Thursday 9 May 2013

A Band of Merry Teens

Robin Hood. Maid Marion. Little John. Friar Tuck. Alan a’Dale. Wil Scarlet. Much the Miller’s Son. You’ve seen them immortalized as adults. Now picture them as teens. Come on, you can do it. Can you imagine this band of merry teens? I could. In fact I created these legendary outlaws as adolescents in my debut middle grade/young adult time travel series, The Last Timekeepers andthe Arch of Atlantis. And I had such fun doing it!

So much has been written about these historical figures, whether they were real or imagined, and so many movies and books have translated the tales of this famous band of thieves. The stories themselves have been romanticized to a point where, when we picture Robin Hood, he’s wearing green clothing, tights, pointy shoes, and a cap with a feather in it. Nice. So me, being me, changed a few facts around, played with different ideas, toyed with names, got my hands calloused and dirty, then took aim and fired off an original Robin Hood story toward my adolescent target audience. Bull’s eye. At least, I hope so.
Book Excerpt:

Amanda Sault silently studied the words she just scrawled: May 1st, 1214—Games and songs and revelry, act as the cloak of devilry. So that an English legend may give to the poor, we must travel to Nottingham to even the score.
She frowned. She was the Scribe. Amanda knew that meant she was supposed to understand what this riddle meant. But she didn’t have a clue. All she knew was that she, her four annoying classmates, and two offbeat adults were standing in what was left of the lost continent of Atlantis and they were supposed to be the Timekeepers, the legendary time travelers handpicked by destiny to keep Earth’s history safe from evil. But no one had told them how they were supposed to do it.

Their problem: no matter what happened—good or bad—they weren’t supposed to mess with the past. Period. Dot. End of story. Amanda felt hot liquid build in her throat. Her thumb traced the words of the arcane riddle. Their first Timekeeper mission. Amanda knew this wasn’t the end of the story.
This was just the beginning.

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