Anthony Walls on writing Rolling Into Bed

Di Angelo Publications sat down with Anthony Walls, author of Rolling Into Bed. We asked him about his writing and himself. Here’s what he told us:

DAP: Can you give us a brief synopsis of your book?
Anthony: Rolling into Bed is a children's picture book about a young girl who is scared of the monsters under her bed. But through using jiu-jitsu, she remembers she has what it takes to face her fear, and she learns how respect gains her friends along the way.

DAP: What was the inspiration/motivation for writing your book? 
Anthony: These are things I want to teach my children.

DAP: What is the key takeaway you want people to have after reading your book? 

Anthony: Jiu-jitsu is fun, and respecting others is important.

DAP: What inspires you? 

Sacrificial love.

DAP: What does your writing/working space look like? 

Anthony: I work in any place I can open the laptop—usually the couch during the kids’ nap time. 

DAP: What are you learning/listening to/reading right now? 

Anthony: Learning: Jiu-Jitsu every day on the mats

Listening: The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Reading: The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy and Kindred by Octavia Butler

DAP: Are there more books in your future? What about? 

Anthony: I hope so. I’ve written scripts for two episodes of a graphic novel for teens and older. It's about a young girl who loves jiu-jitsu and deals with life lessons in each one. 

DAP: How do you select the books you want to read? 

Anthony: That's a good question . . . I probably use a handful of criteria. If it's going to open my mind to others' perspectives, teach me something useful, is well informed, and is fun, that's probably the quadrangle of literature I look for either in fiction or nonfiction.

DAP: Is there a book that you’ve read multiple times? What is it, and why do you keep going back to it? 

Anthony: The book I wish I had time to read multiple times: East of Eden by John Steinbeck. For me, I enjoy how he encapsulates so much of the human condition in the various characters of this book.

A book I actually read multiple times: Anything from the Harry Potter Series after introducing our kids to them, because we LOVE reading these as a family at night.

DAP: Share one fun fact about yourself, something that your readers would never guess. 

Anthony: love baking pies, shout out to Lauren Ko and her book Pieometry for blowing my mind this holiday season.