Guest Blog & Contest--LM Preston

My guest blogger today is LM Preston, author of YA sci-fi book Explorer X-Alpha, the first in a series. Her book will be out in February of 2010.

WHY I WROTE EXPLORER X – ALPHA

It all started on a long car trip to Florida. My husband, kids and I were on our way to my ‘Happy Place ’, better known as Walt Disney World.

Anyway, while on this long drive, my husband turns to me and says, “You should write a book. You loved to write when we were younger and you haven’t written since.”

I thought about what he said and replied,” Well, I did try to write that one book, but it was boring and didn’t keep my interest.”

Then he told me,” You should write science fiction. You like it, and you work in the IT field. That way you have no boundaries, you create your own.”

That was a pivotal point in my writing career. He told me to think up something and share it with him. Well, let me tell you a little secret about my husband. He is a big science fiction fanatic, and has comic books, graphic novels galore. He watches it and breaths it. It was the ultimate challenge, because I knew that he is a very opinionated person that would not hold back his comments to save my feelings.

I pondered over it so much that I ended up dreaming up Aadi one night. I saw his face, his mischievous smile and thought, “What is your story?”

The next day I thought about Aadi while at a traffic light, and thought up his adventure, by asking myself, what adventure would I want to do? Well after Aadi whispered his idea to me, I was ready to write about him. Later that week, wouldn’t you know it, my husband asked me about my story idea.

I told him, that I had an idea about a boy who’s parents force him to go to space camp only for him to discovered that he was being experimented on so that he could go to any planet, adapt to it, then dominate it. The best moment I can think of was when my husband’s face broke out into a grin and he said, “Write that!! I haven’t read anything like that before.” Little did I realize that Aadi’s discovery would become a series of adventures.

As an avid reader, I get bored fast with books that are long and drawn out. Therefore I wrote this book for my kids to enjoy. I depend on them greatly to critique my work, and believe me, they don’t hold back.

Writing about teenagers is a passion I have because that was the most tumultuous part of my life. I felt deeply, experienced a lot, and overcame enormous trails in my teenaged years. I survived and so can my readers. I wanted to show that strength in my characters, their adventures, and their victories.

WHAT NOW

I am working on the follow-on series to EXPLORER X – Alpha, and just completed the final edited copy of THE PACK, an edgy YA series about a girl who saves her world that comes out Fall of 2010.

By: LM Preston, Author of EXPLORER X – Alpha, www.lmpreston.com

Contest
comment on this post to be entered into a contest to win a copy of Explorer X-Alpha and a poster! Winners will be announced on the 30th of November!