In Journey to Antares, two teens become pioneers in space exploration when drawn together by a mysterious radio message from a distant star. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I’ve presented educational programs for nearly 10,000 elementary students in schools, libraries, planetariums, and at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum to teach them about space science and history. The most common question I get from the students is, “Are aliens real?” To address this possibility, I wrote Journey to Antares as a science fiction story about how people might respond someday if we ever found proof of alien intelligence in the form of a radio message from space.

What character did you enjoy writing for? Was there one that was more challenging to write for?

My favorite character to write for was VISTA the robot. She’s the most logical and intelligent, but she also enjoys writing songs and speaks in musical tones as she did in my TV series, Space Quest with Dr. Jim. VISTA cares very deeply about PIPER, the other robot, but she is careful not to let him know her feelings as she chides him for his silly jokes. The most challenging character to write was PIPER the robot who was learning about humor, since it wasn’t easy to come up with so many space-related jokes for him to test out on the other characters.

I find that, while writing, you sometimes ask questions and have the characters answer them. Do you find that to be true? What questions did you ask yourself while writing this story?

The biggest question I had was how to justify the selection of teenagers Tommy Cosmo and Laura Starr to be the most qualified researchers to design the new technologies for the Aurora space-time ship to reach the star Antares. It would be too easy for them to become “Mary Sue” characters, so I had them answer that question themselves in flashback scenes set five years earlier in the story. Through their actions at an earlier age, both Tommy and Laura proved their intellectual qualifications and I’ve received positive feedback for clearly addressing that issue.

Can fans look forward to more books from you soon? What are you currently working on?

I have a full set of notes for a sequel about how the characters help to save the aliens who sent the message from Antares since it turns out to be a distress call. Before I write the next book, I’m currently recording the audiobook version of Journey to Antares which will include twelve original songs that are in the text. This way, the audiobook readers will get to hear the melodies of the songs as well as the lyrics that are in the printed book. I’m also working on some animated video shorts for key scenes in the story.

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