Meet Kayla

Kayla Garnett Cook is a high school English teacher.

When Kayla was twelve, she found herself acting out scenes, inspired by TV shows...in the shower. (It's only weird if you make it weird.) She decided to start writing down these scenes, venturing out on her own ideas. But then writing became something more: a hobby. 

In the summer of 2014, Kayla knew she wanted to write a story about a fictional band because she was interested in the idea of life on the road. She had played around with other plots that involved single parents, too, and she wanted to combine these ideas with hope in Jesus being the foundation of everything she’d create. At only thirteen, Kayla wrote the 43,000 words of the first version of GreenButton. The narrative followed the five band members’ perspectives. 

Kayla went on to attempt two other versions of GreenButton in 2016 and 2020, but neither one of the narratives seemed right. In fact, Kayla had almost given up on the characters and developing the plot all together. 

But one day in the spring semester of 2021, while procrastinating homework, she tried again. 

Something within Kayla’s gut told her she had to share the members of GreenButton with the world, so she began to look into self-publishing. The best advice she has ever received is: “Tolerate anxiety” because she knew there would be hiccups along the way if she decided to publish a novel. 

When Kayla added up the steps of self-publishing, she treated every milestone as a mini goal, also giving herself deadlines. The first step was to finish the first rough draft of the manuscript. It hadn’t taken long for Kayla to realize that to self-publish well, she would need financial support to hire editors, a cover designer, and other costs of publishing. With a little hesitation and toleration of anxiety, she took the risk of launching a Kickstarter campaign in September of 2021. Her goal was funded in only nine days by the gracious support of friends and family. 

GreenButton was published in 2022. Click here to buy GreenButton.

And her latest novel Ope! is available now!