Featured Member: Taurean J. Watkins

Tauren J. Watkins has been a member of the KidLit TV community for almost a year. He delights his fellow members with trailers he makes for his favorite books with animal protagonists. Also, his extensive knowledge of sourcing music for book trailers has made him a great asset to the group. He truly goes above and beyond to help support writers who are in need of inspiration or a kick-start to their writing.

Taurean — Taury to his friends — is an author, cook, animal lover, and children’s literature activist. If you think Charlotte’s Web and Redwall are the last word in animal tales, stay awhile, you’ve much to learn …

Taurean hopes to reach the hearts of readers in an effort to have them understand how animals affect us in many different ways. Taurean has devoted his life’s work to inspiring his audience to help support animals through fundraisers, communities, and his personal journey as an author.

Children love reading about animals and the adventures they go on, but as Taurean has noted even adults enjoy discovering new stories about the animal community. He hopes to take the genre to the next level and inspire authors of all ages to write about the fun and adventure-filled lives of animals. Have you read a story about a seeing-eye dog who did an amazing act to save his master’s life, or a cat who brought out a shy boy’s true colors? A dream of Taurean’s is to see more of these stories come to life. Taurean’s debut novel for middle grade readers, Gabriel, is in development through Alten Ink.

When Taurean’s not writing he does triple duty as the creator, founder, and editor-in-chief of Talking Animal Addicts (T.A.A.), a multimedia initiative launched on December 10, 2010 to bring respect and reverence to all things fantastical fauna! Taurean’s mission on T.A.A. is to entertain, educate, and inspire other writers who work hard to achieve their goals. Visitors will find up to date news about the kid lit writing community, contests, reviews, and videos. You’ll also discover T.A.A. Cares, “an initiative to help authors and other content creators bring their passion projects to fruition.”

KidLit TV salutes Taurean for being an advocate for his writer and animal pals!

Watch these book trailers created by Taurean!

Photograph provided by author.