Spectraland Q&A

Today, in this blog post, I'm going to answer some of your questions about Book One. This post is a super-special, direct-from-the-author event that is so exclusive, it will self-destruct ten seconds after you finish reading it!*

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS. BUT YOU'VE ALREADY READ BOOK ONE ANYWAY, RIGHT?

Q: Is that Fireflower on the new back cover?

No Marshall, she is not amused

A: It's a fairly accurate representation of her, yes. Some readers were a bit surprised to learn that the villagers of Spectraland looked more like regular people than, say, the Tharks of John Carter lore, but as Joel pointed out on page 27, they're "like Poison Ivy" - the Batman character, not the plant itself.

Q: What is Joel's birthday?

For the record, it's July 17, which - coincidentally, I swear - was the official release date of Book One.

Q: Is Felicity older than Joel? And what's the deal with her scorpion tattoos?

Yes, she is older than him - eighteen to Joel's sixteen, to be more precise. On page 31, she's described as a "teenage Earth girl," and on page 163, she mentions having "graduated" - although, I admit, she didn't specify what she graduated from (she meant high school).

Her scorpion tattoos, one on each shoulder, are a tribute to her deceased parents, who were both Scorpios.

Q: So what really happens at the end, in the epilogue? It doesn't seem like a happy ending.

After Joel gets back to Earth, he starts up a band called "Joel Suzuki and the Wavemakers." They book their first show at a small Seattle club, where Julio sees their flyer taped to the window. The two boys that Julio sees by the overheated Mustang are Mitch (the bully that broke Joel's guitar by running it over with that same Mustang - see page 4) and his friend. The CD that Julio finds on the ground under a landscaping bush is the CD that Art burned Joel's song onto (see page 16), which rolled away after Joel dropped it (page 19). Julio wouldn't have found the CD if he hadn't crossed the street to avoid Mitch and his friend. Julio is blown away by the song, and the idea is that there's a good chance that Joel and his band will now get a recording contract and become rock stars - ironically, after Joel figured out that he can be happy without being a famous and successful musician.

I admit that it's a bit open-ended and subject to interpretation, but remember - it's a series. And speaking of which...

Q: When the heck is Book Two coming out??

I'll have some cool news about that soon. Stay tuned...

* the post will actually not self-destruct