There will be some news coming along in the next few weeks about my Astrid Maxxim books, so I thought I would take some time to talk about them and the characters in the story.
Astrid Maxxim books are written for 8-12 year-olds and tell the adventures of girl inventor Astrid Maxxim and her friends. I got the idea from talking about my first book Princess of Amathar. That book was written as an homage to the Edgar Rice Burroughs books I loved as a boy. At the time I was pointing out that before I discovered Burroughs, I had learned to love reading by finding Tom Swift Jr. books. Then I suddenly thought, “I should write my own Tom Swift-like stories. That’s how Astrid came about.
One thing I loved about Tom Swift was the nostalgic, innocent, happy-go-lucky 50s feel of the story. I wanted to keep that in my stories. What I didn’t like was that time never passed. In more than 30 books, Tom remained 18 years old. And no matter what earth-shaking invention Tom created, it didn’t really change the world. He invented the atomicar! And yet people were still driving around in 1955 cars (not that they weren’t cool, but they weren’t atomic). In my stories, characters would age and the world would change with the inventions.
I followed the same general formula used in Tom Swift. There is one big invention and one or more lesser invention in each book. Of course there is a nefarious plot afoot that the heroes must foil. I also kept to the same length– about 30,000 words. I whipped out the first book, Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike, very quickly. I’ve enjoyed writing it and reading it– I’m not my harshest critic I guess!
Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike is available in ebook format just about everywhere for 99 cents.
From the 180,000 acre campus of Maxxim Industries, fourteen year old girl genius and inventor Astrid Maxxim works alongside her father, Dr. Roger Maxxim, on projects to make the world a better place. Her latest invention is a flying scooter—the hoverbike. Is it the target of an international spy ring, or are they after secret Project RG-7, or Astrid herself? Astrid has something bigger on her mind though—high school. There’s a field trip coming, and the Spring Fling is right around the corner… And does Toby like her as much as she likes him?
