape all along the beach, and then I met actual volunteers who sit next to the nest at night and wait for the hatchlings to break free from their shells. This occurs exactly two months after the female turtle lays her eggs. The baby sea turtles must make the long trek from their nest to the water, where they will swim to freedom. Only half of the baby turtles survive because there are many predators on land ( crabs, snakes, birds) and sea (sharks, dolphins, barracuda, grouper) waiting to gobble them up. Also, the babies do get confused by the street lights, if there are any around. They instinctively crawl toward the moonlight, which is always over the ocean. This magnificent journey inspired me to educate children about these adorable little sea creatures who are the greatest of survivors.
How did the concept of teamwork among such different animal characters first develop?
The concept for my series started out with a friendship between Grumpy the Iguana and Green Parrot. Afterwards, neighbors in Flamingo Park were introduced into the storyline, like Mr. Squirrel and adopted friend, Little Mouse.
Do you have a personal favorite character to write scenes for?
I love all the characters because they each have their own individual personality. Grumpy is the brains. Green Parrot brings sensibility. Mr. Squirrel is a perfectionist, and Little Mouse is a kid who used to be scared but is now fearless.
How do you balance storytelling with factual environmental education?
I try not to preach, and by teaching through action, I think children will be more willing to absorb the message.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Babies on board (part 2) continues the story. Grumpy and friends return to the beach, only this time it is in the middle of the night. They are there to make sure that all of the baby turtles make it safely to the sea where their father anxiously awaits their arrival. But as we all know, nothing ever goes smoothly when it comes to
Grumpy the Iguana, the Green Parrot, Mr. Squirrel and Little Mouse. Follow along and watch as our heroes fight against time and a street light to help the baby sea turtles find their dad..
Rhino Horn Underground
Deven Greene’s Rhino Horn Underground follows Paige, a struggling San Francisco journalist who travels to South Africa to report on rhino poaching and stumbles into a far more dangerous story than the one she planned to write. After a wildlife-reserve massacre, she is pulled into the orbit of Spencer Crenshaw, a slippery former FBI agent whose work with rhino blood, synthetic horns, and black-market demand keeps shifting from suspicious to visionary to perilous. What begins as an environmental thriller becomes a knotty adventure about conservation, commerce, ambition, and the morally murky question of whether saving animals may require cooperating with the systems that exploit them.
I liked how quickly the novel throws Paige off balance. She is not a polished action hero; she is frightened, opportunistic, judgmental, curious, and sometimes wrong in ways that feel genuinely human. Her suspicions about Spencer give the early chapters a prickly momentum, and the book is at its best when it lets her misread a room, then slowly recalibrate. The South African setting is not merely decorative. The landscape, the wildlife reserves, the poaching economy, and the logistics of conservation all give the story a rough, sun-blasted specificity.
Greene does not present conservation as a clean moral poster. Instead, she builds a thriller around an uncomfortable proposition: maybe the sentimental answer is not always the practical one. The science involving lab-made rhino horn gives the story its most distinctive charge, and the novel’s pace rarely lets the research sit there inertly. Paige’s personal life and the larger trafficking plot create a crowded emotional field, but that clutter also gives the book an authentic quality; everyone seems to have a private agenda, a bruise, or a debt.
This book is for readers who enjoy environmental eco-thrillers, wildlife crime fiction, conservation fiction, suspense, and morally complex adventure. Fans of Michael Crichton’s issue-driven science suspense may recognize the same appetite for turning a controversial idea into a chase, though Greene’s novel is more intimate and more emotionally entangled. Rhino Horn Underground is a bristling, brainy thriller that asks whether doing the right thing still counts when the path to it runs through the shadows.
Pages: 349 | ASIN : B0GWSGKDPT
Grandfather and Grandson
The Corridor follows a grandfather with vast knowledge of the Blue Ridge Mountains who sets out on a mission alongside his teenage grandson to document a wildlife corridor threatened by a resort development. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I really wanted to do a reverse mentorship piece. I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and I see all the time grandfathers showing grandchildren the nature that surrounds us here. I thought it would be fun to explore a different type of relationship. One where Ellias, the grandson, takes exception to Richard, the grandfather’s, lack of motivation on saving the wildlife corridor, even when he has economic reasons, property values, and the knowledge to save it. This shift happens not only in Ellias’ familiarity with social media and technology but also in motivating Richard to do something. This is a wonderful dynamic between grandfather and grandson.
Richard’s emotional arc is so understated but powerful. How did you approach writing a character whose growth happens through small shifts rather than dramatic revelations?
That is something I like to present while writing. I think it’s important for writers to engage their readers by not presenting the obvious but to deliver it in such a way that it’s believable, and hopefully they understand this the way you did.
Nature writing can sometimes overpower character, but here, landscape and psychology feel inseparable. How did you balance the two?
That’s a great question. And the answer is that I see daily the subtle balance between people and nature. I see a family of black bears crossing the street, and people stop their cars, being very respectful to let them pass. Pulling their phones out recording the encounter. It truly is magical, and while writing, I can’t help but bring that perspective. And I’m happy that you noticed.
If Richard and Eli met again ten years later, what do you think each would have taught the other by then?
Ah, you are skipping ahead. The Corridor is the first book in a 6-book (novelette) series…stay tuned.
The Corridor
The Corridor, by William Klenk, follows Richard, a solitary grandfather whose knowledge of the Blue Ridge mountains is rooted in decades of bodily attention, and Eli, his withdrawn teenage grandson, who arrives carrying family trouble and a school assignment. What begins as a quiet stay in the mountains becomes a shared effort to document a wildlife corridor threatened by a resort development. Richard brings memory, fieldcraft, and lived intimacy with the land; Eli brings maps, cameras, data, and a stubborn belief that proof can still matter. Together, they learn that seeing is not always enough: sometimes the world needs evidence before it will listen.
I was drawn most to the book’s restraint. Its emotional engine is not built from melodrama but from small exchanges: a repaired hinge, a shared trail, a laptop turned across a kitchen table, a handshake that changes weight by the end. Richard’s interior life feels especially strong because the prose lets his certainty erode slowly, like weather on stone. The book understands that aging is not only a loss; it can also be a late apprenticeship in humility. Eli, meanwhile, never becomes a convenient symbol of youth or technology. He’s wounded, practical, observant, and quietly brave in the unflashy way of someone deciding to care again.
The book’s central tension between presence and documentation was entertaining. Richard knows the land because he has inhabited it; Eli protects it because he can translate it into a language that institutions recognize. It doesn’t worship data or romanticize intuition. It lets both be partial, both necessary. The environmental stakes give the plot shape, but the deeper subject is intergenerational repair: the fragile corridor between people, not just animals, and the work required to keep it open.
Readers who like environmental fiction, coming-of-age fiction, family drama, and nature writing will really enjoy this novel. And readers who like quiet, character-driven stories about land, kinship, and moral attention will find a lot to reflect on. I would place The Corridor near the gentler, contemplative side of Barbara Kingsolver, especially in its belief that ecology and family systems echo one another. It’s a brief book, but it has a patient pulse and a clean moral weather.
Pages: 25
Gratitude, Resilience, and Perseverance
Rooted: A Wildlife Tree’s Journey follows an aging tree who can no longer transport nutrients from his roots due to damage from oak beetles and learns that just because he is growing older, doesn’t mean he has no purpose. What made you write a story about this topic? Anything pulled from your life experiences?
I have great respect for those who have gone before me. As some of my dearest family and friends approached death, they continued to inspire and encourage. I hope to be like them!
What were the driving ideals behind the character’s development throughout the story and the series?
Growth through all stages of life is a commonality throughout the “Rooted” series. By focusing on aspects such as gratitude, resilience, and perseverance, I aimed to encourage readers to reflect on their own life experiences.
What was the most challenging part of writing this part of your Rooted series, and what was the most rewarding?
The most challenging part of Rooted: A Wildlife Tree’s Journey was ending my protagonist’s life, and bringing the series to a conclusion. However, it was rewarding to show how much wildlife (elderly tree) contributes to the lives of others.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your story?
I want readers to realize the impact they have on others. I want them to understand that people in all stages of life matter and have much to offer.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
My Pet Chipmunk
Neil O’Donnell Author Interview
Don’t Call Me Chip is the story of one determined chipmunk and his fight to save the creatures who share his yard from an illintentioned family. What was your inspiration for this fun novel?
The inspiration is my ‘pet’ chipmunk named Chip ‘Hoover’ O’Donnell – my wife gave him the middle name ‘Hoover’ because he sucks up seed like a vacuum. Chip lives under our deck and has been a welcomed friend throughout the warm months. He’s been around for three years now (he just resurfaced from hibernation 2 weeks ago). Last year I learned that chipmunks live only 3-5 years. I wanted Chip to have an adventure. This book grew out of that.
Timothy, the chipmunk, befriends an eccentric old man and they form a heart warming relationship. What was the basis for their relationship and how did it change as you were writing?
The friendship is based on my friendship with Chip. He is very comfortable around me, letting me pet him while he eats food from my hand. Chip actually suns himself at my feet while I read or write on my deck.
This is a very fun novel. What was the funnest part for you to write?
Writing Timothy’s hand jestures and sarcasm – especially his waving to the neighbors, saluting Mikey, and and the pranks played on the neighbors.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The next book is the sequel to my fantasy novel, People of the Sword. Its title is Rise of the Celts. I am hoping to have the book out in early 2019.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
![Don't Call Me Chip by [O'Donnell, Neil]](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Zea3EbnDL.jpg?w=604&ssl=1)
DON’T CALL ME CHIP is a tale about Timothy: a chipmunk who protects an elderly man and a host of woodland creatures from the wrath of a family of nasty neighbors, who seem determined to drive out everyone Timothy cares about.
Timothy might seem like your average chipmunk who loves seeds, sunbathing and enjoying a quiet life in the suburbs. But after the new neighbors move in and wreak havoc, they will have to come face to face with his wit and resourcefulness.
The last straw is that the new neighbors keep calling him CHIP. Convincing all manner of rodents and other small wildlife to work together, Timothy launches an assault against their invasive neighbors.
Based on a true character, this book is a clean, fun read for eight-grade reading level and over.
