SJ Wonder

Writing is like being in love—when you are inspired, when the muses like you and the creativity flows, you never want to step out of the current. You want it to sweep you away. You don’t care where. But when the words that exit your fingers don’t make sense and your characters refuse to play, you want to slam the computer shut and be a normal person who lives happily without the ‘what-ifs’ of creating your own world.

So if you are serious about committing to a novel, you have to love it enough not to close the lid when your story doesn’t love you back. In fact, you have to be able to fight it out with your story even when it screams ‘I hate you’ and you want to scream back, ‘You’re stupid. Nobody’s gonna read you.’ Sound familiar?

I am a nerd. On July 21st, 1969, my dad woke me up to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon. The fact that flip cell phones look like Captain Kirk’s communicator and iTunes resembles Commander Data’s computerized music playlist system fascinates me. The Big Bang Theory's popularity proves nerds rule the world and that gives me hope.

I have always been a writer and I have always lived with Cerebral Palsy. However, I never thought I would write a Sci-Fi novel, let alone one about a group of kids with (and without) physical disabilities. In fact, most of the time, I choose to ignore my own physical circumstances simply because there is a lot more to me than how my body works.

I despise brave little crippled people stories. I cringe when people say, “I thought I had it bad before I met you. Now, I feel so much better about my life.” People with disabilities are no more heroic or angelic or cursed than anyone else. Everybody has sucky challenges. Mine just hang out there for the whole world to see. I can’t hide them. Disability is a natural part of life. I was not going to dedicate a chunk of my life to a story that included people living with disability unless it reflected that belief.
After about ten years as a non-profit project coordinator and grant writer, I had given up on finding that one quirky idea that I would love enough not to slam the lid on when we were disenchanted with each other. Like most terminally bored people, circumstances stepped in to help me out- even though 'helpful' was not the word I would have used.

First, I lost my secure-yet-perfectly dreadful job and went back to college. By the time I graduated in 2008 the job market shriveled up so I joined AmeriCorps working on behalf of individuals with disabilities.

Secondly, Alvena died from Alzheimer’s disease. She was a firecracker—loving most of the time, mean some of the time and fiery all of the time. She taught me everything. Then, this person who sewed for 60 years simply forgot how to do it. A hairdresser since she was 17, she stared at a curling iron and asked what it was. Then she forgot how to talk. My grandmother? Not possible. This woman never shut up. I loved her, but she had an opinion about everything!

While witnessing this surreal process, I kept thinking, “No, really. . . where is she? Where did so go?” She has to go somewhere. The personality, the core of a human being, has to go somewhere when the brain flakes out. It just can’t dissolve into nothing. Right?

Just like prairie dogs, the ‘what ifs’ popped up one by one. ‘What if” there is a world—no, a base, that's it--where a grandfather’s personality manifested itself when he was experiencing dementia? ‘What if’’ he was sacrificing his human consciousness in order to shield his grandchildren who were being pursued by a pair of psycho alien princesses? And, just for something completely left-field, ‘what if’ my main heroine was a baseball playing, confident-yet-nerdy girl flew around in a tricked-out wheelchair trying to save Earth?

“Write me!” the idea tormented me. “I’m not going to let you think about anything else ‘til you do.” So,after completing two terms in AmeriCorps (the best experience of my life), I relented. The Wonderville Chronicles was born.

Did you know Ray Bradbury wrote one of his books on a $.10 an hour rented typewriter? He completed it for a little under $7. I laughed when I read that little factoid. What took him about 70 hours took me the better part of two years. Now, I have a 300 page manuscript ready to enter the editorial phase.

Writing...writing...writing...interest in all things nerdy...video game culture...Canada (I sooo want to move to Ontario)...politics...the democratizing power of the internet...