I promise I’ll give it back.” But I never did think of an alternative. My 3 month old baby was lying on her play mat next to my work desk and I looked at her and said, “Evie, darling, mummy just needs to borrow your name. I was impatient to begin my story but I could not think of a name for my central character. NAW- How do you decide the names for your characters?

The issue of genetic engineering creates high stakes drama and stirs up dark and disturbing questions about free-will/freedom of choice. I like sci-fi more than magic as a means by which I could create a ‘fantastical’ element to the story. My favourite Sci-fi movie is Minority Report and I love Blade Runner and the Star Trek movies. I especially love gritty dystopian science fiction. Then I just went a bit mad making things up like a gigantic game of Balderdash. I spoke to clever science friends and had them explain things to me in very small words. I spent some time Googling DNA, brainwaves, basic physics. Do you have a background in science? How did you carry out all the research needed for the book? NAW- DNA manipulation to breed fighters was a really interesting concept. Genetic engineering seemed like the right premise. I immediately began asking questions: why was I so fast/strong? How did I know the girl was out there? Why was it my responsibility to save her? Why would someone want to kill her? It didn’t feel like magic, it felt like being a bit of a superhero. I woke knowing I had the idea for a story, the idea I had prayed for before going to sleep.

I was running through a forest at night with incredible speed and reflexes and I knew I had to reach a girl who was lost and in danger out there in the dark and that someone was going to kill her if I didn’t get there first. The idea for Spark came to me in a dream. She must learn to master her new physical and psychic capabilities in order to keep her friend safe, all the while coping with grief after the death of her mother, settling in with her Aunt, fitting in at a new school and trying hard not to fall in love with her best-friend’s brother, Jamie. Spark is a Young Adult Sci-fi cross over novel about a seventeen year old girl who discovers she has been genetically engineered to save her best friend from a genetically engineered killer. What is it about? How did you get the idea for it?

To get a glimpse of her work, visit her here. Rachael was born and raised in Christchurch, New Zealand, and currently lives in Nelson with her husband and three daughters. Her debut novel, Spark, is the first in a series released with Walker Books Australia from 2014. Working with teenagers has given her a natural bent towards Young Adult fiction and a desire to present a feisty female protagonist in her writing. Rachael Craw studied Classical Studies and Drama at the University of Canterbury, but became an English teacher after graduation.

Spark by Rachael Craw