Spirit Animals meets The Land Before Time in this young reader urban fantasy.    A young girl named Brooke becomes a bird with the help of a magical necklace her dad left behind before deploying with the Army.   
When the necklace is stolen by a conniving raven, Brooke must battle his pigeon minions and enlist the help of a friendly mouse and some not-so-friendly rats to take back her necklace and return home, in the process learning that love and family are forever.    AUTHOR INTERVIEW:   When did you start writing the book?
    
I started writing this book as a screenplay actually, and it did quite well in screenplay contests. It was only after I started getting serious about the idea of self-publishing that I decided to adapt the screenplay into a novel, because I love this story so much and wanted to share it.  
   
How long did it take you to write it?
   
In the original screenplay form, I would say it took a year of writing and re-writing, but with plenty of time in between when I was taking time away from the project so that I could come back to it with a clear mind. Then when I went into the novel writing stage, it took me about a month to write and then another month for edits.
   
Where did you get the idea from?
    
I love this story because it feels very personal to me, even if it is so different from anything I will ever actually experience. The idea came to me when my friend was deploying with the Marines to Iraq, and I couldn’t imagine the pain his daughter would feel if he never returned. So I wrote this fantastical way of dealing with the grief, sort of a modern Land Before Time but with birds and a mouse and a magical necklace.
   
Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?
   
It went through many changes, to include some major struggles where I was trying to figure out what the book really was. At one point all of the bird talk was in rhyme! This was my way of saying they were singing without having them actually sing, but at the end of the day the story flowed better without the rhyme. It’s those hard decisions that are my biggest hurdles when approaching a story such as this.
   
What came easily?
   
The story itself just seemed to flow out of me. It was one of those tales that seems to be floating out there for you to grab ahold of, and so I did. I have written plenty of stories where I wasn’t sure where they would go, but this was not one of them.
   
Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?
   
The characters are very much fictitious, but with loose ties to the Marine and his daughter that I mentioned for the story’s inspiration.
   
We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?  
    
Of course! I loved reading The Hobbit and the Narnia books as a child, so of course J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and more recently there is naturally J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter, but also on the less directly related side Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn) and George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones). They are both fantasy authors that definitely have their craft down. In fact, I started writing fiction with a YA fantasy after reading Martin’s books and being frustrated that I couldn’t’ find anything else that grasped my attention like his books did.
   
Do you have a target reader?
    
The target audience for Back by Sunrise is kids from 7-12, thought I certainly approached it as Pixar would, writing it with the adult in mind. I have heard from multiple adults that they enjoyed reading it, as well as a younger audience. One reader told me she used to be a hospice worker and that she thought my book would be perfect for the people she used to help. I certainly hope my book can help people dealing with grief, and of course anyone who loves a fun story of magic and animals.