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Stephanie M. Ward is the author of the children’s book, Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin. Stephanie has been writing in various forms over the last 20 years. Most notably she spent over 15 years in PR and Marketing at Amazon and Fujitsu writing everything from press releases to white papers, executive bios to product blurbs. Stephanie’s wanderlust finally got the best of her and she spent a year traveling across all seven continents. It was then that she decided to focus on writing stories for children about amazing places around the world. Stephanie currently lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband and young son.

Author Website & Blog –  http://www.stephaniemward.com

Facebook Fan Page – http://www.facebook.com/wallythewarmweatherpenguin

Twitter – http://twitter.com/stephmward

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Spokane, Washington on the west coast of the U.S. but left for college in California and have been living in various places around the world ever since.

When did you begin writing?

As a child I loved to read and write and in school I excelled in English classes. Not surprisingly, my professional work involved a lot of writing. Then in a break between marketing jobs, I started writing for an online travel magazine and contributed to the book Tana’s Habitat: The Ultimate Guide to Finding and Affording Your First Places. I started writing children’s stories on a year-long honeymoon traveling around the world and that’s when I decided that some day I wanted to be a writer. “Some day” came two years ago when I left the corporate world to focus on publishing Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin.

What is this book about?

Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin is the story of Wally, an Emperor Penguin from Antarctica, who is always cold and dreams of life on a tropical island. When Wally learns about the Galapagos Islands, he sets sail immediately and discovers an amazing world of tap-dancing crabs, racing hundred-year-old tortoises and diving birds with bright blue feet.

What inspired you to write it?

Visiting Antarctica and being amidst Emperor Penguins in the icy conditions made me wonder why they didn’t just pack up and go somewhere warmer. A couple of months later, I was in the Galapagos Island and saw a colony of Galapagos Penguins and there was the story: What if an Emperor Penguin learned that he could live on a warm, tropical island?

The Galapagos Islands is an amazing place with so many unique plants and animals. In publishing Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin, I wanted to give back to the place that inspired the story. To that end, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin is donated to the Galapagos Conservancy (galapagos.org) to support conservation efforts in the Galapagos Islands.

Was the road to publication smooth sailing or a bumpy ride?

We took a fairly unique approach to publishing Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin and issued an ebook edition first. The full-color illustrations are arranged in a fixed format and optimized to be read on a tablet or computer, so each spread is perfectly laid out on any device. Once we learned how to create this layout, it was smooth sailing.

Where can readers purchase a copy of your book?

Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin is available on Amazon websites worldwide.

Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/1q0qzoc

Amazon.ca: http://amzn.to/1t50d2w

Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/1iYsY9o

Amazon.com.au: http://bit.ly/wallypenguin

Amazon.de: http://amzn.to/1lPKKjS

Amazon.es: http://amzn.to/1iYtkNf

Amazon.fr: http://amzn.to/1lPL8i8

Amazon.in: http://bit.ly/wallypenguinINDIA

Amazon.it: http://amzn.to/1lPLk0Z

Amazon.co.jp: http://amzn.to/1jVLiFy

Amazon.com.br: http://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B00JN79R0K

Do you have a video trailer to promote your book?  If yes, where can readers find it?

Yes. I created a “teaser trailer” before Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin was published. It’s available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apbBIngs4Wk.

What is one piece of advice you would like to share with aspiring authors everywhere?

Write your story. If your story can’t be defined in a specific genre or written in the traditional format, there are many options for authors to get a book into readers hands. I have met some talented indie authors whose wonderful children’s books are longer than the 1000 word maximum that an agent will accept for review. And I recently read a fantastic novella that is the perfect length, but in traditional publishing may have been expanded or reduced to a short story or looked over completely due to the number of pages. It’s a whole new world in publishing today, so don’t worry that your idea doesn’t “fit”, just write your story!

What is up next for you?

Currently, I’m working on a picture book version of Wally the Warm-Weather Penguin for older children. I hope to have this edition out by the end of 2014.

Beyond that, there are so many interesting (and warm) places that Wally wants to visit! I’ll be writing Wally’s next adventure in the coming months.

In today's issue, we learn that Wally is managing to move both of his back legs these days, though he can't get into a proper standing position on his own.

Also, on one occasion, he urinated all on his own and didn't need assistance (I usually have to squish his bladder - fun times). This is the first time since The Event. And yeah, if I've now caused you to believe the new TV series is all about my dog's spinal stroke, I'm okay with that. Even though I wouldn't mind Blaire Underwood coming by, the ads for that show look stupid to me. They got so fixated on creating suspense that they didn't bother to actually sell me the series. But I digress.

On three occasions, Wally moved his right hind leg out and lifted it up a bit while urine was being expressed, so I think he's trying to lift his leg, although he didn't bend it, so it looked more like a ballerina moving her foot into second position and lifting it a bit.

Wally McFurryPants (not an actual nickname, though maybe it should be) also managed to get himself into a standing position for the space of one step, but I count it.

Tomorrow: Appointment with the veterinary neurologist in the morning, PetPT in the afternoon.

Guess who had his first physical therapy appointment today? If you guessed Wally, then gold star for you!

First we chatted with Dr. Russell Howe-Smith, the vet in charge, who took some history, did some assessment, and then suited up in a wetsuit. Because the PetPT place is all about water therapy for dogs. Russell put Wally into a life vest, and then into a platform lift that raised him up from the floor and lowered him into the above-ground pool. After getting him used to the idea of being in the water (Wally has never gone swimming before), Russell pulled Wally off the platform and made sure he understood that once he got to the platform, he was safe. (Wally is a fast learner.)

And then, Russell started steering Wally around the pool, checking his hind legs. And what do you know - when Wally got close to the platform again, he really starting pumping those front legs - and his back legs moved a bit too. In subsequent swimming sessions, Wally managed to move those hind legs a bit more. Not a lot, and not strongly, but it looks like things are going to get working again.

And we're ordering him a "Help 'Em Up" harness, so that he can start going on walks in the neighborhood. It will be a bit taxing, I think, since it basically means that you have to keep up with the front half of the dog while carrying the back half, but it will be a good thing for the little guy to feel like he's going somewhere and making progress - and it might help him to get back in the swing of things, bathroom-wise.

I am totally taking a camera along next time to document the swim therapy so I have photos of it for me. And hey - I'll share some with you, too.

1. The Wally Report: Wally's check-up with the veterinary neurologist went well yesterday. The vet agreed that he seems to be regaining function. Wally starts pet physical therapy tomorrow. The vet led hubby to believe that we might get lucky enough for him to make a pretty rapid recovery. (I'm not holding my breath, but it sure would be nice!)

2. The 2010 CYBILS Poetry Panels were announced today at the CYBILS blog. First-round panelist Elaine Magliaro is today's Poetry Friday host. We're lucky to once again have folks who really know their poetry on board!

3. In case you missed my post the other day, Breaking Waves, an e-book anthology to benefit the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund, launched the other day, complete with my poem "Troubled Water", which closes the e-book. I am extremely grateful to for blogging about it yesterday, since she has a million billion followers. (Okay, I exaggerate - but seriously, she has nearly 7,000 followers on LiveJournal alone!)

4. I am in the pre-thinking phase for a new project. I'm not certain I'll be able to pull it off, but I'm hopeful. Let's leave it at that for now.

5. My picture book, At the Boardwalk, has an illustrator - and it's Spanish artist Mónica Armiño! You can see some of her work at her blog. ¡Que bonito! M would love to see this Viking guy in At the Boardwalk. Meanwhile, I am seriously in love with her Narcissus. *swoon*

bonus: A thank you to for featuring my post How to be a rock star at public appearances on his blog today. It was lovely to get comments from new acquaintances!

This post is for those of you who have been keeping tabs on Wally's (hopeful) recovery:

Yesterday afternoon, I woke the little guy up when I entered the room. He was lying stretched out on one side, as dogs sometimes do, and after he opened his eyes he s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d his front legs out in front of him, pointing his feet and all. And then, he stretched the back ones out as well - the first time he's done that since the day he was injured.

Immediately after stretching his hind legs, Wally bent his back right leg and moved it around a little bit.

Color me stunned and extremely pleased. (Needless to say, I snatched up the phone to call hubby at work and report on Wally's new "tricks".)

He seems to have better awareness and control of his bowels, so he's mostly back to going only in the out of doors (if you pay enough attention to his signals, which aren't nearly as obvious as they were with functioning hind legs and a working tail. He also has perhaps too much control over his urine - thus far, he isn't cooperating by going freely, which means twice-a-day trips to the vet and some time with catheters. At least he seems to have stopped leaking, which makes things more pleasant. It'd be nice to be able to stop that part, so that's where I'm hoping things work themselves out soonest.

So, in about 10 days, we've gone from no movement/can't feel anything/can't stand to some movement/can feel at least some stuff/can stand if you position him first. He set a personal best record in excess of 6 minutes a few days ago, but for the past three days, he's been disinclined to stand all that long. At first, he was standing for only 30 seconds or so. Today, he held a stand for 2 minutes for me. I suspect that he started getting the feeling back in his hind legs, and it weirded him out.

This morning, Wally has a checkup with the veterinary neurologist. Here's hoping it brings good tidings. Sadly, I won't be at the vet with him and the hubster. Happily, I'll be with M at the orthodontist - her braces are coming off!

It's Sunday afternoon, and I am in our family room, watching the Lord of the Rings marathon on TNT. Even though I own two copies of all three films. Because I stumbled onto it and decided to roll with it, since I'm really here to babysit Wally. (Hubby had dog duty earlier today, when I went out to buy the remaining school supplies need by the kids - our high school doesn't let kids know what they need until they get there - and to pick up groceries and some additional pet care supplies, but he's off for many hours to watch football with the guys.)

Wally seems to be regaining feeling in his back half, and with it he appears to be gaining a modicum of control over his waste functions - although only in the "not quite so leaky" sort of way, and not in the "total control" way that we're hoping will return. Which means he continues to visit the clinic twice a day for catheterization, which is getting to be expensive a drag.

With the returning feeling (and some improvement in muscle strength and a wee bit of motion in his upper legs), he seems not to want to stand today for the extended periods of time he achieved yesterday - his best time was in excess of 6 minutes. I thin he's feeling more sensation from it, although perhaps not full sensation, and he's not certain he likes it. On the other hand, he's started sinking into something much closer to a normal sitting position than we've seen since this happened, so we are not too worried about it just yet.

Many thanks to all of you for your continued expressions of support. It has meant a lot to me this week, and will continue to be a help over what is looking to be a lengthy recovery process.