Along Came Spider: The Making of a Superhero follows an elementary school boy who, along with his friends, is being bullied by two boys who terrorize students. What was the inspiration for your story?

There were several factors that inspired me:

1) I grew up with comics, but they were always on a higher level than I probably should have been reading at the time. I really wanted to write a comic for kids that was age-appropriate.

2) I was bullied several times when I was kid, so that was a factor in writing this book because I often was a little bit different than some of my classmates.

3) As a child, it’s very easy to feel like no one notices you. I thought I’d take that inadequate emotion of feeling invisible and turn it into a superpower instead.

​Spider has to learn to stand up for himself and his friends, and that is a hard thing to do, especially with bullies. What were the morals you were trying to capture while creating your characters?

When you’re bullied, you lose some of your personal power. I wanted to give power back to the main character Spider. I also know, from my own experience, that it can be hard to do the right thing – to stand up for one’s self and others, that requires all of us to find courage and personal power to stand out and stand up for what matters.

What were some educational aspects that were important for you to include in this children’s book?

I think a lot of bullying occurs because 1) teachers either don’t know what to look for or they, too, have a tendency to not see some things that are right in front of their eyes. 2) There is often a herd mentality going on in schools – especially when we are young and are trying to find a sense of ourselves. Anything different is to be avoided because it can often draw negative attention to us. We all want to stand out in a positive way, not a negative way. I wanted this book to give a sense of empowerment to all kids.

Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out, and what can your fans expect in the next story?

This is the first book in the Web Society series. There will be 11 books total. The next book is actually about Lacey’s superpower. It will probably be next year before that book comes out. I currently work a full-time job and write in my free time, and Alex, my illustrator, is in the same boat as I am, so we can’t devote all our time to just working on this one book. Plus, I do work on other genres as well. The more heavily illustrated a book is, the longer it takes to finish it, but, I assure you, that when it does get finished, the next book in the series has a little more action and danger and Spider will be in that one as well.

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Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/06/13/personal-power/