Lucinda E. Clarke on Writing an African Adventure as Her Own Boss

Our well-traveled guest talks about how retirement led to the freedom to create a character close to her heart. Please welcome Lucinda E. Clarke, author of Amie: An African Adventure.

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Stories of My Own Choosing

by Lucinda E. Clarke

After thirty plus years writing for other people who knew what they wanted, and my eager compliance (despite the propaganda) which allowed me to bank the cheque and support two children, one husband and a St Bernard with a voracious appetite; when I retired I became my own boss. Finally I could write what I wanted.

Enter Amie Fish, the shy, quiet, rather spoiled, newly-married first world girl living close to family in the London suburbs.

It was time to drag her out of her comfort zone and send her to Africa. I gave her a while to settle in, make friends and discover the beauty and majesty of the Dark Continent.

Then the first crisis arises as she’s coerced into filming, first propaganda for the government, and then the results of atrocities that signal the coming civil war. When the hostilities break out in the capital she gets caught up in the fighting and lands in prison. From then on it’s a struggle to survive.

I’ve drawn on my extensive experience of Africa in all three of the Amie novels. I was so fortunate to go where few tourists or residents ever go, from witchdoctor’s huts to chief’s kraals, to meeting royalty, presidents and peasants. I was often the only European for miles around as I worked deep rural with my filming crew.

As Amie lurches from one crisis to another throughout the series she learns to toughen up. All the rules, morals and mores she learned as a child do not apply to Africa. She sees a totally different mindset, a new set of guidelines she’d never imagined. She makes friends, is betrayed by others, loses everything and begins a new life. She is forced to work for those

Lucinda E. Clarke

who will kill her if she does not obey. She changes from meek housewife to trained killer, someone who no longer officially exists, facing dangers she would never have envisaged.

Yet despite everything, the country and the peoples take a hold on her and won’t let go. She’s in love with her adopted continent, mentally she’s trapped and realises that ‘while you may leave Africa, Africa will never leave you.’

My biggest inspiration for writing the series is to share the truth about the real Africa, to share with people the raw, savage reality besides the warm, friendly people and open the readers’ eyes to a very different world.

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Learn more about Lucinda E. Clarke on her website.

Sign up for her newsletter here.

You can purchase Amie: An African Adventure on Amazon.

Launch Day for YOUNG ADVENTURERS #YAlit Anthology

You know what makes a great holiday gift for a teen?

A book!

(I bet you already knew that.)

Here's a nice new one to consider:

Intrigue Publishing presents YOUNG ADVENTURERS: Heroes, Explorers & Swashbucklers, a collection of exciting YA stories in a variety of genres.

I'm delighted to say that my science fiction story, "Toori's Constellation," is included in these pages.

Find it on Amazon, BN, and other major online retailers. Enjoy!

Fun #SciFi #Kidlit from Rob Sanders: OUTER SPACE BEDTIME RACE

Science fiction for children? Yes, please. We definitely need more of that. Today Rob Sanders talks about the big adventure he wrote in a little book called Outer Space Bedtime Race. (Seriously, can you pack any more fun into a title?!) 

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Tucking Kids into the Whole Solar System

by Rob Sanders

I am so pleased to share the story behind the creation of my new book OUTER SPACE BEDTIME RACE, illustrated by Brian Won. Our book was recently released by Random House Children’s Books. Brian and I are both grateful to our editor, Maria Modugno, and our art director, John Sazaklis, for their incredible work and support.

My vision for this book began when I had the idea to create a bedtime story that my great nieces AND great nephews would love and wanted to have read over and over again. I wanted to create something that wasn’t pink and sweet and butterfly-filled. I wanted something edgy and active and maybe even a tad creepy. Something different, but something that would still get kids ready for bed.

Honestly, my great nieces (like many girl readers) are easy to please and just love books in general. But my great-nephew, Jack, well that’s a different story. I knew if I could come up with something that Jack liked, his sisters would like it, too. I made a quick list of topics with boy-appeal: robots, monsters, dinosaurs, aliens. Aliens! Immediately the idea of an alien getting ready for bed stood out, and as I researched the market I couldn’t find any bedtime books with or about aliens. Now I don’t want you to think this was a long, drawn out process. This whole process occurred in an hour or so. Then the real work began.

My first stab at a manuscript followed one alien through his bedtime routine. As I explored that idea I couldn’t decide if Jupiter or Mars or Saturn or another planet might provide the most story and illustration possibilities. When I couldn’t decide which planet to focus on, I did what any reasonable person would do—I decided to use all the planets and explore a different bedtime activity on each planet. Since my story was focusing on earth kids going to bed, I knew I wanted to start the story on earth and circle back around—or orbit—back to earth.

I soon decided that rhyming was the best mode for telling the story since it would add to the bedtime appeal of the manuscript. I started listing planets, bedtime routines, and words and phrases that would add life to my crew of bedtime aliens. I also started researching non-fiction facts about the planets that I could write into back matter for the book. As a teacher, I know how parents, teachers, librarians, and kids love those tidbits of fact that often accompany a story.

After a few drafts and taking the manuscript to my critique groups, I fired it off to my agent, Rubin Pfeffer. Rubin gave some suggestions for revisions and we worked back and forth a bit. Rubin decide to submit exclusively to Maria Modugno. She quickly took the manuscript to acquisitions and within a few weeks we had a deal. Brian Won was soon brought on as the illustrator. Maria and I worked for several weeks via phone and email examining and revising the manuscript line-by-line. From ideation to research to writing, revising, editing, illustrating, and printing the entire process has taken right at two years.

OUTER SPACE BEDTIME RACE has been released and is soaring out of book stores! Brian and I are enjoying launching our book in book stores and libraries, creating resources to support the book, and promoting our book in various ways. As a matter of fact, you can view our book trailer to get a taste of outer space bedtime adventure. 

Now all that I have left to do is to give Jack, Madi, Libby and their new brother, Lincoln, their copy of OUTER SPACE BEDTIME RACE!

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Learn more about Rob Sanders on his website and his blog.

Purchase Outer Space Bedtime Race on Amazon, BN, and other retailers.

Tom Williams and his Historical Secret Agent, James Burke

Today's guest, Tom Williams, tells us about the research and inspiration for his historical adventure, Burke in the Land of Silver. Ladies and gents, meet James Burke....

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Years ago, I wrote a 19^th century historical novel that attracted interest from publishers but was generally regarded as too "difficult" for a first novel. My agent (yes, I had an agent then) said that I should write a more straightforward historical adventure in the same period. It made sense, but I like writing stories that are strongly based in historical reality, so I had to find a real life figure I could base an exciting story on. A friend who knows how much I love Argentina suggested that I look at Europeans who were in South America in the early days of that country. Thanks to her, I discovered James Burke, a little known spy for the British around the time of the Napoleonic wars. Burke’s story had everything: war, espionage, beautiful women and an evil villain.

I've taken a few liberties in the telling of the tale but the plot of what became Burke in the Land of Silver is mostly either definitely true or very well could be. As I had already visited Argentina several times, I was writing about a place that I knew and I made a couple of extra trips to research places that were particularly connected with James Burke. That meant the opportunity to ride out with the gauchos on a cattle ranch and a trip on horseback up the Andes, besides the usual visits to museums and historical sites in Buenos Aires.

The story is set around the British invasion of Buenos Aires in 1806. It’s a little known – and not particularly impressive -- part of Britain's colonial history. The book gave me the chance to tell the story of a military adventure that few people will have heard of.

What I tried to do, having got this historical background accurate, was to write a modern spy story but set two hundred years ago. James Burke was to be my James Bond. I have always thought that Ian Fleming was a great writer and that his books are a model of how to write a thriller. Like Bond, Burke is nominally in the armed forces. Bond is a naval officer, Burke is in the infantry. Like Bond, he is a flawed hero: a snobbish womaniser, always with an eye to the main chance. (I’m not saying he has exactly the same flaws as Bond, but there's certainly an overlap.) In the end, though, we admire him because he is brave, loyal, and, when forced to choose, will ultimately do the right thing. It helps that he’s good looking, an excellent rider, multi-lingual and a crack shot.

Does it work? Well, I enjoyed writing it and, more importantly, I enjoyed reading it when I had to check the finished product before publication. I wouldn't claim that it's up to Fleming's standard, but I think it compares well with some of the stuff that’s been passed off as James Bond since Fleming died. I’m not really the person to say, though. Why not read it and decide for yourself?

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Learn more about Tom Williams on his blog.

Burke in the Land of Silver is available on Amazon as a paperback or on Kindle.