What’s it all about? Sources of inspiration for Future Imperfect
Future Imperfect is an exciting adventure featuring technology, teenage geniuses, corporate espionage, and mysterious messages. Most kids these days are very familiar with laptops, tablets, and video games, and don’t go anywhere without their cell phones, so the technology and gadgets that feature in the story make the novel very appealing for young readers. It’s also a very compelling adventure story, with lots of cliffhangers, twists, and turns.
In the novel we’re introduced to Andrew Mitchell, who was one of the leading experts in highly advanced technology in Silicon Valley, until he vanished following a car accident, which also injured his son, Alex. When a mysterious app later appears on Alex’s phone, he and his friend Stephanie embark on a terrifying journey involving secret technology, corporate espionage, kidnapping, and murder in a desperate bid to save the future from the sinister Veronica Castlewood.
The two main young characters had to have a technical background in order to be able to engage in the activities portrayed in the novel. It was also important to have them live in a part of the world where there are technology companies in abundance, hence the Silicon Valley setting. Not only that, it was crucial for them to be connected to the hi-tech world through Alex’s father’s job at Castlewood Dynamics.
Most young readers are able to relate to Alex and Stephanie as characters. They may both be technological geniuses to some extent, but they’re also ordinary kids that find themselves in extraordinary and even dangerous situations. This is very important in stories for young adults, as is the need for the young characters to solve problems themselves. Adults certainly appear in the story but Alex and Stephanie are the ones that make the most vital contributions to the story. This all helps the reader to identify with the characters and hopefully thoroughly enjoy the novel.
The story will appeal to all young readers for whom technology plays such a large role in their lives, whether it’s cell phones, laptops, tablets, gaming, or the online world, but it’s also a very compelling adventure story, with lots of cliffhangers, twists, and turns.
Future Imperfect was perhaps written a little more quickly than some of the other books but some novels are like that. I created an outline and once I was happy with that I began writing the story. Future Imperfect was very enjoyable to write and I don’t think I was ever stuck for ideas or encountered any major stumbling blocks. As you’d expect there were a few things to sort out in the plot along the way but these issues were resolved during revisions and in the editing process.
Future Imperfect is available in bookstores, online at Amazon Canada, Amazon USA, Indigo/Chapters, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK, and other locations, and autographed copies can also be purchased directly from me via my website.
