Bio
Fun Facts
Book Birthdays:
Jan 04, 2022 --- Luna Moo (LR) Feb 25, 2019 --- Alive (LiV) Mar 02, 2023 --- Change (LiV) Jun 10, 2021 --- Brave (LiV) Jul 12, 2018 --- Abigail (LR) Oct 13, 2017 --- Joel (LR) Dec 19, 2013 --- Wispin (N) |
Kristine Cali is the author of the middle-grade fantasy novel Wispin, the children's picture book series The Little Rhymers, and the on-going Life in Verse poetry series. She currently lives in central Arkansas.
Hey there, I'm Kristine. I've been writing stories since I learned how to read and write. I actually still have the little journals I wrote my first stories in. One of them was called The Living Desert, based off the The Living Desert Zoo and Garden in Palm Desert, California. The other was simply called Easter. I didn't know how to spell "jelly bean". Casey Welch, my little star of Wispin, was created when I was about 7 years old. I kid you not, she got her last name from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich I'd eaten that day. She originally started out as a Nancy Drew style detective with her friend Sarah. She eventually found her magic in what had been named The Vampire's Revenge. After a year of heavy outlining and brainstorming, the base for The Vampire's Revenge swiftly took on a whole other shape, becoming Midnight Sun, and then upon further editing, Wispin. Four days before my 25th birthday, Wispin released via self-publishing. Returning to 2005 when I was 16-17, Little Joel's story/poem was created. It was an experiment with a singular rhyming scheme, and I fell in love with it. My mom and dad were the first to hear it, and they encouraged me to turn it into a children's picture. It took a lot of time to work up the courage to illustrate it myself instead of freelancing it out, but finally my dad convinced me to just go ahead and give it a go, just for fun. In no time, all the pictures for Little Joel and the Toffee Roll were done up and ready, and Joel was finally ready to venture into the world in 2017. Yes, twelve years. XD I decided very quickly that the Little Rhymers had to become a series. It was shortly after the release of Joel that my Arielle began asking everyday about when the next book would be ready. Every. Single. Day. She is the sole reason that Abigail and the Snail Mail was able to be released so quickly following Joel, and I am grateful for her encouragement. <3 The Life in Verse poetry series came about out of necessity. After starting to write crappy poetry in about 2003, the poems began to just fall out of my pen. And honestly, the series is more for me than it is for anyone else. ;D There are some awesome poems, and then there are some crappy poems in the books. But they all mean something to me, and that's good enough. Sorry if you don't care about some of them. Rest assured there will be so many more poems and books in this series as life progresses. I have several ideas for more books. I have a handful of novel ideas: Jonathan, Ansella, Nikolai, Penny... I have a list going for the Little Rhymers series as well. Pretty excited to see where the future goes with all this. Because since I was little, this is what I've always wanted to do. If you have a passion, if it makes you feel alive and real, if it helps get through the bad days... don't ever let go. Dream it, chase it, own it, do it. You can do this, and I believe in you. Shoot me an email at [email protected] if you need encouragement. Lots of love, <3 kc |
Favorite BooksIn order by author's last name, and does not include every book I like because that would be a whole lot of books ok.
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PhotosWant to add your picture to the slideshow? Email your photos with Kristine Cali and/or any of her books to [email protected]!
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