How RESCUING MARA'S FATHER, a science fiction adventure, Came About #sf #MG by Diane Burton

I love reading authors' accounts of how a story came about, what inspired them to write that story. Wish I could tell you how Rescuing Mara's Father came about. Like many of my stories, I'm sure my Muse whispered in my ear while I was in that twilight between sleep and awake. She does stuff like that.

I didn't intend to write a children's book. Until I shared it with my daughter (a middle-school teacher), I thought I was writing a Young Adult novel. She said, no, it's middle grade (ages 9 -12). Huh? Groan. I didn't know anything about MG stories. 

So off I went online to read samples of MG books. Holy smoke! She was right. The sound, the adventure, the characters. Middle Grade. I did more research, looking at other stories that my grandkids (ages 11 and 9) read. Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. Say what? The Hobbit? 

That's when it hit me. When I taught sixth grade, I read A Wrinkle in Time and The Hobbit to my students. (If my teaching days weren't so far behind me, I would've read Riordan's books to those kids.) I've read the Percy Jackson series, I loved the Harry Potter books. I did know MG stories.

As I reread Rescuing Mara's Father, in preparation to sending it off to my editor, I recognized the elements that made it a story that would appeal to that age group. The ages of the characters (16, 15, 11), friendships, camaraderie, high stakes, a life-death adventure. I'd instinctively written a Middle Grade story. 

At last, a book my older grandkids could read. They know I'm a writer. They've "approved" my covers. They also know they have to be older to read my books. Now, they won't have to wait so long.

Because Rescuing Mara's Father is still a work-in-progress, here's the tentative blurb:

My father is gone! Taken by the Queen of Compara’s agents. I have to rescue him before the Queen tortures and kills him.

Never mind, we’ve had a rocky road lately. Instead of the kind, loving father I’ve always known, he’s become demanding, critical, with impossible expectations—not just as Father but also as the only teacher in our frontier outpost. I’d rather scoop zircan poop than listen to another boring lecture about governments on Central Planets. Give me a starship engine to take apart or, better yet, fly, and I’m happy.

Never mind, Father promised I could go off planet to Tech Institute next month when I turn fifteen, where I’ll learn to fly starships.

Never mind, I ran away because I’m furious with him for reneging on that promise. Father is my only parent. I have to save him.

Every weekend, I share snippets from Rescuing Mara's Father with the Weekend Writing Warriors. Pop on over to my blog tomorrow to read the next snippet.

Friday Night Science Fiction

Wow. Just as the major TV stations go into summer reruns, the Syfy channel takes over Friday night.

First up, “Defiance” is back for the third season. The two hour season premiere brought more violence and another set of aliens in and around post-apocalypse St. Louis, named Defiance. Since my mom was from St. Louis and I still have family there, I started watching two years ago. I liked the premise of an older human man protecting a young alien girl in a wild-west type town. Then things got weird last season with a “demon child” inhabiting the young girl and getting her to murder a whole lot of people. Even though the demon is gone, people in Defiance don’t much care for the girl. Imagine that. As it says on syfy.com, new villains, new aliens, new threats.

Next is “Dark Matter.” Get set for an adventure with six people (2 women, 4 men) who woke up from stasis on a starship with no memory of who they are or their mission. As if that wasn’t enough, when they explore the ship, they’re attacked by an android who then figured out their destination. The characters name themselves after the order in which they awoke. If you’ve read any of my books, you know I love adventure, especially with some humor. Character Five (Anthony Lemke, Whitehouse Down) brings comic relief to intense situations. The creators of this new series created all the Stargate series, so this ought to be good. Questions abound. What happens when they find out who they are? Are they the good guys or bad?

Next Friday, another new series starts. “Killjoys” is an adventure show about a trio of intergalactic bounty hunters. None of them sounds like Stephanie Plum. LOL One of the characters is played by Aaron Ashmore who played Jinks on “Warehouse 13” (one of my favorite series) and appeared in “Murdock Mysteries” (another favorite). Luke Mcfarlane (from “Brothers and Sisters”) and Hannah John-Kamen round out the cast. From the cast descriptions, this sounds like it will be a fun adventure.

It looks like Syfy is on a roll. My DVR is set so I don’t miss any of these shows.

What shows will you watch this summer?

Diane Burton writes romantic suspense combined with action/adventure, either here on Earth or in space. Her newest book THE PROTECTOR, an Outer Rim novel, will be released this summer.