Move over Harry Potter, as a pair of super sleuths and their friend make their debut in an adventure world created by an NHS Forth Valley Speech and Language therapist.
Glenn Carter’s first novel, Operation Sabre, targeted at 9-14 year olds took six years to write, was sparked by a dream and features three young people who are recruited to the youth division of MI5 and find themselves in a race against time.
Although Glenn has always loved reading, he did not set out to be an author but started down the writing path because he wanted to give his daughters a present for Christmas. Six Christmases later, it was mission accomplished.
Operation Sabre features twins Paul and Rachel Fox, whose father has been kidnapped. Together with a friend they are drawn into the world of espionage to uncover the mole and find their Dad before it is too late. Glenn says that whilst the book has a lot of action there is also depth to the story. He explained: “This may sound odd but the thing that sparked the start of the book was a vivid dream I had 6 years ago. Once I had developed the characters more fully it became a lot easier. At times it was as if the characters were driving the plot forward without any help from me!
“Apart from raising three daughters and my current job as a Speech and Language Co-ordinator, I think writing this book was one of the biggest challenges I have had to wrestle with. At times it felt like I was building a house from the roof down. So, yes it was hard to stay motivated and quite regularly I thought it was an impossible task. But with the help from my very understanding wife and a couple of really talented editors, I have finally made it.”
Glenn is aware that the children and young people’s book market is very competitive and with digital taking over from print, getting kids to read can be something of a challenge.
Throughout he has read the book to his daughters in instalments and says their reaction and joy on hearing the story has been his motivation to keep going. They have also have not held back when it comes to content that needed improvement. And the exciting book cover is the result of a competition he organised, inviting designers from all over the world to come up with ideas which attracted contributions from Brazil, Indonesia and America.
So is Operation Sabre the first in a series? Glenn thinks this could work as a trilogy and already has broad ideas for a second and third book. He has however, no plans for a celebration to mark his first venture into print. “One one of my daughters is getting a Nintendo for her birthday, so perhaps I’ll just collapse in front of that and properly switch off!
You can find out more at https://www.glenncarterauthor.com/
