Post written by Carney Sims

Under a sky of threatening clouds, guests were merely met with interludes of sunshine between pleasant drizzle as they huddled from the laneway, and into the Wakefield bookshop for the launch of Sonya Spreen Bates’ Out of This World.

We were joined by some of Sonya’s loyal supporters and Wakefield Press frequenters, along with fellow children’s author Adam Cece. Adam, launcher of the intergalactic adventure novel, complemented his speech with a shoebox full of nostalgic childhood titles including The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Welcome one, welcome all to the launch of Sonya Spreen Bates new middle-grade book, Out Of This World.

I’ve known Sonya for a while. The literary and KidLit community in South Australia is pretty small and tight-knit. You tend to run into each other at events, and become friends, and some of the best people I know are other creatives in SA. While Out of This World is a children’s book, I first knew of Sonya as an adult author, the first book I saw of hers, was her adult thriller, Inheritance of Secrets. I remember seeing the cover for this book and thinking it had the coolest tagline:

A brutal murder.

A wartime promise.

A quest for the truth.

I was thrilled to later discover she was also a children’s author. I think Out of This World is Sonya’s fourth children’s book. And while reading Out of This World I could see the adult thriller writer at work. This book has twists and turns, and suspense, and action, and great characters, which jump off the page.  

When Sonya asked me to launch this book, how could I say no? Not only did I know Sonya was a great author, who writes great books, but it’s also published by a fabulous South Australian publisher, Wakefield Press. I think we are pretty awesome in SA, with some of the best authors, illustrators, publishers, booksellers. I mean let’s face it, we rock!

And I also love the fact this book is a middle-grade science-fiction action/adventure. These are actually my favourite types of books, and I think that’s because these were exactly the sort of books that inspired a love of reading in me when I was a kid.

I remember reading, as a young child, Space Demons by Gillian Rubenstein, and I feeling like I was a different person the day after reading it to the day before. It changed me, both as a reader and as a person. Same with Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. As I got older I discovered sci-fi comedy in a big way. I binged it, and I got into books like Red Dwarf, and a book called Only Forward by Michael Marshall-Smith, which just changed my life (if you haven’t heard of it, look it up).

But to celebrate the launch of Sonya’s book today, I brought along some special show-and-tell. It is one of my favourite science fiction books, a book that changed my life, and I’m sure many people’s lives. And this is my original version, from 1986, when I was a 10-year-old: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. And when I found this book at home, I remembered that when I used to read books, I used to use money for bookmarks. I don’t know if anyone else used to do this. Lo and behold when I opened my 1986 copy of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, what should I find, but a US one-dollar bill. I have NO idea where I got this from. I’ve never even been to the US! And even more impressive is this, a two-dollar note. Now extremely rare. I’m starting to wonder how much more money is lying around my house, tucked into the pages of books. Maybe thousands! And this money would mostly be found in sci-fi books, because a lot of these are the ones I read over and over again, and mark my favourite sections in.

So I guess what I’m trying to say, in a roundabout sort of way, is when Sonya asked me to launch this book, I jumped at the opportunity. And after reading Out of this World, I was so glad I did. Because we need more great middle-grade science-fiction action/adventure in the world, which has heart and a great message. In short, we need more books like Out of This World … in this world.

Now that was almost a bit of a play on words there. Which is hardly surprising, as those that know me know that I love bad dad jokes. So I couldn’t do a launch, or any event really, without telling you some of my favourite dad jokes. Only three of them, because that’s the most people can usually tolerate. Now I’m hoping for a laugh with these, but I’ll settle for a groan, as that is the expected minimum standard with dad jokes. And because we are launching a space-themed book today, these are all space-themed dad jokes.

1. Why didn’t the sun go to University?
   Because it already had a million degrees.
   
2. I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down.
   
3. What do you get when you cross Santa Claus with a space ship?
   A U-F-Ho-Ho-Ho.

Now, when I go to the launches of fellow creatives in Adelaide, I always like to buy a copy of their book, especially if they are being published by a local publisher like Wakefield Press, so I can support the author, and support the publisher, and support the bookseller. But when you are launching a book, and doing a cover quote, you get a free book. It’s awesome.

Today I am still going to buy a copy of the book, but I’m going to give it away. And because I love bad dad jokes, I’m going to give away one copy to any person who can tell me a space-themed dad joke. And if you don’t have a space-themed one then I’ll settle for a regular one, or if no-one can think of one then I’ll give a free book to anyone who wants to come up and read out the extra dad joke I’ve prepared in advance. If you have already got a copy of the book, then I’ll buy you one of Sonya’s other books, or a Wakefield Press book.

Bonus: What is an astronauts favourite key on a keyboard? The space bar!

So now it is time to officially launch Out of This World, and I think the best way to do it is with some appropriate science fiction music.

Now when the book is launched, I want everyone to whoop and cheer, and let’s have a huge round of applause – but we can only start our applause when the book reaches this arrow. This is where the book will be officially launched, and you can only clap, and whoop, and cheer, when it gets up to here. Let’s go …

Adam proceeded to lift the book up in a climactic fashion, aligning his movements to the famous orchestral Star Wars arrangement before the room filled with applause.

Sonya Spreen Bates’ Speech

It’s wonderful to see so many friends and family and like-minded bookish people here today. Thanks so much for coming out to help celebrate the launch of this story. Even though I’ve had a number of kids’ books published, and my first adult novel in 2020, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to have a book launch, and I’ll give credit to Poppy and Kristy for talking me into it. I’m really glad they did.

This book, Out of This World, has taken a lot years to come to fruition. I still have the first draft on my computer from 2008 – shortly after I’d had my first children’s book published and when my girls were reading middle-grade fiction themselves. Not that I’ve been working on the story for all that time. After the initial drafts I put it away in a drawer and didn’t work on it for a number of years. It was always a favourite story, though, and so eventually I pulled it out again, re-read it and realised how immature my writing was back then. Since then, it’s gone through countless drafts, developing the characters more fully, expanding the plot, adding more tech. Name-changes, changes in voice and even a change in the main character – a trial to see what would happen if Hali were a boy. Needless to say, it didn’t work – Hali is still a girl. One of the main premises of the story was that Hali and Zeb were twins who were completely different from one another. And so, having twin boys didn’t quite gel, no matter how different I made them in physical appearance and temperament.

We all know the stereotypes about twins being so close that they understand what the other is thinking, finishing each other’s sentences, even making up their own languages that no one else understands. In fact, I worked with two-year-old twins when I was studying speech pathology who were just like that – one was more verbal, but seemed to understand the other and tended to ‘interpret’ for her. Obviously not all twins are like that, but that’s the impression you get from watching news pieces or documentaries. And I didn’t want to write about twins in particular – that wasn’t my intention. I wanted to write about a girl who felt completely out of place. In her school, in her community, even in her family. So I turned the twin cliché on its head. I made Hali and Zeb as different as possible, so different that they’re actually different species.

Of course, we don’t have multiple humanoid species on Earth, so that took me into the realm of other planets – a planet where there are two different species who co-exist in the same community. And into the realm of science fiction. You’d think that would be really freeing, right? You can make up whatever you like. But it doesn’t quite work like that. Fictional worlds set in our own futuristic universe must follow the same rules as anywhere else – the universal laws of science. I had great fun though, inventing the planet of Hexa, thinking about land masses and seas, what the atmosphere was like, and the climate. How strong the gravity was, how many moons it had and what sort of star it orbited. And then, of course building the Hexian society – which is much more technically advanced than Earth and based around communal living – and the history of the Hexian people, both the Luma and the Daka. Just how did there come to be two different species on this planet anyway? I won’t answer that question now though, because that would give too much away. You’ll have to read the book to find out!

So that’s how the idea for this story formed – with the characters of Hali and Zeb and their parents – and it took off from there. It’s a story designed to be fun and entertaining and take the reader on a wild adventure through space and a discovery of a new planet and a new people. And, for Hali, a new understanding of who she is and where she fits in.

Obviously, a book doesn’t come into being in isolation and there are a number of people who have helped bring Out of This World to life.

First, I have to acknowledge my brother, Tom Spreen, for the assistance he gave me in the technical side of things. He’s much more of a tech person than I am, with a degree in both computer science and mathematics and a long career as an airline pilot. He’s the one who invented the terms HL or ‘hyperlight’ and SL or ‘sublight’ speed, and kindly passed them on to me when I first asked him about how to avoid the ‘warp speed’ of Star Trek. He read the first draft of the re-written manuscript, and answered the myriad of random questions I shot him via Messenger. I’d send him little bits of revision and he’d tell me if he thought it worked. It was great having him as an enthusiastic consultant for this project and it definitely improved the ‘science’ aspect of the science fiction.

Speaking of enthusiastic, I also want to thank Adam Cece and Janeen Brian for your wonderful endorsements. Your heartfelt testimonials mean a lot to me, coming from colleagues.

Thank you, as well, to Micheal Bollon and Wakefield Press for taking on this book, and to Maddy Sexton, my editor, for believing in the story and helping to bring Hali and Zeb to life. Also to Polly Grant Butler for her support in promotion and planning and organising this launch. I’m really so pleased that this story is going out into the world after all this time.

And of course, thank you to my family who has supported me with my writing for so many years, and are here today helping with the food and taking photos. Claudia and I had a lot of fun decorating the slightly wonky space-themed food and I hope you enjoy it along with the lovely wine supplied by Cariole Vineyards in McLaren Vale.

Adam, I’d like to give you a little token of my appreciation for launching Out of This World. When I was first thinking about having a launch, I knew you’d be the perfect person to launch Out of This World, and I wasn’t wrong. Thanks so much.

Thank you all again for coming and I hope you enjoy the book.

Thanks to Sonya Spreen Bates and Adam Cece for allowing us to share their words from the launch. Out of This World is now available for purchase through Wakefield Press.