Where It All Began...

  Hey. Welcome to the Sam Banks website, written by me, Sam, where I'll post all things Project G.A.I.A. related. In case you haven't got to that part of the site, Project G.A.I.A. (GAIA for short - it becomes a bit of a mouthful after a while) is my debut YA novel, about teens with superpowers - and yes, it's fiction, before you ask.
  I guess I should tell you the story behind GAIA. The idea came to me during a Media Studies lesson, where we had to come up with a brief storyline for an action/adventure film. My "brief " outline ended up being 20 pages long! I was so obsessed with my new story (which was admittedly awful) that I passed up the parties and normal 15 year old activities to dedicate all my free time to GAIA.

*nerd...*

  Long story short - 9 months later, I had my first draft sitting in front of me. Now that I'm in the process of editing GAIA (a year later...), with a mind to publishing it for you guys, I thought I'd get the word out and tell you a little bit about the book and to see if there are people out there who like superheroes as much as me!

  I wrote GAIA (very selfishly) for myself - I wrote the book that I wanted to read. I've always loved superhero movies, but they mostly focus on adults (Thor, Captain America, Wolverine). I wanted to get into the mind of a teenager discovering their powers for the first time, and follow their story to see where they'd go, purely because I love the unpredictability of it. With comic books, it's all very clear cut black'n'white, good vs evil, whereas GAIA breaks the mould a little, while still sticking to the conventions that we all love about superhero movies/books.

  So, to finish this introductory post, I'll tell you now that you should definitely say hi, and you can find a description of Project G.A.I.A. here. I'd love to hear what you think!

  I'll keep you updated on how the editing goes (probably once a month - I know that sounds lazy, but come on! I've got to fit the editing in somewhere!) and maybe post some of my character portraits (although I have to admit I'm not an artist, or anywhere near as good at drawing as I'd like to be), so watch this space.

  Sam