Quarantine day 26

Serpenteens-

There are a few of my works that I am particularly proud of, one being Luthor and another being my first YA series called Serpenteens.

The series follows five teenage siblings, who happen to be serpent demigods, who can control the weather.

I know you're thinking, "Wait, what?"

Again, all credit for this one goes to Steve. We've always been a great team, no matter if it's a home project we're working on or something for work, whatever, we've always worked well together. And that went for my writing, too.

Steve has always been my greatest supporter (greatest fan sounds too Annie Wilkes). For years he has thrown ideas at me for a new book. I've used most of them. That includes Serpenteens.

It was early one morning--however many years ago--when Steve was getting ready to run out the door to go to work. As he was rushing about, he told me of an idea he thought of while getting ready. He told me I should write a story about people who turn into snakes.

My usual genre is suspense and horror, and he knew that, so the idea piqued my interest. After Steve left I thought about the idea and did what I usually did when an idea is buzzing: I try to figure out why it would happen.

Why would people turn into snakes?

I didn't know.

I didn't know shit about snakes. But, fun fact: in the 90's, Steve and I had a ball python named Lucy (Lucille Ball 😁), who makes an appearance in the first book.

I thought if I was going to figure out why people would turn into snakes, I should look up stuff about snakes. (Another fun fact, I hated school, but I love doing research for books. And the Serpenteens series turned out to be research heaven.)

As I began my initial research, the word serpentine kept coming up, because that's the motion that describes the way a snake moves. Suddenly the title for the series came to me (I usually come up with a title for a book or series right off the bat), and when it did, it changed the story before it began: Serpenteens. I would change the spelling and make the main characters teenagers. And it also became my first YA series at that moment.

But I still didn't know why they would turn into snakes in the first place. So I kept researching.

I began noticing a familiar and unexpected pattern as I did my reptilian research. I noticed the direct connection between snakes and the weather. Floods, wind, cold, all connected through folklore to snakes.

So the idea hit: The teenagers could control the weather when they turned into snakes. Each one could do something with the weather. They could help the planet with the destructive storms that have been happening because of Global Warming-

And the story changed again before it had really began. It was going to be environmentally based. It would be a YA series about teenagers who can turn into various snakes and control different aspects of weather. They would go around battling storms.

But why can they change into snakes in the first place?!

I would eventually figure that all out, but it's too long to get into here.  Suffice it to say that Kody, Talen, Kurt, Brodee, and Lana all became very special kids to us not too long after that rushed morning. (Yes, our golden retriever, Brodee, is named after the character from the series.)

I enjoyed writing this series because it gave me a chance to do my part to bring light to the global warming problems. It also gave me a chance to stand up for snakes. They get a bad rap, but you know, without them we would be overrun with vermin and disease. They are clean critters that usually just want to be left alone. And they are pretty amazing animals at that.

I hope you enjoy Serpenteens. You can get the paperbacks and eBook HERE.

Thank you.

Stay safe. Stay inside. 💓