Guest Post + Giveaway: LM Preston

I am excited to host a guest post from upcoming YA Sci-Fi author LM Preston. Her book Explorer X- Alpha is slated to be released February 2010. I am receiving a review copy of this book and will post my review once I get it but am going to go ahead and get this up so you guys can have a chance to enter and spread the word.

Book Summary, to start (straight from the email she sent me):

For most kids, a trip to space camp is a trip of a lifetime, for Aadi it was life altering. After receiving a camp immunization needed for travel to Mars, Aadi finds that the immunization is the catalyst of an insidious experiment. Lucky for him, he was engineered to survive, thrive, and dominate. Without realizing he is being trained to conquer worlds, and manipulated under the guise of a camp, he unfolds the plot too late for a change of fate.

And now for her guest post:

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 breathes 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 the missing kids on her world that comes out Fall of 2010.

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

Thanks for stopping by with this! I have to admit, it is great that you are including your family into this in so many ways despite it being your newest passion. I am excited to read this book- especially since a big driving force behind the story is building strong leading characters.

LM Preston is also giving me the chance to give away a copy of her upcoming book.

This one is going to end at midnight CST Sunday, December 27. Anytime before that and that is just one more package adding to the influx in the postal system anyhow and what a nice post-Christmas gift for someone, right? I will post the winner Mon or Tues after that, depending on when I come back from my brother's house.

Good luck!

To enter, please fill out this registration form. Details on extra entries, etc are all in the form but it is the standard stuff - follower, side bar, blog roll, blog post, etc. Good luck!