As things turned out, M. J. Scott and I ended up co-authoring the novel, Sport’s Alien Fantasy. I came aboard late: The novel was first written by M. J. Scott (Marilyn) in rough draft form in 1986, shortly after the horrifying explosion of the Challenger spacecraft in which the astronauts on board perished, including beloved school teacher, Christa McAuliffe. Marilyn had written it fast, in about a week, and then it sat nearly 30 years put away in a binder! Marilyn let me take a look at it last year. As editor and publisher of some of her books, I was curious to see it. Immediately, I recognized the extraordinary story within the draft novel’s pages. Scott and Wetta then agreed to corroborate on a re-writing to submit to Amazon’s Kindle Scout campaign. There, the novel garnered nearly a thousand nominations for publication and spent time on the “Hot and Trending” list.

Marilyn  and I believe that this story of a school teacher who must endure the ordeal of a grueling road trip in 1986 in order to determine if her memories of an alien childhood are real or crazy is set to make everyone question themselves when they make judgements about others. Inspired by the life of teacher Christa McAuliffe, Sport takes Christa with her to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello during the Easter break of the students and teachers. It is the beginning of a journey into the unexpected, and it holds a mirror to the faces of people in rural Virginia in the time when our current orientation to a global community was just beginning.

So, a good part of the story takes place in the 1980s, when today’s digital and international connectivity began to make its impact on man’s daily life on earth. The authors believe that the global connections and disconnections prevalent among human relationships today can be understood in the symbolism of the Challenger explosion. In the novel, Sport compels the reader to feel the sadness that fearful unwillingness to help others can inflict upon those in dire need, but she also thrills us with the joy of self-realization.

Sport finds a new beginning and a new ending. She lives to be, perhaps, the extra-terrestrial being who can teach us what we need to know to master living and loving one another on our stressed planet.

Author M. J. Scott and I are currently soliciting a small number of people to be on a “launch team” prior to a major publicity campaign in the first half of June. Our goal is to have honest reviews of the book on the novel’s Amazon purchase page when the official launch begins. Please consider doing this. The novel is unusual and special, in my opinion, and I think is best described as being in the “magical realism” genre. At 50,000 words, it is relatively short. We are requesting that you join our team now by purchasing the book from Amazon, reading it, and rating it on the Amazon site prior to June 5, 2017. The e-book is less expensive at $3.99. The print edition is beautiful and sells for $9.95. The reason we are asking for purchase is that Amazon then shows the rating as coming from an “Amazon certified purchase,” which lends credibility to the rating.
Let us know if you think that Sport makes an impact on your world view. Here is the link: Click here to visit Sport’s page on Amazon!

P.S.: This book is free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers!