The strange inspiration that created the SkyRyder’s Series
Early in my
life, I became a private pilot. Then I took up skydiving and hang-gliding.
But oddly,
the inspiration to create the SkyRyder stories came from a plastic grocery bag
from ACME, no less. One windy day I noticed a shopping bag about a hundred feet
up, flying as fast as the wind because it was fully deployed. And because the
wind was blowing over a hill, the bag (and the wind) kept climbing higher until
I lost sight of it.
It made me
ponder a whole bunch of what-ifs as I built an apocalyptic world in my head.
What if after a terrible world war, where
all enemies attacked each other’s oil fields with atomic bombs, we no longer
had access to fossil fuels.
What if these atomic bomb attacks created
havoc with our winds, leaving us with stationary hurricanes that cover most of
what is left of the Americas, while rising sea water consumes all lower lying
areas.
What if traveling by sea between the
continents is impossible due to massive high wind sea storms and constant
seismic activity.
What if solar panels don’t work so well due
to winds constantly blowing dust on them, thus massive wind mill farms become
our salvation.
What if we could harness the power of our winds
and use it to our travel advantage.
What if we create a light weight, but very
strong windcatcher that has a large main chute that catches the wind and can
carry a person across the skies at high speed. Of course, we would need to
control the windcatcher, so we’ll need additional panels to provide lift and
descent capabilities in winds from 50 to 200 miles. Let’s make all these panels
from immensely strong, but incredibly lightweight material, so the massive
catchers can be folded into a large backpack at the end of the flight.
If we do all
this, then we can have SkyRyders protect the region that a stationary hurricane
covers. Naturally, the rich will relocate to the eye of a hurricane, since that
is the calmest area. The rest of the population will have to endure fifty-mile
per hour winds at ground level.
There is one
region, called Flat Land, which the surrounding mountains geographically
prevents a hurricane from establishing itself and that is where the mega rich
and powerful people live. And that is where my ‘worst ever debutante’ heroine
lives. The only wind she has experienced is in a wind tunnel at the mall.
Becoming adept in a wind tunnel has given her far better understandings of the
complexity of wind, far more than any SkyRyder knows. So after she goes from
debutante to street girl to scavenger, where she teaches herself to fly, then
enters the SkyRyders, her flying abilities are par none. But can she teach
those skills to others?
Stationed
on opposite coasts, Alisha and Logan must each face their own demons and
challenges. On the West Coast, Alisha loses her rank for butting heads with her
General and soon discovers the life of a private can be utter hell. On the East
Coast, newly promoted General Logan discovers his soldiers do not recognize his
authority to command. In an effort to retake control of the East Coast Corps,
Logan authorizes unthinkable actions. When Alisha faces a life-threatening
crisis, will Logan rise above his own troubles or will she discover love and
rescue with her best friend Jack?
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Thanks for letting me share how this story came to be.
ReplyDeleteLiza, I love this series. The freedom the flyers feel as they soar and swoop is so well described that I can feel their enthusiasm. Best wishes on your new release.
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