First-time author crafts a series of environmental adventures for young readers.

Dressed in an octopus-themed shirt, Luke Kilpatrick seems to embody energy and entrepreneurship. The Sand City-based scuba diver, photographer, surfer and boater, puzzle books creator, graphic designer and software developer finally found a way to employ all these talents.

On this particular day he carries three volumes of Mia Kingtide’s Ocean Adventures, a series of books for children and young adults he authored, with ocean protection and marine biology as the main subject. The series’ heroine, a red-haired environmental enthusiast named Mia Kingtide, was 10 years old when the series began. She is based on Kilpatrick’s daughter – also named Mia, age 7 – who is always the first reader and judge of Kingtide’s adventures. “These are our bedtime stories,” Kilpatrick says.

Father and daughter drew inspiration from the Emily Windsnap series of mermaid books by Liz Kessler. But as Mia Kilpatrick observed, the mermaids live in the ocean but are so focused on their relationships that they don’t seem to see the ocean and its problems.

Luke Kilpatrick decided to change that. He created Mia Kingtide, a girl who gets the gift of communicating with the sea creatures, and quickly released three volumes of the series, all in 2025 and self-published: The Octopus’s Gift, Guardian of the Coast and Journey to the Sea of Cortez.

“I heard it’s best to publish the first three volumes quickly,” Kilpatrick says, adding he is working on the fourth.

The series, which starts with Mia rescuing tangled sea life and cleaning up polluted waters, already has a following online. The seriousness and complexity of the plot grows with Mia – now 13 in the series. Older Mia keeps her childhood gift, but addresses real issues, such as climate change, overfishing and habitat destruction.

“One thing that is important to me is the positive outlook,” Kilpatrick says. “I’m not interested in the ‘world is going to end, everything goes to hell’ narrative. We want to create hope.”

Kilpatrick is currently working with the Western Flyer Foundation, the guardian of the legendary fishing boat that took John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts to the Sea of Cortez. (Mia Kingtide books were on board during the restored vessel’s recent journey back there.)

When he is not writing, Kilpatrick manages his marine-themed vacation rental, The Ocean View in Sand City.

The MIA KINGTIDE series can be purchased online.

This article was modified on Aug. 29, 2025.