K.J. Wilde has traveled through exactly zero interdimensional portals (that they remember), but did once get spectacularly lost in a corn maze for three hours with only a half-eaten granola bar and an increasingly skeptical golden retriever for company. When not writing about children who forget their own names while jumping between impossible worlds, K.J. can be found counting things that don’t need counting, adjusting their glasses every forty-three seconds while doing math, and trying to remember if they prefer coffee or tea in the morning (it changes daily, which is suspicious).
A firm believer that the best adventures happen when you ignore sensible advice like “stay in the yard,” K.J. writes from a cluttered office where Post-it notes with cryptic reminders like “Mom’s birthday!” and “847 miles!” and “BEWARE THE FORGETTING” cover most surfaces. Their own children have been specifically instructed never to follow strange dogs into mysterious caves, though they’ve noticed Scout—the family’s rescue dog who definitely isn’t from another dimension—sometimes stares at corners of rooms where nothing exists. Probably.
K.J. lives with their family in a house that has exactly 2,847 steps from room to room (if you count them right), makes pancakes with slightly burnt edges every Sunday, and has never once forgotten a birthday. The shadows in the backyard are completely normal and definitely not watching. The Portal Seekers series is K.J.’s debut, though they swear they’ve written other books—they just can’t quite remember what they were about.
K.J. Wilde 