The Evolution of a Novel

When I was 27 years old, I had a very vivid dream. I awoke at 2:00 AM, grabbed paper and pencil, then wrote down my vision before it evaporated from my mind. In the dream I was abducted by aliens and taken to their home world for study. Years later they returned me to Earth, a changed man. 

From those notes I wrote a short story with the working title, “The Light”. At the time, I was a reading specialist for ReadWrite Educational Programs headquartered in Irvine, CA. My boss loved the story, used it in our speed-reading curriculum, but he made a key observation: “This feels more like an outline for a novel.”

“I can’t write a novel,” I said.

“Have you ever tried?” he asked.

“No.”

“Well, you won’t know until you’ve tried.”

I took his advice and began the routine I still follow today. First, I wrote an outline for a chapter, then filled in the details with characterization, scenery, and dialogue.  Even though I had a full-time job at ReadWrite, an active social life, and family obligations, I made sure a chapter was written each month. First, the chapter was written in long hand, edited, and then typed on my Smith-Corona typewriter. After four years the manuscript was complete, but my personal life had changed drastically. I was no longer single, fathered a baby girl with another child on the way. I didn’t have time to indulge my publishing fantasy. 

Years passed and The Light remained in a box collecting dust. My marriage had dissolved and I was a single dad enjoying the experience of raising my two daughters. Then, one summer day, twenty-seven years ago, I awoke to a profound silence. The doctor told me I had suffered from a viral infection that robbed me of most of my hearing. I was fitted with hearing aids and returned to the classroom. 

It was tough understanding my students, but the hearing aids helped in quiet settings, so I persevered for six years until the virus struck again. Unable to hear my voice, the ENT specialist granted me disability. I said goodbye to my sixth-grade students and focused on my dream of becoming a writer. I purchased magazines and books on the subject and studied the material as if it was a college course. 

Within a year’s time I had a few articles published in minor publications. I then dusted off The Light and re-typed the book into my iMac, which was so much easier than typing and worrying about white-out. Eventually, I found a Canadian publisher, Adventure Books, who published my novel as an e-book entitled, The Light: An Alien Abduction. But alas, back in the early 2000s e-books weren’t popular, the company closed shop, and my novel was orphaned. 

One of the key lessons I learned in the early days of my writing career was to put an unsuccessful project aside and continue with another. So, I wrote Goodbye, Tchaikovsky published by Royal Fireworks Press in 2012 and republished in 2020. It’s a novel about a violinist, one of the best in the world, waking up on his twelfth birthday deaf. It was cathartic transposing my experiences onto a young teen. I also wrote the Koolura Series, three books about a pre-teen girl with amazing psychic abilities. In 2012 Solstice Publishing published the first in the series, The Legend of Koolura. Within two years they also published Koolura and the Mystery at Camp Saddleback and Koolura and the Mayans. The last book, Koolura and the Mayans, won the Gold Medal Award in the 2018 eLit Awards Juvenile/Young Adult Fiction. (All three books are available in print on my website at http://www.michaelthal.com. 

Having a good feeling Solstice would also publish The Light, I re-wrote it for a young adult audience and submitted it to my publisher with the working title, The Abduction of Joshua Bloom. Which brings to mind a funny story. A few years ago, I received an e-mail from an irate reader by the name of Joshua Bloom. He was annoyed at me for using his name and demanded a free copy of the book as well as compensation for using his name. My reply: “LOL. Nice try, Josh.”

In March 2000 I was in for a shocker. Solstice decided not to renew my contract on my books stating they were cutting back on Young Adult and Middle Grade novels. I sulked a bit, but chatted with a writer friend of mine who said, “Why don’t you self-publish? It works for me.” I took Jeanne’s advice and studied Self-Publishing on Amazon 2020. I also re-read The Abduction of Joshua Bloom, which was a blast. It was like watching a favorite movie I hadn’t seen in years as well as reminding me of my political and social ideals, which hadn’t changed too much in forty years. 

The Abduction of Joshua Bloom will be published on Amazon beginning August 13, 2020 as a Kindle book. The novel can be pre-ordered at any time prior to August 13 and Amazon will deliver the e-book to your Kindle on the publication date. I still have print copies of the book, and if that interests you, send an e-mail to [email protected]. I’ll mail a copy of the book to you for $15.00; and don’t worry about postal charges, I’ll absorb that. 

The novel I began writing forty-four years ago is about a high school track star abducted by aliens. With them, he explores strange worlds, uncovers genocide on a planetary scale, and is thrust into extraterrestrial politics that may decide the fate of an Earth on the brink of war or unification. The Abduction of Joshua Bloom tells the story of a teen abduction by an alien race who justifies their act in an attempt to save their people. Joshua finds himself in a world dominated by women, and men are subjugated to their whims. He travels to a dinosaur world, visits a water planet, and a world doomed by a star about to nova. 

One Amazon reviewer gave The Abduction of Joshua Bloom four stars along with this comment: This book is ambitious, suggesting ways we can make mankind–and the planet better, in a new era of co-operation and collaboration by nations, several of which have merged to form “super-states.” But most of the book focuses on the space adventures of Joshua Bloom, a Jewish teenager who is abducted into space. Typically, alien abductions are mysterious or hostile, but this time, it’s a friendly crew of inter-galactic women that take him in. They tell him that they need him in order to save a dying planet and to persuade Earth–in the most forceful but appealing way possible–to accept this massive influx of a space race.

I enjoyed it when Joshua remarks something to the effect of “How can Earth accept a new species in peace when we bicker among ourselves?” It does make me wonder why we can’t simply all get along, how delightful it would be to have real, lasting peace in our lifetimes!

Author Anne McGee gave Abduction five stars and had this to say: When 16 year old Joshua Bloom awakens aboard an alien ship, he not only discovers the craft is being manned by a group of technically and socially-evolved teenagers from an alien culture, but that his abduction has a purpose. The Oceanians, as they are called, intend to train him to act as intermediary between the leaders of their own planet and the governments of Earth. They are desperate to leave their planet, and Earth has been chosen as the place most suited for relocation. In exchange for this, they are prepared to share their technology, their way of life, and their philosophy. And so, begins a fascinating journey for Joshua Bloom in this fast-paced science fiction action story, guaranteed to hold your attention from beginning to end. I highly recommend this well-written and enjoyable novel.

You can pre-order your Kindle copy of The Abduction of Joshua Bloom at: https://amzn.to/3eCKX9W. Oh, and one last request. If you enjoy the novel, please leave a review on Amazon. Reviews definitely help sales.