Authors have other lives as well. MaKenzi proves it.
Please, introduce yourself. Tell us about your personal life, family, education.
My name is MaKenzi Fox. I am not only an author, but a teacher as well. My first book, Jerry the Giraffe: Quiet in the Classroom, was inspired by my experiences as a teacher. I love reading my books to my students. I am 25 years old and it has always been a dream of mine to write and publish books.
When I was 7 years old, I wrote my first children’s book titled The Dress I Made, in which my teacher wrote my parents a letter stating that I should publish my work, and if not, that one day I would be a children’s book author. She was right, and I am happy to say I finally went through with my teacher’s life-prediction of mine.
Before publishing my first book, I spent most of my time being wrapped up in the dance world. I danced competitively from the age of 8-23 and captained my senior year on the collegiate pom squad. Aside being an author, I like to stay very busy with my other pursuits. Entrepreneurship is a strong passion of mine—I own two businesses, Foxy Tans, a spray tan company, and Level Up All Stars, a competitive dance program.
My family is also very important to me, and I spend a lot of time with my mom, dad, brother, my dog Lila, and grandparents. We all live 5 minutes away from each other. It would not be surprising to know that since I am a teacher, education is a priority of mine. I attended Oklahoma City University from 2016-2020 and was on a full-ride scholarship for both academics and athletics. While in college, I studied accounting and marketing as well as taught dance full time. After receiving my degree and working in corporate America, I missed working with children so much that I decided to pursue my alternative certification to become a teacher in the great state of Oklahoma. I taught 3rd grade for 2 years and will be teaching 1st grade next year. When it comes to life goals, I plan on still living my Oklahoma life– teaching school and dance, running my businesses, and publishing my second book, The Day Cara Cut Her Bangs, in December.
Other Ventures
If you are active in career fields other than writing, what do you hope for the future of that business? Describe your work or business activities in which you are presently active.
I have a lot of ventures and interests outside of being an author! I am a full-time teacher, and I also own two businesses—mentioned above—which I have owned both for 4 years.
My hope is to continue teaching, learning, and loving on my school kiddos– although they most likely do not realize, they are a huge impact on me—and I love my job and all my students. As for the businesses, I plan to grow Foxy Tans into the largest and most well-known spray tan company in Oklahoma City. We have already made great strides in doing that, as we are the official spray tan sponsor of the Miss Oklahoma’s Outstanding Teen organization.
For my dance program, Level Up All Stars, my hope is that we continue to remain a top 5 nationally ranked program (ideally top 3), and I am crossing my fingers that we get another chance to go to the World Dance competition. Like I mentioned before, within 4 years, Level Up has won a state title, has placed top-five nationally over 4 times, and we received our first ever bid to the World Dance competition last season. I have high hopes for my program, and we continue to “Level Up” each year.
Do you have hobbies? How did you get started in them?
I have a lot of hobbies! I love to dance, fish, ride my jet ski, do Pilates, and cook. I started dancing when I was 3 years old. I started dancing because my mom was a dancer and dance teacher herself. I am trained in ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, and hip hop. Around the age of 8, I started to take dance more seriously and became a competitive dancer. Dance has always been a huge part of my life and I continued to dance competitively until I graduated college. In college, I was able to be the captain of my pom team and I was a 4x All-American dancer in the NAIA college division. I still carry the love of dance with me.
Although I am a city girl at heart, I also love the country. My family grew up with a lake house at Lake Eufaula, so I have always liked to do many outdoor activities. I started fishing at the age of 5, started riding jet-skis when I was 13, and I, of course, love to ride my Polaris with my dog Lila. These are still activities I like to do as they bring out the country in me.
In the city, I like to take Pilates class as well. It is one of my favorite workouts as it is truly a full-body workout. I was a Pilates instructor for a year before becoming a full-time schoolteacher. I also have a little bit of southern-flare, as I was raised with southern parents and grandparents—so cooking some good home-cooked meals is a must in my life.
If you are a writer, are you an avid reader?
Of course. As not only a writer but an educator, I believe that readers are LEADERS! I usually read 10-20 books per year. Currently I am reading The One and Only by Emily Giffin and my favorite book I have read this year is Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
What inspired you to write your first book?
My first book was inspired by my own classroom management strategy I like to call the Jerry the Giraffe method. Last summer, I was enrolled in an education course required for my teaching degree. Our professor had asked us to talk about some of our favorite classroom management strategies we used in the classroom, in which I told the class about the Jerry the Giraffe method. She then replied and asked, “Oh, that sounds neat. Is that method from a children’s book?”
In that moment, I knew that Jerry the Giraffe was going to be the focal point of my first children’s book. I love how my book turned out and feel that the story line is a great representation of the Jerry the Giraffe method I use in real-life inside the classroom.
The Inspiration
How much of your books is realistic and experiences based on someone you know, or events in your life?
So far, most of my books are inspired by real-life experiences from the classroom. As I mentioned, I am a full-time teacher and spend a lot of my time in the classroom—kids are quite interesting, and they can ignite excellent book ideas and story lines.
My first book Jerry the Giraffe: Quiet in the Classroom, is inspired by my Jerry the Giraffe classroom management method. In the classroom, I use a hand symbol I call the Jerry the Giraffe sign, and the students will do the hand sign back to me, signaling that it is time to be quiet and listen to instructions. My book builds on this story line, as it features Jerry the Giraffe himself. Jerry gets tired of all the noise inside the classroom, so his teacher Ms. Fox comes up with the Jerry the Giraffe sign and teaches it to his fellow students. My book is a fun read for students’ kindergarten-2nd grade and serves as an excellent resource and tool for teachers to help quiet down his/her own classroom.
My second book was inspired by one of my students. Last year, I had a very fashionable student in my class—she was always dressed to the nines and was clearly with the style trends. One day, she came to school with bangs and completely changed her style! Her new look and style were night and day from how I had seen and known her to be each day at school. Even though her new style was different, it was still on-point and super cute. She went from wearing girly colors and ponytails, to bangs, hair down, and black colored dresses and shoes– most likely inspired by Wednesday Addams. Once she changed her outfit, her classmates changed her name too. One day while I was driving back to school, I knew that this would be the perfect story line for book #2, which is titled The Day Cara Cut Her Bangs. It is set for a December publication and release.
Do you remember the first book you read?
I do not, but I remember my mom reading to me every day growing up! She always read me stories that had animals in them, such as Diary of a Wombat, If you Give a Pig a Pancake, and Bear in the Big Blue House books. It is not a shocker to myself or my family that my first children’s book includes animals.
For New Authors
When you see new authors struggling, what single piece of advice could you give them on a moment’s notice?
My simple yet effective advice is to not give up. As a highly competitive person by nature, I have always believed that you must fight for what you want. Clearly, if you can come up with a story, write a book about it, and follow through and publish it, you have something of value there. Do not second guess yourself—believe in your gifts and abilities and the world will, too.
Do you have a blog or website viewers can visit for updates, events and special offers? Include links to any and all of your sites.
Amazon Link to Purchase- https://a.co/d/7uKIB70
Facebook- MaKenzi Fox – Author
https://www.facebook.com/MaKenziFoxAuthor
Instagram- @makenzifoxbooks
TikTok- @books_by_makenzi_fox