BONUS! Behind the Adventure: The Destination Revealed

Our narrator has been resting her voice, so instead of a brand-new episode this week, we’re sharing another bonus! Join us for Behind the Adventure: The Destination Revealed, where we talk about mysterious mentors, riveting riddles, and more in this behind-the-scenes look at chapter 2 of Adventures on Ahway Island.

Thanks for sticking with us, and we’ll be back with Episode 21: Digging for Treasure – Part 3 very soon!

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Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Hello and welcome to Behind the Adventure, where you could
behind the scenes look at Adventures on Alway Island.
My name is Christy. I'm part of the writing team
here on Alway Island, and I'm here with Susie, the creator and
head writer for Adventures on Alway Island.
Hi, everyone. Hi, Christy.
Today we're going to talk about Chapter 2, The Destination

(00:23):
Revealed. This is a really exciting
chapter. We learned a lot.
I had fun writing it. It was I have I have the plot in
mind, but I also have a few discoveries that I make on my
own that just kind of pop out. And some of those things
happened in this chapter. So it was super fun to create.
Wow. It's so interesting you said
that because actually I'm going to skip ahead to my last

(00:46):
question. My I was going to ask you how
far ahead you have plans and do you know how many chapters will
be in a full season? Or are you leaving space for
surprises along the. Way both.
I actually have at least three full books planned out already,
the story and the plot, so that I know where I'm going.

(01:07):
And that's really helpful to me to have that.
So as I write these early chapters, I'm setting up later
events to happen and Easter eggsand things like that.
So that's where it's helpful to me to have the big picture
stories in mind for each of the books and to be a little bit
quite far ahead. But I also am leaving room for

(01:31):
discoveries along the way. And that's what makes it fun and
magical for me to write, I guessis the best way I can say it.
Because sometimes as I'm writing, the story just takes me
in a direction that I didn't expect.
And I'm like, this is feeling good.
I think this is where they need to go.
So I feel like I'm on my own writing adventure as as as this

(01:52):
story unfolds. Speaking of intriguing, I want
to ask you about the character of Saphos.
He is a very intriguing character to me, and he seems to
know more than he lets on. Can you share anything about
what inspired this character or what role you think he'll play
in the rest of the season? Yes, I will share a few things

(02:12):
and I won't share some things too.
Saphos is a very special character.
I'll use that word. I'm choosing my words carefully
here. Saphos is a very special
character who is a conduit into the mystery right now.
He is the person that the kids know least and yet he is the one

(02:32):
helping them most with their next steps on this journey.
And he's showing up in differentplaces to their surprise.
And so he's going to play a rolein future stories, future
chapters. But I don't want to give away
what the role is or roles. But he is an important character

(02:54):
and what inspired me to create him.
I think every great story needs an entry point, and he felt like
the entry point to me, the startof something big.
Certainly it was the finding of the folded piece of paper in the
book that really started things.But beyond that, without some

(03:15):
kind of help, Marie, JJ and Christian had nowhere to go with
it, would not have known where to go.
And so that's when Sophos arrived and magically started
helping them a little bit. So I needed a real human conduit
too. And he is it.
I like how he's sort of slowly helping them decode these clues

(03:38):
that you've given. Speaking of clues, this chapter
introduced some new riddles in the form of a poem.
How do you approach writing these riddles and what makes for
a good one? That's a good question.
So how I've approached writing these early riddles is quite
simple. Marie and JJ and Christian are

(04:00):
10 years old, so the Riddle thatthey needed had to be something
that they could at least start to understand or or figure out
or pick apart in some way. And this is their first
adventure together, so it's not like they solve these things all
the time. So the first riddles had to be,

(04:21):
in my mind, interesting enough but helpful enough that they
could actually get to the next stage or step in the story, if
that makes sense. I felt like the people who I
won't speak to who they are, butwhoever left the clues for the
kids were kids themselves. So that also gave me information

(04:47):
about how to write these riddles.
It wasn't an adult. This is kids writing for other
kids to find this. And in my mind, the kids that
wrote this felt like by the timethe Finder, the kid finders
found the riddles, if that makessense.
They've already gotten figured out part of of where to go.

(05:09):
They found the buried treasure for the second Riddle.
They figured out how to find thefirst Riddle on the map, and so
the Riddle at that point is justmore information in Riddle form
for the kids to figure out, but not so hard that they can't if
that makes. Sense, sorry.
And it's bonus points because itrhymes.

(05:31):
Yes. So the riddles are in a poetic
form with rhyming at the end to make them easier for the kids to
remember. Because story wise, it's not
very interesting if they have tokeep checking it back on the
phone and looking at it again and again.
If they can kind of keep it in mind, meaning the listener can

(05:52):
also kind of keep it in mind, ithelps draw the listener in to
the story and feel like they're part of solving the Riddle.
Because maybe they remember parts of the rhyme too.
I want to I have a question as alistener that I found really
interesting. Episode 6 ends with JJ and
Christian walking out of Marie'sroom feeling frustrated and

(06:15):
disappointing, leaving us wondering if they'll stay around
to help Marie solve the mystery.Up until now, they've been
completely on board. What made you decide to
introduce that moment of conflict between these three
friends? A couple things.
Number one, friends do have conflict and things aren't
always perfect and that makes itreal and relatable, I think.

(06:39):
But also it's the first time where the audience is seeing the
different personalities a littlebit the difference.
And that's helpful because as the story gets deeper and as
Moore's revealed, everyone's going to learn more about JJ and
Christian and they're their own people and they have their own

(07:01):
value to the story. Sure, Marie is the protagonist,
but it they are a trio and the critical thing to this adventure
is they need each other, but that doesn't mean they're not
going to have conflict along theway.
And this is the first big 1. So I will say the spoiler alert
is they they will be together onthe adventure at least for the

(07:24):
foreseeable future. So they're not going to not help
ever again, but at this point, Marie is going to have to fight
to keep them along and keep thema little interested too.
OK, I'm glad to hear that we'll be hearing more about JJ and
Christian. Well, since I asked my final
question to you at the beginning, I'm going to throw
surprise one your way. Is there anything that we

(07:47):
listeners should be paying attention to in Chapter 3?
Everything clues are going to come where you least expect
them. That that's why I have the story
figured out so far in advance. So little Easter eggs are being
dropped everywhere. And something that may seem like

(08:11):
why is this being said here? Why is this being mentioned
here? Well, it just might matter in
the future. Might not.
So no, no zoning out. Listen to every single word.
It's, it's important I and that comes from my love of books and
the books that I've read that have been kind of epic adventure

(08:32):
stories with mystery and intrigue and different things
happening. I have absolutely loved it when
the book calls back to somethingmentioned earlier or a character
or a thing that you thought wasn't important, you suddenly
realized was very important. It's delightful, and it feels

(08:53):
like to me as a reader or as a listener that I'm part of the
adventure and I'm helping figureit out too, and I like that.
So that's what I'm trying to do for our audience as well.
That's amazing. Well, thank you so much for
talking to me about Chapter 2, and I'm really looking forward
to what happens next. Will Marie solve this next

(09:15):
Riddle? We'll find out.
We'll find out. Thank you, Christy.
Thank you.