Welcome to SCBWI-MI's Book Birthday Blog!

Where we celebrate new books from Michigan's authors, illustrators and translators.

Congratulations to Lindsay Fryc on the release of Emma and the Queen of Featherstone

How did you come up with the idea for your book?

My novel started as a tiny idea back in 2015. I didn’t really have a plot for it at the time. I had just become a mother to a gorgeous baby girl and needed a little bit of an outlet. Writing was always a great outlet for me. I wrote about a chapter of the book before shelving it to deal with busy life. Then in 2019, I visited the Detroit Writing Room and spoke with the co-founder Stephanie Steinberg. After that conversation I was inspired to dust off the novel and finish it. The idea for the plot started from learning more about my family history when they lived under Soviet rule. I thought about hopes and expectations of a new place, and how that compares to reality. However, the story turned into a science fiction and fantasy novel after my daughter came home from pre-school one day. She was running around in her Disney princess dress and she came over to me and said “Mommy, girls can’t be good at video games, only boys are good at that right?” I was really shocked that so soon after starting pre-school she already was coming home with an idea of something she couldn’t possibly be good at just because she was a girl. So, I decided to write her into a science fiction novel. A book where she could see herself in a tech-based world, and one that I could see her there too. Emma and the Queen of Featherstone was born!

What is something you hope your readers will take away from your book?

I really hope readers will come away with the inspiration that they can really do anything. Kids are so incredibly adaptable and smart. I hope they come away with a sense of wonder and curiosity about their world and about space exploration. And lastly, I hope they come away treasuring the relationships and friendships they make along the way.

What inspires you to write?

Hands down my daughters inspire me to write. Their openness and general curiosity are something I probably could write about non-stop. I love their general whimsy too and I really love to capture that in my own writing.

I also am inspired so much by nature. I love walking in our Michigan parks and taking in the surroundings. It’s probably why I love describing nature in my novels too.

What are your marketing plans for the book?

I have lots of marketing plans for the novel! Firstly, there will be a special launch party for Emma and the Queen of Featherstone hosted by 27th Letter Books in Detroit, MI. This will be held on March 10th, 2023 in the evening. There will be a reading, book signing, and book swag you can grab while there. A fun STEM activity is also planned for the kids who attend the in store launch event! It will be lots of fun! As we get closer to the date, more info can be found here: https://www.lindsayfryc.com/events-2. Secondly, I will be doing bookstore author events throughout the summer. More info on where you can find me can be found on the events link given above! Hope to see you at one of those events! I also plan on doing some special giveaways on social media, so make sure you are following me on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsayfrycauthor/, TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com, /@lindsayfrycauthor?lang=en, and Twitter: https://twitter.com/lindsayfryc to be the first to enter those.

What's next for you?

Writing! My focus is writing and revising that next book.

A little bit about the book . . .

In the near distant future, Emma's life revolves around the company's Mars terraforming fast track program. Stuck between her parents' never-ending Mars shuttle supply runs and her own coursework in the program, Emma dreams of adventure outside of the company's plan for her. Anything to get away from the constant bullying and boring coursework.

She finds that adventure accidentally when she stumbles into a portal to a new world. On Merah, she finds two species, the secretive Kabiren. who create and run all technological advancement, and the Amethites, the native species of the planet. When the Kabiren inform her that a portal back to her world does not exist, she accepts a place in their society, as a Protector.

Now she must navigate her new assignment of guarding her new planet from portal intruders while also figuring out what the Kabiren are hiding. Her acceptance of her new life without her family and friends is thrown into chaos when she meets a special portal intruder: her best friend from Earth. Now she must decide between accepting her adventure in this new world, or fighting for her old one.

A little bit about the author . . .

Lindsay Fryc is the author of Emma and the Queen of Featherstone, a middle grade science fiction novel centered around an anxious STEAM loving girl thrown into a technocratic world of unknowns. Lindsay is a nerd wife and the mother of two girls, one prima ballerina and one pure hurricane. When she isn’t lost in fictional worlds, you can find her gardening or planning a far off adventure for her family to explore together. But no matter where the adventuring takes her, her heart is rooted home to those Michigan trees.

Twitter: @lindsayfryc

Instagram: @lindsayfrycauthor

TikTok: @lindsayfrycauthor

Hive: @lindsayfryc

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