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Interview with Helen Digges Spivey

Published 2014-10-22.
What do your fans mean to you?
They are people like me who love manatees and want their children to know all about them, their special needs, their gentleness and in this modern fast world their shrinking habitat that needs protection.
What are you working on next?
An eBook where Tepee and his Mummy and all their friends get Three Sisters Springs. But might do an eBook on Three Sisters Springs and its astounding beauty with a photographer friend of mine.
What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
The fact that I'm 86 and alive and in love with the life I live.
When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?
I have a bonsai collection I love, and a yard that needs to get rid of its lawn. I'm filling it with Florida native plants of any and all kinds. I also Co-chair the Save the Manatee Club with Jimmy Buffett. And also President of the Florida League of Voters Education Fund.
And then there are my two loves Boogie, my little silky terrier, rescued from a man who brought him to my vet to see if he was healthy enough to feed to his snake. Vet found Boogie had a fungus that would harm the snake so guy said to get rid of him and I was secretly called and told to come and get him. And now I have a Maine Coon cat who wandered up to my front porch as a kitten, came in and stayed. Since it was near Christmas I named him Nickie the Cat. He's more like a dog. Won't come to calls of "Kitty, kitty" but will answer to a whistle.
Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
Sure. It was Tepee the Manatee, a book that needed to be written so people could see that the need for knowledge aabout manatees survival needs was the only way this endangered species was going to survive. I used the old adage "To know it is to love it."
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Books by This Author

Tepee the Manatee's Christmas Wish by
Price: $3.50 USD. Words: 5,010. Language: English. Published: October 10, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Family / General
A delightful book for children and adults, filled with many actual underwater photographs of manatees to help tell the story of a little manatee, Tepee, and his adventurers finding a home to make his Mummy happy. Manatees, an endangered species need winter waters 72 degrees or warmer in the winter to survive. You'll cheer him along while he finds the place and wonder at the love he finds too.
A Florida Bird Dog ~ Rex by
Price: $3.50 USD. Words: 15,790. Language: English. Published: October 10, 2011 . Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Autobiographies & Memoirs
(5.00 from 5 reviews)
This short non-fiction eBook is a snapshot of the late 1920’s - 30’s in Florida through its Boom, Panic and Bust. It is entwined with a child’s love of a bird dog who loves to hunt quail. From a ruined Easter feast, brought on by the book's hero, Rex, to losing their home and starting over in the woods without running water, they faced each situation with a "can do" innovative attitude.
Tepee the Manatee by
Price: $3.50 USD. Words: 6,080. Language: English. Published: September 6, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Young adult or teen » Family
(5.00 from 6 reviews)
A story for the curious, the young and those who are young at heart --- with photos. It follows the underwater adventures of a little manatee calf, what it must learn about itself, and where it must live. Or as Tepee would put it, “live as an ‘in-danger’ species.” A glimpse of a life cycle that might be all but gone before you have a chance to read this book to the next generation.