Chanticleer 10 Question Author Interview Series with Rae Knightly – Grand Prize Award-winning Author of Exostar

CHANTICLEER 10 QUESTION AUTHOR INTERVIEW SERIES
with Award-Winning Author, Rae Knightly

Hello friends! We have another fabulous interview for you today, with author Rae Knightly! Her book Exostar took home the Chanticleer 2024 CIBA Grand Prize Award in the Gertrude Warner Division for Middle Grade Fiction, and we are excited to share with you the globe-trotting, star-gazing journey she took to becoming an author and what she’s planning next. Take a minute or two and get familiar with Rae and her incredible journey to becoming award-winning author!

Chanti: Like all great heroes, we’d love to start with your origin story. Have you always considered yourself a writer, or was that an identity that developed over time?

Knightly: I was a reader before I became a writer. As a single child, I would devour books up until my teenage years. Fictional characters were my friends. I would go to my local library on Fridays after school, pick out three books (the maximum allowed) and read those until it was Friday again. The problem was that, after a while, I felt like I had gone through the middle-grade section. It was time for me to head downstairs to the adult section. Unfortunately, the switch proved too big of a step. I couldn’t find anything to my liking among the big boring-looking adult books. Where was the fantasy, science fiction and adventure section for my age? I guess “young adult” books weren’t a thing back then. So, instead, I turned to my imagination and carried on the stories I liked or created new ones in my mind.

It would be another thirty years before I got the chance to write these stories down. Once I had penned my first book, Ben Archer and the Cosmic Fall, I felt like a fish in water and knew that this was what I was born to do. You could say the books I am writing today strive to recreate the sense of wonder that I experienced as a middle-grade reader.

Chanti: What a beautiful way to describe it—recreating that sense of wonder! That really is the “write what you love” philosophy in action. What specifically inspires your science fiction storytelling?

Knightly: I grew up in Africa where I became fascinated with the night sky. It made me ask profound questions: What is out there? Who are we? Why are we here? Are we alone in the Universe? Is there something beyond the Universe?

Science fiction can be just as magical as fantasy and—in my mind—is even more so because this type of ‘magic’ might be real. Aliens might exist, we might settle on Mars one day, interstellar travel might be invented in the future, a young reader might invent clean energy when he/she grows up… I think it is vital in this day and age to inspire young people through science fiction because this could lead them to become compassionate scientists, inventors and politicians who will find answers to today’s challenges.

I understand, though, that topics such as aliens, destructive inventions and climate change can be scary to young readers, so I strive to incorporate them in page-turning, thrilling adventures that are easier to absorb and understand. In this way, I hope to awaken a fascination for the marvels of our world and beyond—just as I was fascinated and inspired by the night skies as a child.

I’m best known for the Ben Archer Series, which includes aliens, UFOs, superpowers and messages about how we treat our environment. My other series, The Lost Space Treasure, is a fun space opera in its purest form and appeals to fans of Star Wars. Exostar is book 1 in this series.

Chanti: That mission to inspire future scientists through storytelling is incredible! Do you find yourself following conventional writing rules, or do you prefer to chart your own course?

Knightly: I highly doubt that I follow the rules. Middle-grade science fiction is not a common genre and I knew I was taking a big risk by writing it. But this was the genre I enjoyed above all as a child and I was disappointed when I couldn’t find more options to read. I also write from multiple points-of-view, which is not typical for middle-grade, and my main characters are loners. They don’t have a Hermione Granger or Ron Weasley tagging along.

Adults play a huge role in my stories. This goes against the norm where middle-grade characters find themselves battling evil on their own, without adults around to help. Note that most middle-grade characters are orphans. Ben Archer is not one of them. In fact, the dad-figure in his adventures is a pretty big deal! As for Trin Moonrise in Exostar, she is a unique hero. Not only does she travel from one planet to another and encounter all kinds of alien civilizations, but she faces a hundred challenges while wearing a prosthetic leg.

Chanti: Including adults and having more solo characters definitely pushes back against what we often seen in middle grade. When you’re not creating these amazing worlds and characters, how do you spend your time? What do you do to recharge and find inspiration?

Knightly: I used to love exploring and got a lot of inspiration from visiting different places—especially ancient ones. I love reading about archeological and astronomical discoveries. The history of humankind fascinates me and I believe we still have a lot to discover when it comes to what our ancestors were capable of.

I also love walking in nature and stopping every two minutes to take a picture of a leaf, a sunset, a landscape… I never make it very far because beautiful details are everywhere if you learn how to look. However, my walking and exploring days have been drastically reduced after I was diagnosed with a chronic illness called moderate ME/CFS. This mysterious illness has made it difficult for me to leave the house and I am currently spending most of my time learning how to manage symptoms.

Fortunately, writing about superheroes has taught me what it means to be brave: it means that you have to stay true to yourself in the face of adversity. You can’t let the bad things that happen to you define you. I can still write and enjoy the company of my family. Also, my imagination allows me to travel way beyond the boundaries of Earth and I have explored many distant planets from the comforts of my sofa as I wait to get better.

Chanti: The kind of resilience definitely shows up in your book and storytelling. When it comes to creative process, where do you say your ideas for those stories come from?

Knightly: I get most of my ideas from small newspaper articles. Ben Archer and the World Beyond pulled inspiration from different newspaper articles related to our oceans. Some years ago, Keith Davis—a marine biologist—mysteriously disappeared while out at sea. He was researching factory ships that empty the oceans of fish (tuna, in this case). Another article revealed that, in 2019, Russia released hundreds of beluga whales and orcas from an illegal whale jail located in Srednyaya Bay, where they were being trained or sold. Unfortunately, this type of news does not hit the headlines much.

The Knowledge Seeker was inspired by a short newspaper article reporting that several countries had restricted access to the internet. It made me wonder how a small group of people could take away access to knowledge to millions of citizens. The plot of The Knowledge Seeker—which takes place in the distant future—took form based on these questions: should everyone have access to all information everywhere and all the time? And, if not, who should have the right to decide what should/shouldn’t be made available? The main character, Eodain, fights to return knowledge to the people, while his arch-nemesis wants to keep knowledge for himself because knowledge is power. But even Eodain struggles with the meaning of free knowledge when he is forced to provide instructions on how to build a deadly weapon.

And, lastly, Exostar and its sequels dive into the wonders of science and the Universe. Could we travel between the stars using quantum mechanics? What color is the sky on other planets? What do aliens on other planets look like according to their environment, gravity, evolution, etc.? Do exploding stars (supernovas) provide the necessary elements to create life? When you have civilizations where robots, androids, ancient aliens, and mortal beings interact, what does it mean to be human?

Chanti: Fascinating how you transform real-world issues into compelling science fiction! When it comes to your actual writing process, how organized are you? Do you plan everything out, or do you discover the story as you write?

Knightly: By the time I sit down to write a new book, I have the full story well laid out in my head. It is very important to me to know the ending of a story and I will rarely start writing until I have figured that out. In fact, I often come up with the ending of a story first and then work my way backwards! This was crucial when I wrote The Knowledge Seeker, as the plot twist at the end had to blow the reader’s mind. The final sequel in the Exostar series will also have a mind-boggling ending.

Since I have the plot all laid out, I am able to write a first draft in a short amount of time. I can write a 50,000 word book in five weeks. However, that’s when the hard work starts. This is when I go over the manuscript multiple times, one sentence at a time, one paragraph at a time, and back-and-forth and back-and-forth with the help of my editor, Cristy Watson. I also seek advice from beta readers who follow my work, know the characters and can point out errors in the manuscript. I will do seven or eight complete edits of the story before I’m satisfied, and this can take several months.

Chanti: Working backwards from the ending makes a lot of sense! Can you talk a little bit about some of your literary influences, and how have they shaped your work?

Knightly: The Dark is Rising Trilogy by Susan Cooper opened my eyes to the power of imagination. Why? Because this Arthurian fantasy story took place in the real world and made me want to find ‘magic’ everywhere. It made me wonder if ‘magic’ was just around the corner, or hiding in the mist, or lost deep under the ocean. I love fantasy and science fiction stories that take place in the real world because they make the reader wonder, “What of this were true?” I sought to recreate this sense of ‘magic in the real world’ in my Ben Archer books.

Monica Hughes was my go-to author while growing up. She wrote thrilling middle-grade science fiction like Earthdark, Space Trap or Ring-Rise, Ring-Set. The stories are exciting and ask interesting questions. They inspired me to write Exostar.

The Ice People by French author Rene Barjavel is one of those books that stays with you long after you’ve finished it. It leaves you with the question: if humans have been around for tens of thousands of years, would it be possible that they developed advanced civilizations that are now lost and buried under the Arctic ice, under the dunes of the Sahara desert or in the deep trenches of the ocean? This fascinating question also lingers in the back of the Ben Archer and Lost Space Treasure Series.

Lois Duncan’s Stranger with my Face is another of those stories that takes place in the real world but has elements of mystery in it. The characters in the author’s books face haunting topics such as telepathy, astral projection, spirit channeling, eternal life, etc. These themes make you wonder about the limits of the human mind and elements of this have seeped into Exostar and its sequels.

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell was a heart-shattering story that stayed with me for years. However hard the story, I believe that tough subjects in middle-grade books can teach young readers to better face real-life hardships as adults. For example, learning to deal with a fictional death might prepare readers to deal with it a little better in the real world. I channeled some of those raw, heart aching feelings in Ben Archer and the Alien Skill.

Chanti: That is a rich tapestry of influences! With such a creative imagination constantly at work, do you ever hit those dreaded writer’s block moments?

Knightly: Yes, I experience writer’s block. I guess it’s the bane of every author’s existence.

However, I no longer shy from this debilitating fear of the blank page. I find that if I am unable to write, it usually means that my brain is saturated and I need to take a break. This break can last from a couple of days to several months, but I have learned to trust the process. Once an author, always an author, is my motto! Imagination never really leaves you. Creativity can come and go, like the ebb and flow of waves crashing on a beach, and if my characters are not talking to me, then perhaps it’s time to do something else for a while.

Chanti: That’s such a healthy perspective on the creative process! You’ve achieved remarkable success with your award-winning books. What marketing advice can you share with other authors?

Knightly: The things that have helped sell over 120,000 books:

• Paying for great, on-target book covers
• Knowing who my readers are (10 to 14 year olds)
• Always delivering as promised in a regular, timely manner
• Learning to run Amazon ads
• Creating clean, fun adventure stories that captivate readers
• Joining joint book promotions and doing newsletter swaps
• Creating excitement for the next book on social media
• Putting up the next book for pre-order and adding links in the back-matter

Chanti: All fantastic, practical advice! As we wrap up, what exciting projects are you working on now? What can your devoted readers look forward to next?

Knightly: The Lost Space Treasure Series continues. After writing book 1, Exostar, I published books 2 and 3: Megastar and Polestar. I am currently editing book 4: Grimstar.

Trin Moonrise travels the stars in search of her identity which might be hidden on a legendary spaceship thought to hold the greatest treasure in the known galaxy. However, her arch-nemesis, the evil Remnant Supreme Leader, is always one step behind.

Next, I plan on delving deeper into my young adult dystopian series, The Knowledge Seeker, and my readers have let me know that they would love to read more Ben Archer books.

Even though middle-grade science fiction is less popular, I hope to continue exploring the genre for many years to come.

Thank you, Rae Knightly, for sharing your writing journey with us and for bringing great young adult sci-fi to readers around the world! 

Rae Knightly is an award-winning and Amazon bestselling author specializing in middle-grade and young adult fiction, with over 160,000 books distributed. She is the author of The Alien Skill Series, The Lost Space Treasure Series, and The Knowledge Seeker. Knightly was raised in various locations on Earth, during which time she picked up four languages and came to appreciate this blue pebble floating in the confines of space. Her current human mission is to keep the stars shining in her two children’s eyes, while hopefully igniting new ones within others across the globe. Rae spends her time spirit travelling to distant galaxies or exploring the breathtaking landscapes of British Columbia, Canada, before returning with more adventures for her Alien Skill Series.