BECOMING THUPERMAN is almost here! Yay! It's been a while, hasn't it? I mean--last time to this dance was for FRIED WINDOWS. Those were the formative years of Pandamoon Publishing. Everything was new and a learning experience. Lots of potential and growth. Great books, but also some misfires along the way. Through it all, PM survived and evolved.
I mention that because somewhere in all of that BECOMING THUPERMAN was born. Well, really, the first inkling of an idea for the book originated during a trip to Illinois I made in early 2012. I visited my daughters in Champaign, IL. To get there I rode a bus from Chicago O'Hare and it stopped in a small town called Normal that is on the northern fringe of Bloomington. At the time, I was texting with my dear friend, Dee, who I knew in grade school and reconnected with in 2008 via social media. She asked where I was. I told her Normal. She said, "You're nowhere near normal." Yeah, she had a point. I'm a writer, after all.
Anyway, that is where the idea to use the oddly named town as a setting for a book. The actual concept for kid superheroes waited for a while to hit me. In an as of yet unpublished story about Brent Woods, the main character of FRIED WINDOWS, when he was in college, There is a bit of dialogue that references a cape-less crusader who talks with a lisp. Why cape-less? The dry cleaners lost it.
So, are you getting an idea how ideas evolve in my mind? It's kind of messy in there, but eventually things fall together for a story. SO the kernel of an idea, using Normal, IL as a setting, predated writing the rough draft of FRIED WINDOWS by about two months. Then, while writing backstory for the main character in FW, I had a passing thought about a spin-off character for the fictionalized world in the alternate universe where Brent lives, along with many other characters I've created.
From the outset, there was a tangential connection between BT and FW. I suppose that's natural since I was working on the substantive edits for FW when I started writing BT. Like FW, BT grew from a series of posts I contributed to a writing community that provided almost immediate feedback. A few months later I revised he rough draft and it became a manuscript. I was delighted when Pandamoon decided to acquire the book. It meant validation, as in FW was not a fluke and, as an author, I wasn't a one hit wonder.
BECOMING THUPERMAN is launching worldwide 2/28/17. Here's bit about it from the Press Release:
"BECOMING THUPERMAN introduces Will and Sandra, two precocious eight-year-olds who hail from Normal, Illinois with vivid imaginations and a shared love of baseball. There are not one but two reputedly haunted houses in their neighborhood. One is occupied by the alleged grim reaper and his sister, considered the neighborhood witch, along with a Rottweiler that may be demonically possessed. The other old house is vacant but seriously creepy. Over the course of a single week of summer vacation, the kids’ world and their roles in it change dramatically. You see, they may seem fairly normal but in truth, they are just beginning to discover their super powers," Said Zara Kramer, Publisher of Pandamoon Publishing.
"BECOMING THUPERMAN is a fun read with well-developed characters, realistic dialogue, and a mysterious undercurrent that leave us wondering whether trolls dwell under children’s beds and ogres hide in their closets. Williams is a master at taking the superficially ordinary, turning it over before your eyes, and transforming it into a fascinating read, always leaving you wanting for more. After reading BECOMING THUPERMAN you will believe everyone around you may actually be a superhero in disguise,” Kramer added.
Hold on tight and enjoy the adventure. There is always more to come.
