As a kid I was a big fan of superheroes (DC over Marvel). And when the Superman movie came out, I was over the moon. When the Batman movie came out I was even more excited. And my dream at the time was always that there would be a cinematic interconnected universe where all the comic book heroes would be part of one interwoven set of stories across multiple movie. I’m not claiming to be the only person that thought of this, just that it was something I’d always wanted to exist. (Marvel has to date done a pretty excellent job of this, DC not so much. But that’s not what this post is about.)
As an adult, I would think sometimes about creating my own superhero universe. And there were two movies that I thought captured exactly the tone I wanted to create. I wanted to take superheroes seriously, but also make them fun. THe two movies were M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable with Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson, and of course The Goonies. I thought if I could combine those, then it would be the exact kind of story I would want to tell. What I really wanted to do was make a movie. But that seemed pretty daunting. So then I thought maybe writing a script would be more doable. But you can’t put a script out and have lots of people read it. But if you combine a script with a storyboard, it’s a graphic novel, and that could work.
My friends at the time were super encouraging, and so I set off to write a graphic novel. I had no idea what I was doing. But at the last moment, instead of writing it as a script, I wrote it as a novel. I don’t know what changed, but it just seemed easier to not worry about the missing graphical pieces that I didn’t think I was capable of producing on my own anyway. And for almost a year, every Friday morning I would write a few thousand words of what became The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past.
What became obvious in retrospect is that the more you write about what you know, the easier it is. While I didn’t know much about how actual superpowers might work (I consulted a doctor friend on that), I did know about my kids, and my neighborhood in Seattle. And so eventually, this first book became all about my (then) three kids (with new names) running around their neighborhood (Goonies style) discovering their super powers, and embarking on various neighborhood adventures. Like a cozy superhero adventure, but one that could lead to bigger things (and does).
This book is number four in a planned seven part series (of which I’ve as of yet only written three – the first trilogy.) I decided to start with number four because of Star Wars (duh) but that proved to be a miscalculation (at least for now), as this ain’t Star Wars, and mostly it just confuses everyone. But live and learn. In any case, these novels are the things i’ve created that I’m the most proud of. (I did have help with the illustrations from two talented and capable illustrators as well.)
Here’s the logline: Someone in ten-year-old Binny Jordan’s family has a super power – and it’s not her. Binny’s seven-year-old sister Cassie can turn herself invisible and now a strange man is keenly interested in what Cassie can do. Binny’s parents seem more distracted than ever, and her older brother Zach is hiding something of his own. Binny needs to find a way to protect her sister, but she’s never felt more alone.
Hope you enjoy.