In the midst of an intergalactic war, 500 POWs are being sent home as part of a cease-fire; among them is Lia Johansen. A young woman whose parents died in front of her eyes, Lia is just a scared refugee uncertain of who she is or what she will do next. Or is she? Shortly after reaching New Sol Space Station, Lia’s memories coming snapping back and she remembers who she truly is: a genetically engineered bomb with the sole purpose of blowing up New Sol.

This is how local author Margaret Fortune’s young adult sci-fi thriller Nova begins. With an internal timer set at 36 hours, her mission is to go “nova” at the end of her 36 hours. Lia’s mission gets complicated when something she never expected happens: She’s a dud. Unable to complete her mission, Lia begins exploring the idea of starting a new life and trying to become human in the process. When her clock starts sporadically losing time, she is forced to search for a way to turn off the clock permanently before the worst happens.

“A powerful, edge-of-your-seat read, Nova is written with an immediacy that only a first-person narrative can convey,” said Elizabeth Wollheim, president and publisher of DAW Books Inc. DAW Books has been publishing science fiction and fantasy since 1971, and they are very excited about Fortune’s first novel. “I hope you are as excited as I am to discover Margaret Fortune, a writer whom I believe is destined for greatness in our industry,” Wollheim said.

“Science fiction is just so full of possibilities. There is so much you can do with it, and as a writer it’s really fun because if you write a contemporary story, you’re sort of restricted by the rules of reality. When you have speculative fiction, such as sci-fi, you can explore humanity in an interesting or different way.” – Margaret Fortune, author of the young-adult sci-fi novel Nova

Margaret is an Eau Claire local who has been obsessed with science fiction and fantasy since she was a little girl. For 10 years, her family owned The Little Professor Book Center (you may remember it) right here in Eau Claire. Whether it was reading books by H.M. Hoover or Monica Hughes at the library or watching Star Trek, Margaret was very influenced by science fiction growing up. It was only natural when she began creating her own work.

“Science fiction is just so full of possibilities,” Margaret told me. “There is so much you can do with it, and as a writer it’s really fun because if you write a contemporary story, you’re sort of restricted by the rules of reality. When you have speculative fiction, such as sci-fi, you can explore humanity in an interesting or different way.”

This is Margaret’s first published novel, so she was very exciting when she was told that DAW Books wanted to publish her book. “It feels amazing. It feels the way you’d expect something to feel when you’ve been working on it for a very, very long time.” Additionally, DAW Books has already offered to publish the four books that will follow Nova.

Margaret Fortune

I asked if Margaret could tell me what to expect in the future novels. She didn’t offer too many details, but said that each book will be from the perspective of a different side character we meet in the first book. In this way, the series will give the characters we enjoyed from Nova their own stories. “It’s one of those series where they are loosely connected by this interstellar war that is going on, but you don’t see how each individual story connects until the last book,” she said. “Then you see how everyone’s story is really significant.”

Nova by Margaret Fortune is available in bookstores around the United States, including The Local Store, 205 N. Dewey St., as well as online at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and bookdepository.com. Learn more about Fortune at margaretfortune.wordpress.com.