Following on from my previous blog post, I thought now is the time for a re-introduction to my Class Heroes book series.
It’s hard writing a sentence like that, you know. Imagine if I said that in conversation… like… I hadn’t seen you for weeks, and the first thing I came out with was, “Following on from my previous conversation with you, I thought now is the time for a re-introduction to my Class Heroes book series.” The kind of hand gestures you’d be making at me would probably result in you needing extensive physiotherapy. And I don’t need that kind of guilt.
Blogging is odd. To write a blog post, I have to overcome my natural inhibitions. I have to believe that you are actually interested in what I have to say. It reminds me of a quote I once read (one I now cannot find or verify), which I think was from the comedian Bob Monkhouse about chat show interviews. He (may have) said, “An interview is two people conducting an unnatural act in public.” Here’s perhaps a good example:
I know what Bob Monkhouse means. There’s an artifice that you have to get past in order for it to feel natural. In the case of blogging, I want to tell you something about what I’m doing whilst seemingly not giving a flying fig about your life. And it’s taken me three paragraphs to get around to it. Very British. And now I’m going to mention a second golden-age comedian and say I’m like Ronnie Corbett in prevaricating my way to the punchline. (It’s not the story about the aeroplane with the outside toilet. I just hope the Producer has flushed.)
So let’s go. If you’re still with me, thank you. And now I’ll bring you up to speed with Class Heroes. Book 5 will be out in early 2020, and I really want you to like it. (Not in a needy way. I won’t follow you home.) Without giving away any major plot spoilers in case you’re a wonderful person who’s just starting book 1, or thinking about downloading it, here’s a short precis of what the series is all about:
Class Heroes, at heart, is a drama about families. First there’s the Blake family. 14-year-old twins Samantha and James live with their mum and dad in London, they go to school, and everything is pretty cool and normal — right up until the twins’ school bus is caught up in a bombing. They wake up in hospital, and gradually realise they can do some pretty unusual stuff. In a nutshell — you guessed it — they now have super powers.
Class Heroes is, to borrow a phrase from the TV series ‘Smallville’, a ‘no flights, no tights’ type of superhero story. It isn’t about costumes, or using your powers to either fight crime or be a villain, or destiny, or being the chosen one, etc. It’s about the family. It’s about two kids who are suddenly more powerful than their parents, their friends, and (almost) everyone else on the planet. No pressure, then!
So what do you do with those powers? Maybe you are stronger than other people, but that’s only so useful. What if you hit someone too hard and kill them? You still have to live in society. You still want to have fun with your friends, fall in love, do family things. You have the potential to be the most famous person on the planet. Imagine how many Likes you’d get on social media!
But is that what you want? Maybe, just maybe, you just want to get on with your normal, ‘boring’ life.
Maybe that’s what I’ve written. ‘Boring Superhero Fiction.’ Not a category of book I’ve come across on Amazon, to be honest. ‘Out now, the latest in this Boring Superhero Series.’
Well, I hope it isn’t boring. Over the course of the first four books, Samantha and James have exciting adventures whether they want them or not. They meet some mysterious, dangerous, and desperate people who threaten to blow the Blake family’s lives apart.
Have I tempted you? Want more? Errr, I can add in some cute cats, if you like?
Watch this short trailer for the series. It will tell you pretty much all you need to know. Really, I should have put this right at the top. But once again, thank you very much for reading 🙂