Farmer Abe finishes his third children’s book, hard at work on fourth book

Abraham Keyes, better known as Farmer Abe, has recently finished his third children’s book titled “Kitty the Goat and the Puppy,” and is already hard at work on his fourth book. Between the writing of his first book, “When Donkey the Chicken had Baby Ducks” and now, Keyes has seen a number of changes in his life and new opportunities he never would have dreamed about in the past.

Keyes had been working on his third book for a little over a year, both writing and working with his illustrator and a new printing company. “I’ve been dealing with them for the last six months, going back and forth, trying to get my book together,” Keyes explained. “They’re on their way. I haven’t gotten the third one back yet, as the bulk shipment is stuck at port right now. They’ll be in port till March 20, and I’m hoping to get them in time to do a big release before Easter.”

Shown is Abraham Keyes, known as Farmer Abe, who recently completed his third children’s book, “Kitty the Goat and the Puppy.”

Keyes said that he was also behind schedule on writing his fourth book, but has managed to complete it this month and is now meeting with his illustrator next month to begin working out the details for the art. During all this, Keyes has also been busy at work attending various events and readings where he can promote his book, as well as working on more personal projects, such as a fundraiser in honor of his friend.

“I had someone pass away that had a key part in me writing my first book,” Keyes explained. “They were the one who asked me to take on the ducks which laid the eggs that I put under my chicken, The fundraiser eventually earned enough for 565 books which were donated to Nemours Children’s Hospital just before Christmas. “They told me they were all going to be donated to the baby wing, so that was huge,” Keyes explained. “Being able to do something like that because of my books was huge. And every book that we donated had a sticker put on it that said ‘give a book for Jimmy’.”

Keyes also started doing other fundraisers, one of which he plans to use the proceeds to go to a classroom and provide children with books and do a reading for the class. Currently, Keyes is seeking teachers to enter a drawing for these books and has encouraged his social media audience to leave comments of teachers they know for this event.

“This definitely wasn’t something I ever dreamed about,” Keyes mentioned about these opportunities. Keyes never planned to write the first book initially, and now he’s looking ahead at writing more books in the future. “It’s been life changing for me. This is where I want my career to go, where I want my life to go,” Keyes said. “I’m so excited and humbled by the opportunity to really keep doing this. It’s become a dream, where it wasn’t when I started off, and now I have dreams within this industry that I’m hoping to see happen. This five book series that I started on is now looking to be achievable.”

Keyes mentioned that while the fourth book in his series follows along with the theme of his other books, his fifth book is going to be different. “If I did one book, I knew I was going to do a series from the get-go. It’s always been in my head, right off the bat, four stories that I for sure knew about,” Keyes elaborated. “The last book I always knew what it was going to be: it’s going to be different. The first four books you see Farmer Abe and his barnyard animals, while the last book is about ‘Little Abe,’ and talks about kind of where this all started.” Keyes mentioned that this book is going to focus on his start with animals, particularly raising a baby horse, and that the story is the most personal to him.

Keyes also mentioned that he’s excited to see what happens after the Farmer Abe series is finished and has given thought to possibly expanding to include more stories from his childhood to offer more stories for children to relate to. Keyes, born in Montana, spent several years of his childhood in Paraguay.  He mentioned that he has so many memories that involve different species of animals that served as pets, that he’s thought about sharing and introducing them to children in America that might not have the chance to encounter those animals or the ability to learn about them. “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life,” Keyes said, “Now I’m just excited to see where the future goes and where it leads me.”

While Keyes has mentioned that he might expand outside of being a children’s author in the future, he’s going to remain focused on children’s books for the foreseeable future.

With so much time that’s passed since he first started writing, and a number of changes in his life from when he first offered advice, Keyes provided advice for potential authors and those looking to getting into writing. “There’s so much learning as you go, that I find to be so important in the process,” Keyes explained. “There’s so many things that can’t be foreseen or predicted. In my mind, I’ve kind of made it, I’m not necessarily the rookie with the first book anymore, and I went into this third book thinking I understood the process and what to expect. And yet… this third book has been the most challenging book for me to date as far as getting it published.”

Keyes said that it has been a never-ending learning experience, and he encourages others to “take that shot, take that chance. Chase that dream.” Despite difficulties and learning processes, the results and the outcomes have been more than rewarding to Keyes. “And it’s more than just writing a book, you know,” Keyes said. “You take that into every aspect of life; you want to make a nice chicken coop, you want to work hard to buy something you want. Who’s keeping us from chasing our dreams other than ourselves? That’s definitely been a motivator for me to keep going. The things I’ve gotten to experience from writing a children’s book have been life changing, and I can’t put a value on it.”

If you’d like to stay up to date on the many adventures of Farmer Abe, you can check out his Facebook page: named “Farmer Abe and his Barnyard Animals”. Keyes’ books can be found at local bookstores across Delmarva, at the agricultural museum in Dover, and Keyes also encourages people to reach out to him if they’re interested in buying a book, especially if they’d like a signed copy. Keyes plans to attend numerous vendor events throughout the year, with two local events in Bridgeville including the Apple Scrapple Festival in October, and the Inspiring Project’s Impact Festival in September.