Bognor Regis author boldly goes where no-one has gone before

A BOGNOR Regis author has made her début literary offering with a science fiction book with a difference.

Christa Butler’s Malona explores the idea of aliens as the good guys.

“In a lot of scientific fiction books – and even in television programmes – the extra terrestrials are seen as unintelligent or portrayed in a negative way,” she said.

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“They are the baddies or the enemy, but I wanted to do the opposite.

“I wanted the aliens to be clever, intelligent and willing to pass on their knowledge for the good of the human race.”

Mrs Butler, of Sylvan Way, is a former nurse and emigrated from Germany in 1952.

After the initial idea, finishing Malona had proved to be challenging.

“It took months and months to finish,” she said.

“A few times I gave up and came back to it.”

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But completing the pages was not an immediate happy ending for Mrs Butler as she searched for a number of years to find a publisher.

“Finding the publisher was about as hard as writing the book,” she said. “You can go on for years and years searching. I must have tried just about every company.”

Malona is suitable for anyone over the age of 12, and centres on the possibility of being able to spot liars instantly and read peoples’ minds, something Mrs Butler thinks would revolutionise society.

She said: “Protagonist David Clark is walking on the Berkshire Downs when he ends up on a spaceship. Once he is aboard strange things start to happen.

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“The aliens can read minds and they decide to teach David the skill. He then embarks on a life of crime-fighting adventures with his policeman father.

“Sometimes his new life leads him into danger but he continues helping people nonetheless.”

Malona, published by Pen Press will be available from April 20.

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