Wednesday 28 June 2017

Aurora

Welcome to Sally's book-a-day-for-2017 blog. If unfamiliar with the blog, scroll down.

Aurora (1995) Post 179

Aurora is the story of Aurora Quinn, who lives with her family on an island. The Quinns live a happy and placid life, but now in her teens, Aurora is beginning to feel the isolation. There's not much she can do about it though, as it's for her benefit that the family live where they do.
Aurora is adopted--unofficially. It's lucky Polly, her Mum, has some slightly shady contacts, because otherwise Aurora would exist, officially. She was found in a crashed UFO, and Polly and her husband, en route to a new home, simply gathered her up and arrived there as an instant family. Aurora is "pretty much" human, but there is one thing she finds it increasingly difficult to hide. She weighs far, far more than any human her size. Therefore, she is unable to swim.

All is well until Cousin Josh arrives unexpectedly on the island. He remembers his aunt and uncle vaguely, and as far as he can work out, they shouldn't have a child Aurora's age. He makes it his business to discover what his cousins are hiding.

Aurora began life as a short story about a girl named Ariel who couldn't float. The idea came to me because my great aunt could float far more effectively than most people, (so can I for that matter) and I wondered if there were people who were the reverse. Then, one night my husband took me out to look at the aurora and remarked casually that the lights messed up radio waves. I wondered what that might do to a UFO. I put the two ideas together and wrote a novel called UFO. I thought that was a catchy title, but the editor preferred Aurora, and I think she was right as, after all, the story focuses on the characters.

I'm fond of Aurora, and used her story to explore privacy, need-to-know, and the effect having a "different" sibling has on the others in the family.


About the Blog 


Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. If you enjoyed a post, or want to ask about any of my books or my manuscript assessment service, leave me a message.

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