Jennifer Killick has fast become one of my favourite children’s authors in recent years with the Alex Sparrow series and Mo, Lottie and the Junkers high on my list of must-have reads on the book shelf. Great stories, lots of humour, believable characters and heart-warming friendships are at the heart of her books.

With the success of Jennifer’s more recent series, Crater Lake, published by Firefly Press and centred on the sinister, sci-fi adventures surrounding a group of school friends, it’s clear to see her books becoming a staple for many middle-grade readers (and lots of grown ups too!). The Crater Lake stories have all the hallmarks of Jennifer’s previous titles – great friendships, engaging characters, fantastic dialogue and the added element of being super-creepy! Today, Jennifer shares her thoughts on writing the Crater Lake sequel, Crater Lake: Evolution.

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Welcome to the blog Jennifer!

“Here’s the sequel situation: Your book did well: hooray! Your publisher has commissioned a sequel: double hooray! A sequel is an opportunity to continue a story you love, full of characters you already know and are incredibly attached to. All you have to do is pick up where you left off – that’s easy, right? RIGHT?

I wrote Crater Lake as a stand-alone book. I wanted it to be a compact, neatly-tied parcel of satisfaction. There was no way I was going to ruin it by writing a sequel. But people were keen for a second book, and an excellent little idea just plopped itself down in front of me. So I agreed, and then I panicked.

One of the things that worked best in Crater Lake was the setting – keeping everything confined to one activity centre for the duration of a residential trip. It was simple and recognisable,  but something that I felt would become predictable and unbelievable if I used it again. A new setting was needed.

The characters in Crater Lake were the perfect group – a mix of personalities and experiences all coming together to form a tight-knit team. But in a second story they would need to continue to learn and grow. I had to rethink the characters.

The alien threat in Crater Lake was full of menace – turning the characters’ best friends and teachers into the enemy made their actions far more sinister and disturbing. How could I raise the threat level even higher? I needed something new.

After much stressing and crying and knowing that there was no way I was going to pull off a second book, I decided that the best way to approach my sequel was to almost forget it was a sequel. I wrote Crater Lake as if it would be my last book, as if it existed on its own in solitary completeness. I wrote Evolution in the same way. I took those characters that I loved so well, and thought about how they would naturally change in their transition to secondary school. I thought about the things in their lives that I hadn’t explored: their homes and their families. I imagined how an intelligent alien enemy might learn and grow after its failed attempt at destroying the human race. I played out scenes in my mind in the middle of the night – so creepy that I couldn’t get back to sleep. And then I sat down and wrote that story like it would be my last.”

Find out more about Jennifer and her books at https://www.jenniferkillick.com/. With thanks to Jennifer and Firefly Press for sharing this guest post.