The Joy of Writing: Millie Florence and Beyond Mulberry Glen

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Are you looking to inspire a love for storytelling in your children or perhaps ignite your own passion for writing? In a recent conversation with author Millie Florence, we explored her journey from self-publishing her debut book to landing a deal with Waxwing Books. Millie shared invaluable insights on nurturing creativity, the importance of enjoying the writing process, and practical tips for both parents and young aspiring authors. Whether you’re a homeschool parent eager to encourage your child’s literary pursuits or a young writer dreaming of publication, Millie’s experience and advice can guide you on your path to success.

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Table Of Contents

Vibrant Homeschooling Environment Inspires Young Writer
13 year old and a published author!
From self-published to traditional publishing: Beyond Mulberry Glen from Waxwing Books
Advice for Young Aspiring Authors
Key Takeaways
Listen to the full podcast episode “The Joy of Writing: Millie Florence and Beyond Mulberry Glen” on Homeschool Conversations with Humility and Doxology
Find Millie Florence Online
You May Also Enjoy
Check out all the other interviews in my Homeschool Conversations series!

Vibrant Homeschooling Environment Inspires Young Writer

Millie Florence, a talented young author, shares a glimpse into her homeschool journey as the eldest of five siblings. Growing up in a vibrant, eclectic homeschool environment, she enjoyed a delight-directed approach, where her mother tailored resources and styles to match each child’s interests and needs. Writing quickly became Millie’s passion, leading her to publish her first book at just 13. Her family’s homeschool style blends elements from Charlotte Mason and classical education, emphasizing read-alouds, rich conversations, hands-on learning, and travel experiences. This personalized approach fostered a lifelong love of learning and creativity, shaping Millie’s path as a young writer and adventurer.

For Millie, one of the highlights of homeschooling was the opportunity to travel extensively with her family. Her father’s business trips often turned into family adventures, taking her to places like England, Italy, and Germany. Millie reflects on how these travels—originally just exciting experiences—turned out to be incredible learning opportunities that were seamlessly woven into her homeschool life. Her homeschooling approach, which felt less like formal schooling and more like hands-on discovery, encouraged a natural, curiosity-driven education. Millie fondly recalls how, as a child, she didn’t recognize these activities as “school,” realizing only later how intentional her education truly was, with her mom skillfully blending learning into everyday experiences.

While Millie cherishes her homeschool experience, she recalls that math posed a consistent challenge. As a creatively minded learner, math often felt daunting, leading to many moments of frustration. However, homeschooling’s flexibility allowed her to approach math in a practical, hands-on way that resonated with her love for writing. For instance, when she published her first book at 13, she encountered real-world math by managing expenses, calculating shipping costs, and figuring out profit margins for events. This process helped her connect with math in a meaningful way, making these practical skills stick far more than traditional workbook exercises. The experience highlights how delight-directed learning helped Millie turn a challenging subject into an invaluable tool.

13 year old and a published author!

Millie’s journey to publishing her first book, Honey Butter, at 13 was driven by her lifelong love for storytelling. From an early age, she knew she wanted to share her stories, even attending fiction writing conferences at 10 and 11. Her biggest challenge, however, was completing a book. After struggling to finish a complex sci-fi story, she took her parents’ advice to try a simpler project, applying a lesson from her ballet teacher: “I’d rather see a clean single than a dirty double.” This approach led her to write a shorter, more manageable story with a focus on quality, resulting in Honey Butter. Millie is proud of that first book, and it paved the way for her more intricate works, showing that starting small and focused can lead to lasting success.

From self-published to traditional publishing: Beyond Mulberry Glen from Waxwing Books

Millie’s journey from self-publishing Honey Butter to securing a book deal with Waxwing Books is an inspiring one. After self-publishing Honey Butter through IngramSpark with her mom’s proofreading help, she continued writing, and her historical fantasy novel was accepted by Bandersnatch Books when she was 18. In a serendipitous moment, she met Sarah McKenzie, founder of Waxwing Books, at a homeschool convention—literally in an elevator. Millie introduced herself, sparking Sarah’s interest enough to research Millie’s work that night, read Honey Butter, and even recommend it to other attendees.

The following day, they connected, and Sarah invited Millie to dinner at another convention. There, Sarah and her editor offered to republish Millie’s book Beyond Mulberry Glen, which follows 11-year-old Lydia Green’s magical adventures and her struggle with a mysterious force called “the darkness.” Set to release on January 7th with a beautiful new cover and illustrations, Millie is thrilled to see her work come to life under Waxwing’s imprint.

Millie’s favorite chapter in Beyond Mulberry Glen is titled “Candlewax and Paper Stars.” In this chapter, the characters explore a magical, maze-like library with shifting shelves, which creates a whimsical yet slightly dangerous atmosphere as people can easily get lost. Here, they encounter Quill, a creature who only speaks in poetry and lives within the library. Writing this chapter was particularly meaningful for Millie, as it’s where she felt she discovered her unique voice as a writer. The whimsical setting and the character of Quill have already become favorites among readers, adding a memorable charm to the story.

Advice for Young Aspiring Authors

To parents wanting to encourage a love of storytelling, Millie advises prioritizing creativity and enjoyment over technicalities like grammar and spelling, which can come later. She suggests focusing on the excitement and wonder of stories, celebrating a child’s ideas, and only offering critique when the child seeks it. This approach fosters a love for writing and creates a safe space for kids to express themselves.

For young aspiring writers, Millie recommends embracing a “quantity over quality” approach initially, encouraging them to write a variety of genres and story beginnings. This experimentation helps develop skills and prevents burnout on one idea. Once they feel ready to share their work, she suggests starting small—perhaps with short stories, poetry, or entering contests—before tackling larger projects. This step-by-step method allows young writers to build confidence and experience without the pressure of perfection.

Key Takeaways

Self-Publishing Start: Millie began her career by self-publishing her first book, Honey Butter, using IngramSpark, and she learned the ropes of publishing through hands-on experience.
Meeting Waxwing Books: Millie connected with Waxwing Books in a chance elevator encounter with Sarah Mackenzie, which eventually led to a publishing deal.
Traditional vs. Self-Publishing: Millie highlighted the differences between self-publishing, where the author handles every detail, and traditional publishing, where the publisher manages production and distribution.
Magical Library Chapter: Her favorite chapter, Candlewax and Paper Stars, features a whimsical library with moving shelves and Quill, a hobgoblin who speaks in poetry. This chapter helped her find her authorial voice.
Creativity Over Perfection: Millie advises parents to prioritize creativity and fun over grammar and spelling in early writing, encouraging children to fall in love with storytelling.
Quantity Over Quality for Young Writers: Millie suggests that young writers focus on writing a lot in different styles and genres rather than obsessing over perfecting a single piece.
Building Writing Confidence: She recommends parents engage with their children’s stories without critiquing them too early, allowing kids to enjoy storytelling and develop confidence.
Small, Quality Projects First: For those interested in publishing, Millie advises starting with small, manageable projects done well, like short stories or poems in anthologies.
Learning Through Experience: Millie’s learning journey involved asking questions, like how to spell words, and making mistakes along the way, which helped her improve gradually.
Embrace Imperfection: Millie believes in embracing the imperfection of early work, as starting messy is a necessary part of growing as a writer.

Listen to the full podcast episode “The Joy of Writing: Millie Florence and Beyond Mulberry Glen” on Homeschool Conversations with Humility and Doxology

Mille Florence’s earliest memories are of lying under the covers at night, long after her parents had told her to go to sleep, whispering stories to herself. She published her first book, Honey Butter, at age thirteen and hasn’t stopped since! Millie lives in a picturesque blue house in the woods of southern Illinois. She loves adventure, good food, and just about all things yellow. Follow her on Facebook or Instagram, or see what she’s up to at
millieflorence.com.

Find Millie Florence Online

Check out all the other interviews in my Homeschool Conversations series!

Amy Sloan: Hello friends. Today I am delighted to be joined by Millie Florence. Her earliest memories are of lying under the covers at night long after her parents had told her to go to sleep, whispering stories to herself. Millie published her first book, Honey Butter, at age 13 and she hasn’t stopped since. Millie lives in a picturesque blue house in the woods of southern Illinois. She loves adventure, good food, and just about all things yellow. And if you’re watching the video you can see some yellow walls behind her, very sunshiny. You can follow Millie on Facebook or Instagram or see what she’s up to at MillieFlorence.com. All right Millie, I am so delighted to get to chat with you today. I always begin with those very formal official biographies, but could you just tell us a little bit about yourself, your family, and your personal experience being homeschooled?

Millie Florence: Yeah, absolutely. So hello everyone. I am so delighted to be here on the podcast. I have four younger siblings, I’m the oldest of five, and we have all homeschooled our entire lives. Our homeschool style is very eclectic, as my mom has- my mom has always described it that way. You know, we use a lot of different approaches, different resources, just depending on what worked best for each individual kid, what worked best in the moment. A phrase she likes to use is delight-directed. So our homeschool style very much follows what each of us kids are interested in and passionate about, and for me that was writing, you know, even publishing a book at 13. So that directed a lot of my homeschool experience. She’s also a big fan of Charlotte Mason, and we’ve done some classical education as well, lots and lots of read-alouds, and a big emphasis on conversation. We have lots of conversations in our family and hands-on learning, travel, that sort of thing.

Amy Sloan: I love to hear that. Yes, and our family- well, I was homeschooled growing up, and so all of the wonderful books we read and the conversations, that was such a favorite part of my own homeschooled experience and has definitely come in as I homeschool my own children. I think that’s such a beautiful way to learn and grow as a family. Well, what were some of your favorite parts of homeschooling?

Millie Florence: Oh, so my family has done quite a bit of travel, which has always been a favorite experience for me. My dad has had the opportunities to have some, like, business trips overseas, and we would often work that into a family trip. So I’ve been to, like, England and Italy and Germany. Like, often each kid would, like, take a turn to go with my dad on his business trips to these new places, which was always a super fun experience. And it’s interesting because until recently I never thought about that as, like, oh, that was homeschooling, but it totally was. I learned so much from all of those trips. And I think that also just in general speaks to my homeschool experience. My dad always likes to tell the story that at one point when I was much, much younger, like, I was maybe five or six, another adult found out that I was homeschooled, and they were like, oh, what do you do for homeschool? And I just said, nothing, really.

Amy Sloan: Nothing and everything.

Millie Florence: Yeah, exactly. Because to me it didn’t feel like, like, in my mind as a small child, and I think in a lot of people’s minds when they think of education of school, you think of sitting at a desk and doing worksheets. But for my family, it was a lot more just hands-on than that. And I almost didn’t realize how I was being educated until, like, later looking back, I was like, oh, that was totally purposeful. But at the time, to me as a child, it just felt like, oh, we’re doing a fun thing now, you know?

Amy Sloan: Yeah, it’s that sneaky learning that mom on the background is like, ha ha ha, I can count this as homeschooling, but don’t tell the kids. They’re just going to think it’s fun. Exactly. Well, Millie, I’m sure that there were also challenges as well, and I think that’s one of the questions I often ask my guests, because we don’t want to have a rosy-colored picture of homeschooling. Would you say there was anything that was in particular a challenge, or something that you didn’t like as much about your homeschool years?

Millie Florence: I really loved my homeschool experience in general, but I will say I always struggled with math. That was a huge headache for me growing up. And in some ways, it still is. I am very creatively-minded, which means I’m not always the best at the, I guess, left-brained side of things as much. So math was a big struggle for me growing up. I think that was definitely something a lot of tears were shed over, right? But a way that helps a lot, and this is another thing when we talk about my experience of delight-directed learning, obviously, my thing was writing. I was super into writing, right? So you might think, oh, how can you even connect math to that, right? But through the process of publishing my first book when I was 13 years old, I actually did learn a lot of math from spreadsheets and tracking expenses when I did book signings and events, and calculating rates for shipping costs when I buy books, and how much am I making per book? So therefore, how many books do I need to sell to pay for the table I bought at this convention, right? So I feel like most of the math that I learned that has stuck with me the most today is not anything I learned from a workbook. It’s things I learned from that experience pursuing a career in fiction writing, which is super interesting.

Amy Sloan: I love hearing how in that kind of unique way, you actually probably connected more. You were certainly more motivated. You’ve had a reason to work on the math, but that was what was able to connect something that you loved with maybe something that wasn’t your favorite. But tell us a little bit more about this, because yes, if someone was listening, you did not miss here. She published her first book when she was 13. Tell us how that all came about. Yeah, absolutely.

Millie Florence: So it’s interesting because I can’t remember a time in my life when I just decided, oh, I’m going to be an author now. Like, it always sort of felt like the normal next step for me, I guess, because I’ve been obsessed with telling stories for as long as I can remember. So as a kid, it just felt like obvious. I love to tell stories. What do you do when you love to tell stories? You go and share them with other people by putting them in books that I find in the library, you know. So I always knew I wanted to publish a book. I always knew I wanted to pursue that. I went to my first fiction writing conference when I was 10 years old and then again when I was 11 years old to the same one. And my struggle, because I always knew I wanted to publish a book, but my struggle was always how do I finish one? Because I had a lot of creative ideas. I had, you know, I kind of bounced between story ideas a lot. And it was hard for me to stick with one and see it out to the end. And it really frustrated me at some point. And I remember before I started writing Honey Butter, like in the year before, I was working on this sci-fi novel that was super long and took place on another planet and like involved all these just like complicated physics and world building. And I had a conversation with my parents about this. I’m like, oh, I want to publish a book someday, but I can never finish one. And I ended up deciding, you know, through conversation with them and just thinking about it a lot as myself, you know, as like a 12, 13-year-old at the time to try something a little bit shorter and a little bit simpler. And that is how Honey Butter came about. And something that I always used to explain it is I took ballet when I was younger. And one of the things my ballet teacher always said was I’d rather see a clean single than a dirty double. And she was talking about doing spins, right? When you go up on one toe and you turn around in a circle. And she was saying she’d rather see a dancer do one turn and nail it, do it really well, do it cleanly, than attempt to do two turns, which is more impressive, but do it sloppily. So I kind of took that idea into writing Honey Butter. I said, I want to write something short and simple, but I want to do it excellently. Another way I’ve heard it put by an author is before you sit down to compose a concerto, play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and make me cry. So that’s what I took into writing Honey Butter. And I think that is definitely what allowed me to finish it and then go on to publish it at age 13 was because I chose something simple and short that I could do well and be proud of. And I am still proud of it now at age 21. So yeah, I don’t think, you know, sometimes you hear like, oh, you don’t want to publish too early. Honestly, I think it’s less about too early and more about too complicated. I think you, you’re never too young to write something well and put it out in the world. But you might not be ready to write the complicated thing yet, if that makes sense. And then after Honey Butter, I was able to write more complicated, longer stories. I could not have written my fantasy novels that came out next if I had not written Honey Butter first.

Amy Sloan: You don’t have to start by writing the great American novel, right? You can start writing a good, simple story. It’s kind of like you don’t have to go and do some complicated meal. Sometimes you just want to make that roast and vegetables for your family. And there’s something really good and beautiful about that as well.

Millie Florence: Absolutely. Well, and simple, but also I’ve seen, like, so many people love Honey Butter and I’m still proud of it today. And it even played a part in getting me a book deal, which you might hear about later. Don’t underestimate the simple stuff. Yeah.

Amy Sloan: How did you get from writing Honey Butter to then writing some other works? And now you have a publishing deal with Waxwing Books. Kind of bring us through that story of your writing career and how we got to where you are now.

Millie Florence: Absolutely. So I self-published Honey Butter. For those who don’t know, there are two main routes of publishing, self-publishing and traditional publishing. Self-publishing is what it sounds like. You do it all yourself, right? You find a print-on-demand service online, usually. I chose IngramSpark. There are others that will print and distribute your book to all online retailers. And then everything else, cover, interior formatting, proofreading, editing, any interior illustrations, all the things, you have to either do that yourself or hire out to other people. For Honey Butter, I self-published. I was lucky enough that my mom actually used to work as a proofreader at a Christian publishing company before she became a mom, so she helped proofread my book. And then I also submitted a historical fantasy novel to Bandersnatch Books, which is an indie press. And they ended up saying yes, which was very, very exciting, obviously, because I was, like, 18 at the time when they said yes to my book. And that was super-duper exciting. And traditional publishing is, unlike self-publishing, you just you send the publisher your book and then they take care of all the things you would normally have to do yourself when you self-publish, which was very cool. But before my third book, the historical fantasy, the Baltar Bastion Harper, before that book even came out, I was at a convention, a homeschool convention, selling my books in March of, I think it was, was it 2023, maybe? Yeah. And it had been a long day at the convention because, you know, I was standing at the booth all day selling my books. I was very tired by the end of the day. And I got on the elevator with my dad and my younger sister to go get dinner that night. It goes down a few floors and then the doors open and Sarah McKenzie, the founder of Waxwing Books, steps onto the elevator, which was not something I expected at all in a million years. We had, and I’ve been a fan of Sarah McKenzie and her podcast and what she does ever since I was little. Like, me and my mom have listened to her podcast together ever since it started coming out. So in this moment, I was like, oh my goodness, I’m meeting Sarah McKenzie.

Amy Sloan: And it was a literal, like, it was a literal elevator pitch moment. Elevator pitch. Yes.

Millie Florence: Yes, it was. It was a literal elevator pitch. So we had like a 30 second conversation where I basically just said, hi, I’m a big fan. I’m an author. I have a booth at the convention. My name is Millie Florence. And that was it. It was 30 seconds. And then I got off the elevator and I was like, what just happened? And I talked with my dad that night. I was like, we decided that I should go to her booth for one of her talks the next day and say, hi, remember me from the elevator, because that’s pretty memorable, right? And I just wanted to be on her podcast at the time, because she’d only published picture books at the time, so I didn’t even think she would be looking for anything I was writing. And then the next day, before I even had a chance to go to any of her talks or anything, I’m standing at my booth selling my books. All I had was a 30 second conversation in the elevator with her the day before. And a mom comes up to my booth, points to Honey Butter, my first book, and goes, can I buy this? Sarah McKenzie just told me it was phenomenal. Turns out she had looked me up that night just knowing my name, because I didn’t even have business cards on me. She looked me up that night, bought the ebook of Honey Butter, read it, and was recommending it to people the next day at the convention. That’s fantastic. I know, right? It’s honestly crazy to, like, still, I’m like, how did that happen? I don’t know. And so obviously after that encounter, I was like, okay, I definitely have to go talk to her now. So I did, and I gave her physical copies of both of my books. And we decided that we should meet up for dinner at another one of the conventions that we were both going to be at. Three weeks later, we do meet up for dinner at another convention. And, you know, it’s like 15 minutes of small talk, and her editor is also there. And then she turns to her editor, and her editor gives her this, like, nod. And then she turns back to me and goes, so, we’d like to republish your book. And that is how I got the book deal for Beyond Mulberry Glen.

Amy Sloan: Oh, wow. What an incredible story. Okay, so tell me a little bit about Beyond Mulberry Glen. So kind of give us, can you give us the elevator pitch for this book? And then tell us what were maybe a favorite piece of it to write, a favorite chapter or so.

Millie Florence: Absolutely. So Beyond Mulberry Glen is the story of 11-year-old Lydia Green, who lives in the magical realm of the Valleylands with her mismatched family of fairies and philosophers. Until one day, that is, when she hears about a mysterious force known as the darkness that dwells within the forest Tenebrae. But not only does it dwell within the forest, lately it has begun to creep into Lydia’s own mind. And that is where the story begins. I originally self-published it when I was 15 years old, and I’m so excited for it to come out now. It has a new cover and some awesome illustrations by Astrid Sheckles. And there’s going to be, the title is going to be in gold foil on the printed book. I’m so excited for that. That’s incredible. It’s coming out January 7th, re-releasing, and it’s currently available for pre-order. So everyone can go pre-order it and get their own copy.

Amy Sloan: Oh, definitely. And I will have links to that in the show notes for this episode for sure. Did you have a favorite chapter when you were originally writing the story?

Millie Florence: I do. So the chapter that is my favorite from Beyond Mulberry Glen is titled Candlewax and Paper Stars. And it’s the chapter where the main characters all venture into this magical library that has a mind of its own. And the shelves move and shift like a maze to the point that it’s like kind of dangerous because people could get lost in this library. And they meet Quill, the hobgoblin who only speaks in poetry, and he lives in the library. And it was just such a fun chapter to write. There was so many whimsy, like so much whimsy in so many different places of that chapter. And looking back, I feel like that chapter specifically is really where I discovered my voice as a writer was in that chapter of Beyond Mulberry Glen. And like that is the moment where it kind of clicked with me, clicked for me. Like, oh, this is how I want to write. This is what I want my stories to be like and sound like. And it’s just a lot of fun. I think readers will really enjoy reading it. I know Quill is like a favorite among people who have read the book already because he’s just so much fun.

Amy Sloan: Well, a whimsical, magical, slightly dangerous library and a character who speaks in poetry. I am here for that. I cannot wait to read the book myself for sure.

Millie Florence: Thank you. I’m so excited for everyone to be able to read it and experience it.

Amy Sloan: Well, Millie, I can imagine a homeschool mom listening to this episode and thinking, oh, I want to instill a love for story in my children. I want to encourage a love of writing. What would you say to that parent? Like, how can they best encourage that love in their children?

Millie Florence: Yeah. So I would say focus on promoting creativity and fun first before grammar and spelling. Because I promise you with grammar and spelling, there is no rush. I think a lot of parents can feel the pressure for their kid to figure all this out very quickly. And I’m here to tell you it’s okay. I actually did very little formal grammar or spelling when I was younger. Like, the way I learned to spell things mainly was reading. And also I would be typing my books, like, in the living room and I would yell over to my mom, hey, mom, how do you spell breathe or whatever? And just over and over and over again until I got it. That is pretty much how I learned to spell. Was just through experience, right? Because if I’m motivated to finish a story, I want to figure out how to spell it, right? So focus on promoting that creativity and enjoyment first. Because that is something so special that a kid has. One of my favorite quotes from Picasso is, every child is an artist. The trouble is how to remain an artist as you grow up. Kids have that creativity. Foster that creativity. I think there are some kids who don’t want to write or don’t want to show their parents their stories because they know that the first thing they’re going to get is critique. They’re going to be immediately met by, here’s what you’re doing wrong, right? So first, the joy. First, get excited with them about the story. First, say, oh, this is so cool. Oh, that’s such a good idea. Oh, tell me more, right? And then ask them if they want feedback. Because I can tell you right now, as a professional writer now, I write books and I publish them. There are plenty of times I don’t want feedback now as well. My first drafts are often messy. And I will say, I’m not ready for anyone to tell me what’s wrong with it yet. I just want to finish it. I want to have fun with it first. And eventually, I will be. So ask your kids if they want feedback on what they just wrote or if they just want you to listen, if they just want to share their excitement of this story with you. That’s what I would say. If you definitely want to encourage joy in writing, encourage a love of storytelling, is start with the love and the joy. And take a breather, take a deep breath. Grammar and spelling will come. Just joy first.

Amy Sloan: I think that is such brilliant advice for writing and story and really just pretty much for much of learning is start with the love and the joy first. And then we can go into the nitty gritty. Those things matter, of course. But when you have the foundation of the love and the joy and the delight and the wonder, those are all the things that lend the motivation and the desire to improve in some of those mechanics later on. Exactly, yeah. Well, what about maybe a young listener who is like, oh my goodness, this is amazing. I’ve always wanted to be a storyteller. I want to be a published author one day. What would be some of the things that that young writer could be doing now both to develop their craft now and potentially work towards this as a career in the future?

Millie Florence: Great question. Okay. So for developing craft now, when you’re first starting out, step number one, and this sounds counterintuitive, but focus on quantity over quality. Focus on writing a lot and writing a lot of different things. You will learn more from writing the beginning of 20 different stories than you will from continuously editing one. You will learn how to write poetry and songs and short stories and all the different genres, fantasy, contemporary. Experiment and have fun. While you are young is the time for you to experiment, have fun, try a lot of different things, and all of it will teach you how to become a better writer. I know there are so many young writers who they get a specific story idea that they think is amazing, and honestly, most of the time it is amazing. It’s great, right? But then they geek on it. And the problem is they outgrow that idea skill-wise before they have the time to finish it because writing a full book takes a long time. So I would encourage kids, don’t get stuck on one idea. Like, it is okay. You are not a failure if you realize, okay, I’ve outgrown this story idea. I’m a better writer on this, like, chapter 20 than I was on chapter one. Maybe you should try to write something new with this newfound knowledge, right? Don’t limit yourself by getting stuck on one idea, right? And then I would say, so that’s for, like, developing craft. And then I would say when you get to the point where, okay, I want to start thinking about publishing something now, do what I did with Honey Butter. Start small. Because start small and do it well, right? And even outside of writing a short, simple book, before I even wrote Honey Butter, I finished and printed out a piece of fan fiction I wrote that I was proud of. You know, I won an online Mother’s Day kids writing contest. I submitted poetry to anthologies and I got accepted into one. So, like, start with those smaller pieces and focus on doing them well. Simple and well. So, in the beginning, experiment when you’re ready to publish. Then narrow in on doing something simple well and build from there. That would be my tip for young writers.

Amy Sloan: It makes me think of the Chesterton quote, and this may not be the exact quote because obviously I don’t have it in front of me, but he said something like, a thing worth doing is worth doing badly. Yes. Right? So, not in the sense of we want to do bad work, but if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing it even if we don’t think we can do it excellently yet. Or we can’t let the fear of perfectionism or, well, I won’t be able to write the most amazing book ever written when I’m, you know, 8 or 11 or 14 or whatever age. That worry of it not being perfect to somehow keep you from even starting or trying something, which actually is kind of like a lifelong lesson too for moms as well. Because sometimes we can let that worry of something not being ideal or something not being perfect keep us from even starting just something, you know? Something that we actually do is better than the perfect thing we don’t start.

Millie Florence: Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah. Start out with that messy, beautiful creativity. And this is why you should start out with the messy, beautiful creativity. Because once you’re ready to publish something, you do have to narrow in, right? So, while you can, have fun with it and do lots of different things.

Amy Sloan: Millie, this has been such a great conversation. I’m so glad to get to have met you here and hear a little bit of your story. I can’t wait to read Beyond Mulberry Glen and we’ll definitely have that link in the show notes for people to pre-order it themselves. But here at the end, I want to ask you the questions that I ask all of my guests. And so, the first is just, what are you personally reading lately?

Millie Florence: So, I do a lot of read-alouds with my younger sister who is 10 years old. And most recently, we finished reading Detectives in Togas, which is a classic mystery set in ancient Rome, which is a super fun book. We had a blast reading that together. So, that was a recent read. And then currently myself, I am reading Red Rex by Matthew Mellema, which was published by Bandersnatch Books, the same company I was published through. I read his first chapter and introduction and it was so whimsical and so fun. And it’s just delightful so far. So, Bandersnatch sent me a free copy and that’s currently what I’m reading myself, so.

Amy Sloan: That is very fun. I’m not familiar with that title, but this is the problem with asking this question, as I always end up with an ever-expanding to-read list. But it’s always fun. It never ends. It never ends. Oh, the final question. And normally, of course, I’m speaking to homeschool moms or parents and educators, but I thought I would still ask you this question just from the perspective of your experience as the homeschool student. Do you have any tips or what would be your best piece of advice for turning around a homeschool day that seems to be going all wrong?

Millie Florence: I do have tips for that, because like I said at the beginning, I’m the oldest of five siblings. So not only have I experienced for myself homeschool days gone wrong, I’ve seen it in my younger siblings. And my biggest tip for that would be either to read, like do a read aloud together, or take a walk, or both. I think it’s often we need a break. And if you come back to it after you’ve given your brain some time to decompress, it will go so much better. I also think doing something like reading together, specifically parent and child, is so important for homeschool in general, but especially if it’s a frustrating moment. I think that process of experiencing a story together reminds you that you are in it together, if that makes sense.

Amy Sloan: Yeah, it really brings the focus back on that relationship, that shared experience, that we’re on the same team, right? Sometimes we can forget on the hard days. Yes, for sure. Well, Millie, where can people find you and your books? All around the internet.

Millie Florence: Yeah, absolutely. So the place to find everything you need to know about me and my books would definitely be my website, millieflorence.com. And then through there, you can learn about all my books and you can pre-order Beyond Mulberry Glen. Please, please pre-order. Pre-orders are so helpful when a book is coming out. And if you pre-order, you will get some free pre-order goodies, which include some Beyond Mulberry Glen-themed stickers, a bookmark. All of this has, like, the lovely art from Astrid Sheckles on it. And a book plate that I signed, so you can stick it in the book when you receive it and you get a signed copy, which is super exciting. So millieflorence.com for that. And then I am also on Facebook and Instagram if you want to follow my journey there. And I have an email newsletter if you’re not a social media person.

Amy Sloan: Okay. And I will have links to all those things in the show notes for this episode over at humilityanddoxology.com. I can imagine a pre-order, even though you won’t have the actual book, you could get the, like, pre-order goodies or make, like, print out the cover and make a little, you know, make your own family book certificate or whatever. Stick it in a stocking for a kid for Christmas. That would be such a fun idea. So I hope that lots of families will get to read your new book and follow your journey. And I’m sure you will have many more books for us in the future.

Millie Florence: I certainly will.

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