What a year this has been! We're getting close to the July release date for my latest novel, Hero Academy, which is set in the Just Cause Universe created by Ian Healy at Local Hero Press. He's opening it up as a shared universe, and I have the honor of having the first JCU book not written by Ian himself.
Hero Academy was inspired by my short story "Dax and the Red Eyes," which came out in the anthology Caped a few years ago. Dax is a severely disabled and non-verbal little boy with extraordinary super powers. When people read his story, they asked for more--more of the world he lived in, more about his disability, more about what happened after the end of the story.
Dax isn't the protagonist of Hero Academy, but he plays a significant role, as does his older brother, Zayden. The main character is Chloe, a 14-year-old gymnast who recently sprouted dragonfly wings.
In creating the cast of characters who inhabit the high school for parahumans, I decided to have some fun--I used the names of a lot of people in my life. It started with the students. I wanted names that sounded realistic for the age group but didn't sound like they all came from the same person. I realized that my cousins kids (and mine) are all in the right age range, so I put them in, along with my niece and nephews. So when you meet Jacob, Ava, Charlie, Solomon, Bridger, Jack, Clara, Austin, Justin, Miguel, and Kaci, you'll know where the names came from. (Not the personalities, though! Someone had to be the mean girl of the freshman class, right?)
I also put my own kids in there, but I didn't use their first names. My son came up with a great super power--the ability to make drawings into 3D objects--so I based the character with that power on him and used his initials, L.J. We've always teased my daughter about having a sonic scream, so the character with that power is Rhiannon, which is her middle name.
I fell so in love with using these kinds of names that I eventually put in all my cousins and their husbands, my own husband, my sister, and a friend's little girl. An uncle managed to slip in there, as well, and a good friend's last name.
A friend of mine with encyclopedic knowledge of superheros helped me with the pitch to the publisher that made this book happen, so I put him in, too. He's a tech teacher in real life, so his character fills that role at the Hero Academy. Thanks for all your help, Mr. Hutson!
While I was working on Hero Academy, The Pen & Cape Society (which I'm a member of) put out a call for short stories for its yearly anthology. I decided to write the backstory of a character from Hero Academy, and that story is "Impulses." It appears in The Good Fight 4: The Homefront.
I love writing of any kind, but I have to say, writing about teenage superheros is the most fun I've ever had at the keyboard. I'm looking forward to these story getting out to the public, and I'm also looking forward to writing more in the JCU.
Of course, that will have to wait until I finish the third book in the Veil series, Traveler Hunted, which is currently about half written.