Mom’s Choice Awards is excited to announce another post in our interview series where we chat with the inventors, designers, publishers, and others behind some of our favorite family-friendly products.

Hello, Mom’s Choice readers, and welcome to another interview in our ongoing series. Today, we sat down with author and nature-lover Robert Provan. His Florida Keys book series—Sammy & Scarlett’s Coral Reef Adventure, Kiki & Slugger’s Magic Spring Adventure, and Sammy & Scarlett’s Mango Adventure—let kids explore the wonders of the natural world and the importance of the interactions between humans and other species we share this planet with. With these Mom’s Choice Award-winning books, he hopes to inspire families to go outside and see in person the ecosystems near them.

MCA: Robert, thanks so much for joining us today! Won’t you start the interview off by telling us something about yourself?

I am a lifelong nature lover who, from an early age was drawn to the sea and the animals that live within it. When I was four years old I joined my family for a transatlantic cruise. At the age of 5, I told my parents that I would join the Navy and get a parrot tattoo. After high school, I did both. My Naval travels across the Pacific and Indian Oceans fed my love of the ocean in epic fashion. After graduating from college, I continued traveling and exploring the reefs of Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean. I studied martial arts for several years and phased out of that to help raise my two children and grow my career in commercial construction. Having been an avid snorkeler from a very young age, I took up scuba diving to more effectively explore and interface with the inhabitants of the marine realm’s coral reefs. After more than 20 years, scuba remains my passion and preferred recreational pastime.

MCA: What inspired you to become an author, and how have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

The main constant in my life has been my unwavering love of the natural world. I am a nature nerd, as it were. Not surprisingly, then, when my 5-year-old daughter Alexandria asked me, “Where do clouds come from” I took the bait and began telling her the story of the water cycle. She then asked me to tell her 5-year-old best friend the same story. Next came requests from young nieces and nephews. I knew then that I needed to do more with this story. This was the impetus for my first book, Ronnie the Raindrop.

MCA: So you’ve always had important messages about the world around us to share. And what do you hope readers will take away from your books?

I hope that young readers and their families will understand, after reading my books together, the natural world around them and the importance of working together to help protect it. In that regard, my books serve as a multi-generational environmental protection call to action.

Mine is but one voice of many sounding the call for appreciation of nature and how imperative it is that we all do our parts to help protect it. There is much work to be done, but there is also cause for great hope. It is also important for families to spend time together in nature—not online.

MCA: What do you find most rewarding about the writing process—and what are some of the challenges you face?

The writing process for me is an outstanding opportunity to opine about my favorite topic, the natural world and its inhabitants. Words come easily when I am in the zone. One of the main challenges for me as an author is dealing with people who hypocritically try to explain how they are here to help or care about the project when, in fact, they are smoke-and-mirror frauds who care about little else other than their personal egos and bottom line.

MCA: How would you say your books contribute to promoting family-friendly values and enhancing the lives of your readers?

The goal of all my books is to encourage young readers and their families to put down their electronics and read together about the natural world and the importance of working together to help protect it. I am of the opinion that there are few more valuable life lessons than this to share with generations to come.

MCA: Can you share any memorable moments or feedback from readers that have touched you or reinforced the impact of your work?

I find it very rewarding to do book readings for school children. Feedback from them after the reading is very enlightening. You can also tell by the questions asked how engaged the children were. Additionally, all my books are written so that they can be initially read to younger children prior to the children knowing how to fully read themselves. One family bought my first book to read to their young twin boys. The dad reached out that his sons wanted to be read Ronnie the Raindrop at least twice a week. Once the boys got old enough to read, this was the first book that they selected to read back to their parents. Priceless. In general children are very much drawn to the animal characters from all of my books.

MCA: What advice would you give to aspiring authors who are just starting their writing journey?

My advice would be to put the idea(s) that are in your creative mind down on paper without editing them first. Get the ideas down and then evaluate, fine-tune, and polish them later. My experience has been that once you start writing, more words will flow naturally. Overthinking and over-evaluating your thoughts first can hamper your natural creativity, in my opinion.

MCA: Can you tell us what’s next for you and your writing?

I have another children’s book in the works. It’s too early for much detail, but expect more marine creature fun in the magnificent Florida Keys.

The project on the top of my list now, though, is the manuscript for an adult fiction adventure novel. The manuscript is 98 percent complete. My thought process is, “What are adults going to do while their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews are reading my kids’ books?” How about a novel for grown ups?

MCA: Robert, clearly your writings about the natural world resonate with young readers and provide valuable lessons for them to live by. We wish you the very best in future endeavors!

You can learn more about Viviana Falleti and her award-winning Owning the Dash book series by visiting his MCA Shop page.