Starting my new blog is the perfect place to explain how my novel came about – something my family and friends must already be bored with.
Some background: as a teen and young adult I only read a handful of authors and genres: romance, mystery, or classics. At that transitional age I felt anything described as teen, young adult, or childrens were too young; refusing to even look down those aisles at my local bookstores.
When the Harry Potter books began filling end-caps; I placed them firmly in the “too young” category, which I wouldn’t acknowledge. Then the first movie hit theaters − and being the movie enthusiast that I am, I watched it: loving it. Immediately afterwards, I sought any information available about the movie. Discovering the series of books, in which I had already written off, as an avid reader they were intriguing to me. I bought the first book: I was hooked. J.K. Rowling opened up a whole new world of teen and young adult books for me, though I was still skeptical about many out there; eventually falling back into my old favorites.
Now you may wonder what that has to do with my plot, well after reading several Harry Potter books I thought to myself “I can come up with a fun story like that.” Of course, I didn’t – not right away at least. I did imagine a sci-fi idea with potential, but there wasn’t enough substance to warrant a full novel and I didn’t even start it.
Several years later with that small idea in the back of my head, pushing it around my mind, trying to craft enough to write about, continuing to have little to go on; a dream involving a rescue mission by several tough individuals filled my night, remaining vividly pictured until morning. Going over this interesting dream the next day, it occurred to me: a similar plot and characters could provide the material I was looking for to enhance my sci-fi spark.
From there I needed a destination, thinking of a summer trip I went on one year, realizing it would be best to write what I know; I was happy with the results. Then a background idea from ancient stories rounded out the rest of what I required.
I was finally excited about writing my story and telling everyone I knew about this great idea. I received some polite encouragement but mostly confused expressions (mainly from the “light” readers or those unfamiliar with young adult books.) Yet, I wasn’t discouraged. I was ready to write.
Throughout my life I’ve come to realize I’m a much better writer than speaker so I put fingers to keyboard: a year later I’m close to completion, thrilled about my story, moving forward to finishing it, with aspirations of getting it published.
When it’s completed I hope everyone will love it as much as I do!
Thanks for reading my blog. Let me know what you think.
A.G. Zalens
A. G. Zalens 