Today I’m really happy to welcome Iain Reading to the blog talking about his series for young adults – Kitty Hawk. Thanks so much Iain!
Tell us a little about the inspiration behind Kitty – it seems as if a lot of old school heroines have kicked off the concept -what started the story in your head?
What started the story off in my head was Kitty Hawk’s name itself. Kitty Hawk is a town in North Carolina where the Wright brothers flew the very first airplane, so when I first thought “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a book about a teenage female pilot named Kitty Hawk?” the whole story just kind of snowballed from there. Where would Kitty Hawk come from? Of course she would have her own plane, but what kind of plane would that be? And where would she fly with it? Every piece of the puzzle just fell into place, like dominoes stacking themselves up. And all I had to do was struggle to race along behind the ideas trying to get them down on paper into books. I am still struggling, by the way, on book number six (and seven and eight and beyond…).
It is a series for Young Adults – however Young Adult fiction for me is one of my favourite things to read even though I’m (ahem) older, do you hope that the stories will have a wider appeal than simply the target audience? If so, as a writer, how do you go about tackling that?
In writing the Kitty Hawk books I always try to include some kind of information and feel for the exotic places that she visits. And then, in the course of things, I try to introduce some kind of mystery that is based on real history or real-life events that is somehow connected to each geographic location. The end result is a kind of virtual-travelling of the world and I think that’s something that is not only enticing and exciting for young adult readers, but also for (ahem) older readers as well.
Can you tell us a little about the first adventure for Kitty? Just a little taster….
Well, in the first Kitty Hawk book you find the heroine still trying to figure herself out and trying to decide what to do with her life. She comes up with an ambitious project for the summer to track humpback whales in Alaska, and although it is a lot of hard work and effort, she follows it through to the end. That project and the crazy and sometimes frightening adventures that come of it give her confidence and even more ambition and that’s when she decides she wants to fly around the world.
Lets find out about you in 6 little life questions.
* Tea, Coffee or other?
Root Beer!
* Real Book or E-book?
eBook (I am ashamed to admit….)
* Bacon Sandwich or Muesli?
Bacon Sandwich!
* Summer or Winter?
Winter!
* No 1 on the bucket list if you have one
This year I would like to meet Captain Kirk from Star Trek.
* What one skill would you like to have that you do not?
I would REALLY love to be able to create visual artworks, like the covers of the Kitty Hawk books. I can visualise them and tell some very talented artists what I am looking for, but I would love to be able to create that kind of amazing artwork for myself.
Thank you so much.
About the book:
This first book of the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency Series introduces Kitty Hawk, an intrepid teenage pilot with her own De Havilland Beaver seaplane and a nose for mystery and intrigue. A cross between Amelia Earhart, Nancy Drew and Pippi Longstocking, Kitty is a quirky young heroine with boundless curiosity and a knack for getting herself into all kinds of precarious situations.
After leaving her home in the western Canadian fishing village of Tofino to spend the summer in Alaska studying humpback whales Kitty finds herself caught up in an unforgettable adventure involving stolen gold, devious criminals, ghostly shipwrecks, and bone-chilling curses.
Find out more HERE
To Purchase Kitty Hawk clickety click HERE
