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Illustration by R.W. Alley, from the upcoming Jigsaw Jones book, THE CASE FROM OUTER SPACE. That’s Jigsaw with his father and grandmother.

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When writers are fully engaged in their work — not just writing, but actively (or unconsciously) thinking about the writing — it tends to create a state of unique receptivity. Everything we see, hear, read, or smell becomes fodder for the work. A face we see in a coffee shop becomes exactly the face we need for a minor character. Someone’s small gesture — the way a girl crosses her arms and squeezes the skin of her elbows when she’s nervous — soon worms its way into our writing.

We have our antennas up. We’re sticky like flypaper, catching the signals in the atmosphere. I’ve heard it described as a time of being particularly “spongey,” a state where writers are especially absorbent, like quality paper towels. The song in the elevator becomes the key song in the book, and so on. The whole world feeds into the writing in unexpected ways.

I suppose I was in that sticky/spongey condition when I began casting about for ideas for a new Jigsaw Jones book. After a while, I figured out that it would revolve around a note stuck inside a book, found at a Little Free Library (because I love them). Without disclosing too many spoilers, the found note would lead some to believe that aliens were coming from outer space. Spoiler #1: They are not. Coincidentally (or not), Jigsaw and Mila’s teacher, Ms. Gleason, has been talking about the planets in class. Spoiler #2: She was even planning a surprise Skype visit from a real, live astronaut.

I was eight years old on July 20, 1969, sitting before my television watching grainy, black-and-white images of Neal Armstrong walking on the moon. At the same time, “Star Trek” was the most popular show with my older brothers. “Lost In Space” was also on television, feeding that fascination. The idea of space, the final frontier, has always loomed large in my imagination.

Below is a photo of the only twelve people who have ever walked on the moon. This is what the astronauts looked like:

Notice anything about them? Go ahead, study hard; this might take some time. Hit the buzzer when you are ready.

BUZZZZZZZZ!

Yes, correct, they are all white men! Good work. I don’t recall questioning it at the time. But times do change, and many things do get better, even though it doesn’t always feel that way. Even so, this concept of what an astronaut looks like had been planted deep inside my brain. It just . . . was. Then one day the internet coughed up this image on my Facebook feed:

Beautiful, perfect. This was just what I needed. One of the tricks with plotting mysteries is to run counter to assumptions, gender or racial or otherwise. The reader leans one way, you go the other. Also, politically and personally, I want to celebrate the diversity in our world. I want to jar readers a little bit, perhaps. Remind them to rethink those assumptions. Or, maybe, help them see themselves reflected from a new distance . . . under a new light . . . maybe even a world away.

From the book:

Rough sketch from THE CASE FROM OUTER SPACE (Macmillan, August 2017).

NOTE: One of the primary missions of this blog is to provide readers with a glimpse behind the scenes into the writing process and a writer’s working life. If you go to the Jigsaw Jones page and scroll through, you’ll find links to many other “Stories Behind the Story” posts. This new book will come out in the summer of 2017, along with the repackaging of four more titles that are currently out of print. I’m happy about that.

When I was young, I hated green peas more than anything. They grossed me out and I refused to eat them…or I would have if my parents would let me, and since they were both pretty eagle-eyed, the chances were slim. So, I developed another, more subtle technique: get my plate really close to my brother’s, and shovel as fast as I could. Before you begin (or keep) thinking of me as a terrible person, my brother liked green peas and there was no harm, no foul. But if I had my very own robot obeying my every command, I wouldn’t have needed to do the pea switcheroo. I could have had my robot dispatch the nasty little green devils and no one would be the wiser. An intriguing thought, isn’t it? Some mechanized being doing your bidding would be almost too tempting to pass up. Monday morning would lose its sting. Family gatherings could be more bearable. Sink full of dishes? Done. Piles of laundry? Finished. Bills? Yardwork? Diaper changing? No big deal. The only problem I see with having your own robo-assistant is the laziness that would surely come along with such a handy little piece of technology. Then again, you could just set your robot to operate in guilt mode for you and not worry about it. Dan Yaccarino gives Phil a robot in If I Had A Robot and everything is great until there’s only one piece of cake. Then it’s everyone or everything for themselves.

http://www.amazon.com/Had-Robot-Picture-Puffin-Books/dp/014056294X

http://www.danyaccarino.com/dy/

Many kids will beg, plead, and annoy their parents into letting them get a puppy or kitten, but few have the skill or foresight to request the best kind of pet, a ROBOT.  Just imagine how awesome your life would have been if you had thought to get yourself one of these useful and quirky companions.

GODDARD

Jimmy Neutron, a young genius inventor, created Goddard as a helping hand and best friend.  One of Jimmy’s few inventions that doesn’t threaten to burn down the entire town of Retroville, Goddard can reportedly do 11,000,004 things.  Goddard however is unable to clean up after his  own “messes” (which are nuts and bolts).

GIR

In aiding Invader Zim’s quest to take over the Earth, GIR is at best a distraction.  Often, he is the cause of Zim’s epic “Wile E. Coyote” failures.  Despite his extremely convincing Earth disguise (a green dog suit with visible zipper) he is indeed a highly powerful yet malfunctional robot.

The Robot from Lost in Space

A Model B-9 Class M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot, the robot from Lost in Space has no given name.  The Robot is most famous for his catch phrase, “danger Will Robinson!”  It seems that the fun of a robot slave was lost on the young Robinson who tolerated the robot as a kind of metal nanny rather than enlisting it into more mischievous purposes.

SPEED BUGGY

While a sputtering delivery of “Roger-Dodger!” and “Vroom-a-zoom-zoom!” may grate on more adult nerves, a talking, self driving dune buggy is just the thing I would have died for as a kid.  Speed Buggy even had a remote control making him the world’s largest, most awesome RC car.  

C3P0

So he’s a bit of a wanker, C3P0 is still a marvel of engineering from an 8 year old.  R2D2 is obviously the preferred choice of the pair, but I would argue that C3P0’s personality make it possible that he can be classified as an actual “pet”, whereas R2D2 is a sassy service droid.

THE DINOBOTS

Big, metal, dumb as rocks.  They are the Dinobots and Grimlock is their King!  Much like GIR, they are often more trouble than they are worth to the Transformers who built them.  The Dinobots combine the awesomeness of Dinosaurs with the sexy sleekness of Robots.  One of my most epic dreams ever involved the decimation of my ninja enemies by my pet mechanical Brontosaurus.  Mwa ha ha ha ha!!!

And all I ever got was this!!!?

“I love you.”  Yeah, yeah.  Come back when you can breath fire and/or open locked doors with mathmatical algorhthyms. 

I know I must be missing some great Robot Pets, so please leave a comment if you can think of any more!

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Many kids will beg, plead, and annoy their parents into letting them get a puppy or kitten, but few have the skill or foresight to request the best kind of pet, a ROBOT.  Just imagine how awesome your life would have been if you had thought to get yourself one of these useful and quirky companions.

GODDARD

Jimmy Neutron, a young genius inventor, created Goddard as a helping hand and best friend.  One of Jimmy’s few inventions that doesn’t threaten to burn down the entire town of Retroville, Goddard can reportedly do 11,000,004 things.  Goddard however is unable to clean up after his  own “messes” (which are nuts and bolts).

GIR

In aiding Invader Zim’s quest to take over the Earth, GIR is at best a distraction.  Often, he is the cause of Zim’s epic “Wile E. Coyote” failures.  Despite his extremely convincing Earth disguise (a green dog suit with visible zipper) he is indeed a highly powerful yet malfunctional robot.

The Robot from Lost in Space

A Model B-9 Class M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot, the robot from Lost in Space has no given name.  The Robot is most famous for his catch phrase, “danger Will Robinson!”  It seems that the fun of a robot slave was lost on the young Robinson who tolerated the robot as a kind of metal nanny rather than enlisting it into more mischievous purposes.

SPEED BUGGY

While a sputtering delivery of “Roger-Dodger!” and “Vroom-a-zoom-zoom!” may grate on more adult nerves, a talking, self driving dune buggy is just the thing I would have died for as a kid.  Speed Buggy even had a remote control making him the world’s largest, most awesome RC car.  

C3P0

So he’s a bit of a wanker, C3P0 is still a marvel of engineering from an 8 year old.  R2D2 is obviously the preferred choice of the pair, but I would argue that C3P0’s personality make it possible that he can be classified as an actual “pet”, whereas R2D2 is a sassy service droid.

THE DINOBOTS

Big, metal, dumb as rocks.  They are the Dinobots and Grimlock is their King!  Much like GIR, they are often more trouble than they are worth to the Transformers who built them.  The Dinobots combine the awesomeness of Dinosaurs with the sexy sleekness of Robots.  One of my most epic dreams ever involved the decimation of my ninja enemies by my pet mechanical Brontosaurus.  Mwa ha ha ha ha!!!

And all I ever got was this!!!?

“I love you.”  Yeah, yeah.  Come back when you can breath fire and/or open locked doors with mathmatical algorhthyms. 

I know I must be missing some great Robot Pets, so please leave a comment if you can think of any more!

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