Welcome to Friday Reads!
Enter to win a print copy of Phooey Kerflooey vs the Wonderful Wallow by Kristen Joy Wilks, courtesy of the author, by using the Gleam link at the bottom of the post. (US ONLY!) (Contest ends September 4, 2026) If you’re the chosen winner, I’ll contact you for your information to pass along to the author.
About the book…
Phooey Kerflooey loves the wonderful wallow. It’s muddy. It’s squishy. It scratches her itches and gives her a beautiful coating of royal muck! In fact, when her boys teach her the command to “find home” Phooey runs straight to the wallow to roll! The wallow is her forest home, her muddy home, the most wonderful home in all the land!
But when a semi-truck becomes lost on an old logging road and a scary deer chases her people deep into the woods, it’s up to Phooey to brave the dangers of the wild and lead the way back. Fuzzy forest animals become fearsome while terrifying grasshoppers lurk behind every tree and bush. How can Phooey discover the best path forward to save her people, rescue the lost truck, and find home?
Theme verse: Isaiah 50:10—Who among you fears the LORD and obeys his servant? If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the LORD and rely on your God. (NLT)
Q&A with Kristen…
Q: Tell us about the latest installment of Phooey Kerflooey.
A: Phooey Kerflooey vs The Wonderful Wallow uses some real family stories that involve animals and takes a closer look at perceived risk vs actual risk and how to trust God in situations where it is difficult to trust because we think we know what is going on. Phooey finds herself trying to lead her people home through the woods and encounters a variety of wildlife. She is so interested in the forest wiener dog (a weasel), a pretty baby elk (with a scary momma), and of course must help a Newfie pup find his tail (it’s not a Newfie pup!). Phooey gets bit on the nose trying to sniff a weasel, but is terrified of a baby grasshopper! What’s a puppy princess to do? Some of the family stories that inspired this Phooey Tale are: the time a squirrel bit the neighbor’s dog on the nose, when a momma elk picked up a dog by the scruff of its neck and tossed it away from her calf, and of course that one day that my grandmother tried to call her dog away from a bear . . . only to have the bear come, too!
Q: What is the main message or lesson you want readers to take away?
A: I would like readers to walk away from Phooey Kerflooey vs The Wonderful Wallow with a new confidence that God loves His children and is looking out for them, even when it doesn’t seem like it!
Q: How long does it take you to go from a blank page to a finished book?
A: I write the rough draft of my books in a single month and then I spend at least a year editing. After editing, I send the story to my critique partners, edit again, send it to my editor, and edit a couple more times. From blank page to finished book can take as long as seven years or be as quick as a single year, depending on how many edits the story needs.
Q: Do you know the ending of the story before you start writing?
A: Yes, I know the ending of the story before I start writing . . . if all goes well. I outline very carefully before I write any words. However, sometimes my outline doesn’t work and I will end up adding chapters I didn’t plan or even changing the ending. For the book I’m working on now, Phooey Kerflooey vs The Mountain of Yum, my editor told me that the story didn’t work at all. I ended up cutting the entire second half out of the book and saving it for a new story. Then I had to write a new second half for my story that made more sense. It was crazy, but the book is going to be much better because of all that hard work! And guess what? Phooey meets a Shetland pony in this book that is based on my own childhood pony who liked to escape her corral and eat spaghetti noodles out of the compost pile. Lord willing, that story will be released in September.
Q: Who is the inspiration behind Phooey Kerflooey?
A: The black puppy is Princess Leia Freyja, the Newfoundland that first inspired Phooey Kerflooey and the black and white puppy is our current dog Nessie Grace Karu who is giving me a ton of great ideas for the Phooey books!
About Kristen…
Kristen Joy Wilks writes from a remote mountain meadow that alternates between quiet and chaos. The mom of three sons, an orange cat, and a giant Newfoundland dog, she lives with her camp director husband at Camas Meadows Bible Camp where she is photographer and camp storyteller. Kristen once climbed a tree and snuck into a church through the balcony to return a library book (and check out another) and has been pursuing stories ever since. Her writing highlights the humor and grace God gives amidst the detritus of life. She can be found tucked under a tattered quilt at 4:00 a.m. writing a wide variety of implausible tales or at www.kristenjoywilks.com.
“Phooey Kerflooey vs the Wonderful Wallow” by Kristen Joy Wilks
Rules for the giveaway can be found here.
Thank you for offering such a nice book.
You’re welcome. It’s a fun series. Good luck!