Future Hack follows Lexa, whose prank propels her into Thistleton Academy for Highly Creatives, where she strives to unravel the school’s mysteries and prevent an impending extinction event. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I set out to introduce readers to environmental justice issues and to explore climate change and their feelings about it—so sending Lexa off to a green school gone rogue created an opportunity to explore these themes. The story’s opening prank quickly establishes the long term friendship between Lexa and Jack and sets the stage for the appearance of Norbu, a time-traveler from the future. Norbu has come to recruit Lexa to help him prevent an impending extinction event. Setting the extinction event in Norbu’s timeline enabled me to introduce the urgency of the climate crisis while giving agency to the young activists to change the future. Thistleton’s takeover by a nefarious corporation enabled me to tell a complete story while leaving the corporate villain intact for future books in the series.

How did you approach integrating themes of nature and environmental stewardship into the narrative of Future Hack?

I approached this from several angles. Lexa’s parents work in the field of environmental protection and reminisce about their education at Thistleton Academy (back when it was the bastion of green education). Due to their backgrounds, they naturally encourage their daughter’s activism around environmental and social issues. The theme of environmental stewardship is also introduced through its absence. For example, Norbu travels from the future to seek help due to an impending extinction event. One of the school’s teachers, Mr. Mathis struggles emotionally with the loss of the green curriculum at Thistleton. In addition, the kids uncover evidence that Thistleton is engaging in environmentally damaging activities. Toward the end of the story, the team creates an edtech portal “Mission: G.A.I.A.” to recruit team members to help them accomplish the critical missions that are essential to protecting the future. On the last page of the book, readers discover a QR code that takes them to the Mission: G.A.I.A. website. The site is designed to support ecoliteracy and activism and extends the educational potential of the book.

Can you share insights into your process for creating the Thistleton Academy and its role in the story?

Thistleton Academy served a number of purposes. As a literary device, it brought the team together quickly and removed the kids from their parents’ guardianship—granting them a certain amount of autonomy and adding an element of danger. As an institution, Thistleton plays a large role in the story because it introduces the importance of creativity and the “green school” as a preferred approach to education, albeit an approach that has been lost due to a corporate takeover. Thistleton introduces readers to the negative impacts corporate takeovers can have on people and the environment. Escaping and exposing Thistleton is a worthy first advesary for the team. It serves to introduce Chronnite Ltd. as the corporate villain which the team will encounter more directly in future books. Finally, Thistleton Academy is a commentary on public education which is failing to nurture relationships between students and the natural world and failing to teach environmental stewardship.

What can readers expect in the next book in the Chronicles of G.A.I.A. series?

In the next book, the team sets out to investigate the disappearance of the jaguars and discovers Chronnite is engaged in poaching and habitat destruction. Young Indigenous activists play a central role in the story and their sacred technology of shamanism is important to the story’s outcome. Readers will learn more about Norbu and his future which makes the second book a bit darker. However, readers will learn more about anticipatory thinking and techniques to combat eco-anxiety.

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