Hello everyone, please welcome to the blog Iain Reading, author of the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency series! He is here to share with us his thoughts about the rewards of keeping fiction realistic (based on his experience with Kitty Hawk). Such a wonderful guest post and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
But first, here’s about the first book in the series:
Kitty Hawk and the
Curse of the Yukon Gold is
the thrilling first installment in a new young adult series of adventure
mystery stories by Iain Reading. This
first book of the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency Series introduces Kitty
Hawk, an intrepid teenage pilot with her own De Havilland Beaver seaplane and a
nose for mystery and intrigue. A cross between Amelia Earhart, Nancy Drew and
Pippi Longstocking, Kitty is a quirky young heroine with boundless curiosity
and a knack for getting herself into all kinds of precarious situations.After leaving her
home in the western Canadian fishing village of Tofino to spend the summer in
Alaska studying humpback whales, Kitty finds herself caught up in an
unforgettable adventure involving stolen gold, devious criminals, ghostly
shipwrecks, and bone-chilling curses. Kitty’s adventure begins with the
lingering mystery of a sunken ship called the Clara Nevada. As the plot
continues to unfold, this spirited story will have readers anxiously following
every twist and turn as they are swept along through the history of the
Klondike Gold Rush to a suspenseful final climatic chase across the rugged
terrain of Canada’s Yukon.Kitty Hawk and the
Curse of the Yukon Gold is a
perfect book to fire the imagination of readers of all ages. Filled with
fascinating and highly Google-able locations and history this book will inspire
anyone to learn and experience more for themselves.
There are currently 5 books in the Kitty Hawk series!
Aren’t they pretty? I’m reading the first book right now and I’m loving it so far! This reminds me, before you move along, don’t forget to scroll all the way down to the end of the post for your chance to win a copy of Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold!
Thanks so much for stopping by, now off you go! 🙂
The Rewards of Keeping Fiction Realistic
As the heroine of my Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency book series makes her way around the world from one geographic location to the next, she finds herself discovering new histories and cultures… and of course new mysteries. This is one of my favourite things about these books – the fact that Kitty Hawk immerses herself in these amazing new places and somehow manages to stumble across some mysterious puzzle lurking just out of sight that is somehow woven into the very fabric of the place itself.
As the author of these books I can tell you that it’s a bit of a puzzle in itself figuring out exactly what the mysteries will be that Kitty Hawk solves as she travels from place to place. Every strange new land has its own stories, of course, and finding the right one to weave a Kitty Hawk story around is sometimes tricky. But in my experience I’ve found that if you find the right angle – turning facts and history around in your hands until they line up just right – then everything suddenly clicks into place and you find yourself swept up and carried along as the story just seems to write itself. If I immerse myself every bit as much into these places and their histories as Kitty Hawk does then somehow the way forward becomes clear and the story reveals itself.
For me this has been one of the most rewarding aspects of creating these Kitty Hawk books. Because it’s not just Kitty Hawk herself who learns so much. It’s also me who learns. By keeping her story grounded in realistic facts and history I am forced to learn every bit as much as she does about these incredible locations that she visits on her epic flight around the world.
Right now Kitty Hawk has just completed book number five in the series – she’s just left Italy and the rest of Europe behind and is flying south east. But she’s not even at the halfway mark of her epic flight. There are eight more books to go before she finds her way back home again to Canada. That’s a lot of world left out there for her to explore. And for me to explore too, of course. Not to mention everyone else who reads the books as well.
It’s a nice feeling knowing that we’re all kind of in this together, isn’t it?
*****
YES! It’s amazing how even though I may never visit in person all the places I’ve read about, I still feel like I’ve seen them. I think I will be in for the trip of my life in your book series. Thanks so much for sharing, Iain!
About the Author
Iain Reading is passionate about Root Beer,
music, and writing. He is Canadian, but currently resides in the Netherlands
working for the United Nations.Iain is the author of the Kitty Hawk Flying
Detective Agency Series, The Wizards of Waterfire Series, and the dragon of the
month club. To learn more, go to http://www.amazon.com/Iain-Reading/e/B00B0NGI6Q/
This is a GOOD one.
Enter the rafflecopter below for a chance to win one of SIX copies (3 paperbacks & 3 kindle copies) of Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold! And yes, this giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY.
Sweet, right? Good luck to everyone!
Sweet, right? Good luck to everyone!
(And HUGE thanks to the author and the publicist for providing the copies!♥)
How cute does this book sound. Great post, Melissa.
Thanks, Jazmen! I'm very excited about this series 😀