Archive: Around Town

Did a couple of aliens named Silas and Sawyer try to blow up Earth by mistake?  After crash-landing on Earth when they meant to go to Mars?  We don't really know, but we do know they landed here and had to ask an Earth boy named Dalton where they had ended up.  That's the pleasure of Casie Smith's '2 Aliens With 1 Bad Sense of Direction' -- that children act like children, and the aliens are, well, children.

"The aliens are saying 'Martians were attacking our planet. We were going to make peace, but if they don't want to we'll just blow them up,'" author Casie (Eastman) Smith explains.  "It's a comical version of young aliens' and a young boy's perspective on this very serious matter.  'Well, they started it.'"

The story tells how the aliens find Dalton at his school, fix their ship, and get directions.  

Click here to purchaseSmith is a Lansing native, now living in Odessa with her husband and three sons... Dalton, Silas and Sawyer.  The story began as a college writing assignment, but staying at home with her young sons made nap time the only real 'alone and adult' time Smith had.  Over the course of years, the birth of her first two sons and several nap times, Smith filled out the story, expanding and crafting it into a finished book.  Her third son was born just in time to have his name included in the story as well.

There were several points at which the project could have just disappeared.  When Smith, a teacher, went back to work she put the project aside, and didn't bring it back until her second son was born.  At that point she wondered about actually getting it published, so she contacted her English teacher, Mrs. Daniels, from Lansing Middle school.  

Daniels had become an author after she retired.  She directed Smith to Author House, a self-publishing house.  Eventually the company offered her a deal she couldn't refuse, 50% off a publishing package, but gave her only three days to accept it. That meant three days to consult with her husband, find an illustrator and sign the contract.

She reached out to Karen Gunning, her husband's cousin's wife.  Gunning is the art teacher at Odessa High School.  

"I had seen her pictures - she's a great artist.  So I called her," Smith says.  "We signed the contract in May and set a deadline for the pictures to be done by September 30th.  She did a wonderful job."

While Gunning was drawing, Smith used nap times to edit and craft the final draft.  The final editing was done, and the manuscript was submitted.

"I was fortunate that all three boys nap at the same time," Smith laughs.

Smith says that Dalton is old enough to love the book, though he complains that his character is not shown on the front cover.  She has been reaching out to schools to share her story with other children as well.  She has begun reaching out to principals to arrange readings, and of course the kids get to ask her whatever they want.

"There have been some really great questions," she says.  "How did you do it?  Could a kid do it?  It's been a great lesson, because the kids realize they're not the only ones who have to revise their work.  I remember being that age, thinking how many times do we have to rewrite this?  They asked me if it was a lot of work.  I said, yes it was a lot of work, but it was fun and now I can write whatever I want.  They asked why I did science fiction and I said, because you can make stuff up.  Your imagination is so much fun."

And there is the matter of that ending.  Smith says that now the first book has been published she would like to find a publisher for any sequels.  If that happens she will have to answer the question about what that explosion was at the end of the first book.

"If they accidentally pointed their blow-up machine at Earth, what could I come up with to stop that?" she says.  "What kind of cool tool could they use to stop it?"

Smith says that finishing a book is a bucket-list accomplishment that she is proud of, and something her boys will have -- with their names in the book -- forever.  Sharing the story has been the best part so far.

"Reading the book to the kids has been my favorite thing, because I love their reactions," she says.  "It was great reading to my kids.  Listening to them laugh at the humor in the book is the greatest part."

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