Today on In the Middle, we are speaking with Louise Galveston, author of By the Grace of Todd.

Todd’s room borders on Hoarders-level messy. We’re talking Roomageddon here. When his mom gives him the ultimatum to clean it or miss his best friend’s birthday bash, Todd makes an amazing discovery: he has created an entire civilization of ant-sized people from the sheer grossness on his filthy sock. The “Toddlians” put their faith in their all-powerful creator, but can the kid who can’t even keep a hermit crab alive save them from Max Loving, the biggest bully at Wakefield Middle School?

By the Grace of Todd is available on Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Indiebound, and bookstores near you.

Q&A with Louise

What draws you into writing for a middle grade audience?

I was an early reader, but it was the books I read during my middle grade years that inspired me to want to actually try new things. You know, eat fried worms (I attempted this, but couldn’t bring myself to swallow it down!), write everyone’s secret lives in a spy notebook, and sleep with my feet on my pillow, a la Pippi Longstocking. Somehow I never quite got away from my middle grade self. She’s still chasing crazy dreams and trying to figure out where she belongs in the world. Only she’s usually disguised as a twelve-year-old boy. My sense of humor is definitely stuck in sixth grade!

If you had a time machine and could visit middle grade you, what would you tell her?

Keep your head in the clouds, Dreamer. Don’t listen to the “cool kids” who want to clone you into one of their followers. Don’t give up playing the trumpet, drawing, riding horses, or dancing. You won’t have buck teeth forever, Bugsy. Even though you think tiny town Kansas is the end of the earth, don’t despair, your future husband is on that dusty yellow bus, right across the aisle from you. (I think I’d hold back the part about having eleven kids to give the husband a fighting chance.) 🙂

Choose your own adventure: Is there an interview question you’d love to answer, but haven’t been asked?

If you could spend a day with any author, who would it be?

I’d like to go back in time and hang out with Lucy Maud Montgomery. I’d pick her brain about writing humor and yet being such a genius with setting… in my mind she’s the consummate writer. I’d also like to show her how much her work would impact the world and encourage her in her last days.

Great interview questions, Heidi! Thanks for having me, this was fun!

Thank you, Louise, and congratulations on your launch!

Louise Galveston grew up on horseback in the Midwest. The only thing that could pull her out of the saddle was a great book or a game of Star Wars. The lone girl in her neighborhood, she always got to play Princess Leia, thus her mad lightsaber skills. (Yes, she had the cinnamon roll side-bun hair.) Louise even cleaned her room on occasion, but never found anything but a rogue hamster under her bed. Louise still lives in the Midwest. When she’s not writing, she directs children’s theater and dabbles in watercolor. She is proud to say that some of her eleven children have inherited her horsey genes and all of them love Sea-Monkeys. (Her first obsession with tiny creatures.) Connect with Louise on her website or a special website created for By The Grace of Todd, twitter, Facebook, or Goodreads.