How has writing the Kingdom Keepers books changed your life?

Writers create worlds where the imagination is set free to roam. Sometimes that world is down the street, or inside your home. Sometimes it is a world of hope or despair. As writers, we buy into our own creations. What has been compelling about the Kingdom Keepers series is the ability to translate a world that already exists, but a world where imagination is already built into it: they realm of Disney. It is such an honor to be given the access I am given, to be allowed to “push” the boundaries of what’s already there. I strive to treat the material with the respect and even reverence it deserves. I hope to embellish one’s Disney experience––not ever attempting “to improve” or even come close to what is already there.

​For me, this world, this series, continues to excite me as a writer, to take me places I’ve never been (but have dreamed about going, creatively) to give me license to open my imagination and travel to new and unusual places with people (my characters) I’ve come to love and feel as friends, and enemies. I’m ever grateful to my readers and to Disney to let me take this ride.

Is the Escher Keep real?

Escher’s Keep is one of the few fictionalized attractions in the books. I did visit the apartment but wanted to come up with a more interesting way to reach it.

Is Wayne a real person?

Wayne works as a loader at Splash Mountain. If you see a white haired guy loading on log…that’s him and you can ask him. He is retiring mid 2014, so hope you get a chance to meet him before he goes!

How did you come up with the Kingdom Keepers series?

I was fortunate to be asked by Disney to create an adventure book that takes place in the Disney parks.

The idea came to me when I came out of the Magic Kingdom with my family and I looked back to realize all the guests were leaving but the characters were staying behind. I had a “Toy Story” moment. When the door to Andy’s room closes, the toys all come alive. It occurred to me that when we all leave the parks, and the characters have not, that there’s stuff going on in there that we don’t know about. What I envisioned was a battle for control of the parks between Disney’s “wonderful” villains and his princesses, princes, heroes and characters. It was into that world I threw myself as a writer and out came the Kingdom Keepers.