God’s timing is not always ours, but I’m so glad He decided to intersect my life with Michael Hendrickson. Michael is part of our local writing group, CHARIS, and he’s such a fun friend to have in my court. He has turned his wife into a fan of my books, and I love promoting his, even though the genres are very different. He writes children’s stories (as well as other things, as you’ll see when you read his book spotlight below), and his newest book released last week. It looks to be a great one. See what you think.
I began writing poems as a teen to try and help figure out all those new emotions teenagers experience. I also wanted to impress a girl. I did not learn fast enough that poems will not impress a teenage girl and the results were not the impressions I wanted to be expressed. I wrote my first play in 3rd grade. My teacher also allowed a classroom newspaper that I was involved with. As an early teenager, I was on our junior high’s yearbook staff and by the time I graduated I had a plot for a movie. The children’s books were originally to be for subsidizing my income so I could work on the movie idea.
I had no idea that when the Fruitee family was created I would wind up having three sons. My boys are as different as Frick, Fred, and Baby Frack (an apple, and orange, and a cherry). Daddy Rudy and Momma Trudy are pears because I had a pair of parents. My father always worked an acre garden at home, growing vegetables and fruits of all different varieties. We had red apples and yellow apples, pears, plums, a cherry tree, pecan trees, chestnut trees, and grape vines to go along with corn, tomatoes, okra, watermelon, cantaloupe, peppers of all sorts, cabbage, strawberries, potatoes, beans, peanuts (one year), carrots, lettuce, squash, and the like. To me, it was all just ‘the garden’ and everything in it belonged.
I tried for years to find a publisher. I received numerous rejection letters that often stated, ‘No unsolicited material accepted’. I had to research what that meant and soon began trying to find a literary agent or attorney. Meanwhile, I had the opportunity to be a contributing writer to a couple of magazines, an occasional submitter to Smyrna’s local newspaper at the time, and have three poems published in literary anthologies. In 2012, I was serving on our local Senior Activity Center’s board of directors and ended up in charge of a mystery dinner fundraiser. My big mouth suggested we have a show to go along with the spaghetti dinner and the rest of the board thought it was a wonderful idea. They also thought I should oversee the project.
I wrote my first mystery-comedy play based in the 1940s and the Senior Center sold out two shows. The Center’s director announced a Christmas fundraising play in three months at the end of the second show; before asking me if I would try to write another play. I currently have a cannon of eight mystery-comedy dinner plays that have helped raise funds for local non-profits, schools, churches, and even a baseball team. I have been blessed having helped these organizations and I stand at the back of the venue and watch the guests laugh at the silliness.
During one of those shows, an author with WordCrafts Press was in attendance. After literal decades of trying to get my children’s books published, the Lord placed me across the table from the owner of a publishing house. No literary agent was present when he agreed to publish my first book. I learned that my timing and God’s timing are set to different watches. If I commit myself to the Lord and use the gifts He gave me, he watches while I wait. My first Fruitees book was published twenty-seven years after I wrote the story. My fourth is due very, very soon. I am told by my publisher that the fifth and sixth installments will be birthed in 2027. I am very proud of The Fruitees Overcome the Bully. I was bullied for six years in school. I did not take any of the advice offered in the book. I endured, but did not overcome. I hope this children’s book helps other small kids be overcomers. I have learned with the Lord, patience comes to those who wait.
The Fruitees Overcome the Bully
Frick Fruitee enjoys playing with his friend, Pamela Plumer. When the kids are approached by the garden bully, Corey; Frick has to think fast. He and Pamela receive some good advice to help them and their families overcome the bully.
The fourth in the growing series, The Fruitees Overcome The Bully is written by Michael Hendrickson and illustrated by Carlita Becker, released nationally late summer 2026 from WordCrafts Press, hits home with a topic that many children are forced to endure.
In this installment of the series, the reader is introduced to Frick Fruitee’s friend, Pamela Plumer, and to the garden bully, Corey. The author says the story is about friendship and using good judgment in difficult situations. Addressing situations that kids deal with in a positive manner need more attention. Overcoming is a process and is built using building blocks of guidance and thinking through the situation.
The story is geared for elementary school readers and family story time, and is a continuation of the series that includes 2019 debut, The Fruitees Have Some Family Fun, 2021’s The Fruitees Encounter The Pickers, and 2023’s adventure The Fruitees Experience Tummy Trouble.
“Children’s picture books is one tough genre to work in,” says WordCrafts Press publisher, Mike Parker. “But author Michael Hendrickson is a natural storyteller with a knack for creating engaging characters that children love and parents can relate to.”
The Fruitees Overcome the Bully is available in both hardback and trade paperback formats and is published in the U.S. by WordCrafts Press and distributed globally by Ingram Content Group, the world’s largest distributor of physical content.
Copies will be available on multiple online platforms that will include: WordCrafts Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Wal-Mart.
You can find Michael Hendrickson on Facebook and you will be able to purchase autographed copies directly from author.
Michael Hendrickson makes his home in Middle Tennessee and is an award-winning poet, a newspaper and magazine contributor, a playwright and The Fruitees Overcome the Bully is his eighth published children’s book. In addition to ‘The Fruitees’ series, titles include: Dingle the Flatulent Reindeer (2015), Dingle El Reno Flatulento (2017), The Adventures of Mighty Matt & Hedidit (2021), and Backseat Heroes, The Adventures of Mighty Matt & Hedidit (2024).