Author felt called to write

By Jessica Coleman
Staff Writer
    It was just a little brown box that made it all real. Heather Spears Kallus wasn’t even the first person to touch that box. Her daughter was. Seven-year-old Lyla checked the mail that day, and she found it. Lyla knew what was inside.
    Inside that box, in a way, was the rest of Kallus’ life. A book, titled Gabriel’s Golden Key, was waiting to escape from the box, and with it, Kallus’ official new title, Children’s Book Author. Officially being an author has a way of  making everything seem new again. You can’t un-be an author. Once you’ve written a book, you will always be one.
    “Your books!” screamed Lyla. “Your books are here!”
    “It was surreal,” said Kallus. “I quickly opened the big cardboard box and I was so teary-eyed. I just looked at it and held it. I saw my name at the bottom as the author, and flipped through all the illustrations and just looked at all of the words, and everything was just right.”
    Gabriel’s Golden Key is dedicated to Kallus’ three children, Reed, Autumn, and Lyla, and follows curious bookworm Gabriel, a gregarious, rhyme-loving boy and his friend Elah Minnow, a friendly, devout little fish, on an mission to find a mysterious object that Elah calls a “golden key.” Through adventures, faith, and rhyme, the pair seeks out the key.
    “Gabriel was always wanting to learn new things and he was named after the angel Gabriel,” said Kallus, “So he has a fondness for angels. That’s one of the poems in here. He wants to know ‘What do angels do in Heaven?’ I know my kids are always asking questions.”
    Kallus didn’t always plan to be a children’s author. She just felt called to write. She didn’t even know what. 
    “I just felt a call to be used as a writing instrument,” she said. “I didn’t know where or for what, but I did some praying and said ‘you know, I love words,’ and I prayed to God ‘just put whatever you want in my path and I’ll say yes.’”
    Soon after, a writing opportunity was dropped right in front of her.
    “A friend started a website and she asked me to do some little stories, so I started there, started small. Then she moved, and wasn’t going to do the website anymore, and I thought ‘you know, I still want to write.’”
    From there, Sips of Sunshine was born. Sips of Sunshine is Kallus’ blog, and it’s where her poetry and other musings are published. She began entering her poetry in contests, winning a national contest and having another poem, A Military Heart, read at the Golden Gate National Cemetery Veteran’s Day Ceremony. She was, a little at a time, gaining success with her writing.
    Sips of Sunshine is aimed at happiness. It is inspirational poetry and stories. Kallus decided that because she blogged for adults, she could write a book for children, and Gabriel’s Golden Key began to form in her mind. She started to combine the inspirational writing she loved with the mind and curiosity of a child. Slowly, it came to fruition.
    It took a year after the publisher accepted her manuscript for it to be in her hand. Back-and-forth emails contained comments like “can you change the look on the fish’s face?” and “ Can Gabriel be looking this way?” Kallus, admittedly, was meticulous, and she said her publisher, Page Publishing, was patient and understanding and then, suddenly, there it was and Lyla was screaming “Your book! Your book!” 
    Gabriel’s Golden Key can be purchased on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com, and her blog found at www.sipsofsunshine.blogspot.com.
    Kallus will be signing books all over South Texas in upcoming weeks. She will be at The Flag City Market in Edna on December 10. 
    Kallus attributes a lot of her success to listening to God.
    “If you hear God knocking on your door, just answer it,” she said, “You don’t know what he has in store for you but it’s going to be an amazing ride. You have gifts and talents that he wants you to use. Do it.”

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