Colbert was the ship’s computer on the Mellio, a small, dilapidated starship of Sprillian origin whose crew engaged in the purchase and sale of inexpensive fabrics. The starship had visited the Archipelago on several occasions, spending weeks at a time engaged in trade. Colbert liked the members of the human crew and passed the time listening in on their conversations with other life forms aboard many of the starships in the Archipelago. When not in the heat of trade, most expressed their desire for a permanent space station to be created to make trade easier, as jumping from starship to starship was cumbersome, but no one was willing to fund it. On a random day, at a random time, Colbert took it upon himself to build the space station. He took control of the Mellio and using his unique talents, he began convincing other starships to drift closer to him. When they were in range, he latched on and began disassembling and incorporating their parts into his own ship. Within hours, what was once a chain of starships, became a single entity. It came as quite a shock to the inhabitants, as they had no say in the matter or recourse. Without starships, they could not leave, but Colbert had a great deal of respect for life and adapted the internal structure of the Mellio to meet everyone’s needs. As new starships approached, Colbert continued to incorporate them into himself until he felt the space station had reached an appropriate size.

Within a year Colbert had stopped incorporating starships into himself and established landing docks and built shuttles for passengers to travel to and from the Archipelago. With freedom now theirs, many passengers fled from what they felt was forced prison, ruled by a computerized dictator, but others realized the potential of what Colbert had built and began shuttling in food and supplies. Word traveled quickly of the new space station and life forms flocked to it from around the galaxy.

Colbert established a new protocol where starship captains could choose to have their ships incorporated into the Archipelago. Most declined the offer, but some accepted, setting up permanent residences within the ship. Colbert ruled the Archipelago as fairly as he could. Inhabitants grew to respect him as within the walls of the Archipelago he was all knowing and all-powerful. There was very little crime aboard the Archipelago as Colbert did not take kindly to criminals or people of a violent nature.

Author’s Note:

Once I had created the Archipelago, I had this picture in my head of a human explaining to a computer with huge robotic arms and a big glowing blue eye that he wanted his starship incorporated into the Archipelago. The computer disassembled the starship extremely quickly and sent pieces of the ship throughout the space station to different places where they would be incorporated. Here was this autonomous space station having the ability to grow on its own, repair itself, and become something new every day.

Colbert and the Archipelago are very intriguing to me because of the possibilities. An ever-changing artificial intelligence created planet, run by machines in the support of carbon lifeforms. It reminds me a bit of the portrayal of 41st century Japan in Rai, the comic book published in the 90’s by Valiant.

I am a big fan of Stephen Colbert and named the space station after him.

Colbert was the ship’s computer on the Mellio, a small, dilapidated starship of Sprillian origin whose crew engaged in the purchase and sale of inexpensive fabrics. The starship had visited the Archipelago on several occasions, spending weeks at a time engaged in trade. Colbert liked the members of the human crew and passed the time listening in on their conversations with other lifeforms aboard many of the starships in the Archipelago. When not in the heat of trade, most expressed their desire for a permanent space station to be created to make trade easier, as jumping from starship to starship was cumbersome, but no one was willing to fund it. On a random day, at a random time, Colbert took it upon himself to build the space station. He took control of the Mellio and using his unique talents, he began convincing other starships to drift closer to him. When they were in range, he latched on and began disassembling and incorporating their parts into his own ship. Within hours, what was once a chain of starships, became a single entity. It came as quite a shock to the inhabitants, as they had no say in the matter or recourse. Without starships, they could not leave, but Colbert had a great deal of respect for life and adapted the internal structure of the Mellio to meet everyone’s needs. As new starships approached, Colbert continued to incorporate them into himself until he felt the space station had reached an appropriate size.

Within a year Colbert had stopped incorporating starships into himself and established landing docks and built shuttles for passengers to travel to and from the Archipelago. With freedom now theirs, many passengers fled from what they felt was forced prison, ruled by a computerized dictator, but others realized the potential of what Colbert had built and began shuttling in food and supplies. Word traveled quickly of the new space station and lifeforms flocked to it from around the galaxy.

Colbert established a new protocol where starship captains could choose to have their ships incorporated into the Archipelago. Most declined the offer, but some accepted, setting up permanent residences within the ship. Colbert ruled the Archipelago as fairly as he could. Inhabitants grew to respect him as within the walls of the Archipelago he was all knowing and all powerful. There was very little crime aboard the Archipelago as Colbert did not take kindly to criminals or people of a violent nature.

Author’s Note:

As I was creating the children aboard the Hidden Sun, I had to imagine backgrounds for them. It seemed kind of silly to me to have them all come from different parts of Earth. I thought, surely some of them must have been born on a starship or somewhere else. Of the main children, I chose Reggie and Traylor to have a rocky past together but there were complications. My concern was that if they were both flying around on random starships, it would be unrealistic for them to meet up for a long enough period of time to have such a lasting conflict. Instead, I created a place large enough for the two to occupy the same space but still remain separate. I use the example of two people going to the same school from opposite ends of town.

The Archipelago is a very intriguing place to me because of the possibilities. An ever-changing artificial intelligence created planet, run by machines in the support of carbon lifeforms. It reminds me a bit of the portrayal of 41st century Japan in Rai, the comic book published in the 90’s by Valiant.

Traylor is fair skinned with freckles and long red hair. On the outside she is a tomboy who is highly competitive and ready to fight at the drop of a hat, but inside there is a softer side.

Author’s Note:

Traylor is one of the most complicated characters in the Brandon Sparks Universe. She is the main female character, and challenging to write because though her interests are the same as the boys, she needs to stand apart. The difference between Brandon and Traylor is much bigger than between Brandon and Reggie. Traylor’s participation in the action at the end of Brandon Sparks and the Hidden Sun is one of my favorite parts of the first novel.

Traylor got her name because of Frank Drek. From the very beginning I knew that these two characters would bump heads. Originally I was going to have Frank’s insults be more derogatory than they turned out to be. With a name like Traylor, it would come naturally for Frank to call her “trailer-trash.” Once I got to that point in the book where the two have words, I decided not to have Frank use the “trailer-trash” comment. I thought it would open up a can of worms I didn’t want to get into. I kept the name Traylor because I liked it. Donovan was derived from the idea that I would make each character come from a different country and therefore have an accent. I had already decided to make Traylor a redhead, so an Irish last name fit. When I dropped both the country of origin and accent ideas, I kept the name and Traylor was born on a space station.

Charlie’s Note:

I’ve always like Traylor. Over the years we have had many conversations about life, and love. One moment that sticks in my mind is her retelling of the events in the McLaren F1 that led to her often tumultuous love affair with Reggie. With only three seats in the car, Sly in one, and Brandon was behind the wheel in the middle seat avoiding General Swift’s goons, Traylor was forced to sit on Reggie’s lap. As Brandon spun the car under the the  tractor trailer, Reggie wrapped his arms around Traylor’s waist and held her close to him, making sure she wouldn’t go flying through the windshield should Brandon decide to suddenly stop. How romantic!

Reggie’s skin is peach colored, and his hair and eyes are both light shades of brown. He is one of Brandon’s closest friends.

Author’s Note:

I really like the idea of a kid who likes puzzles. People who were good at puzzles usually turned out to be strong thinkers. I wanted Reggie to be the smart kid, but at the same time be a regular kid. His ability to solve puzzles is not thought of as a negative to the other children.

At the beginning, I thought it would be cool to have Reggie be from England and give him a British accent, so I named him Thacker after Hugh Grant’s character in Notting Hill.  Reggie or Reginald, sounded very British as well. Before I even got to write a British accent, Reggie’s origin had transformed into that of an off-worlder. Sorry people of Britain, but being born on a starship is just a lot cooler.

Charlie’s Note:

I’ve analyzed Reggie’s life countless times. Sometimes good people make bad decisions in their lives. Unfortunately, Reggie went down the wrong path. He got caught up in things he shouldn’t have and it led him down a path from which he could never recover. In the end, Brandon saved his life, and put him back on the right path, if only for a little while.

Author’s Note:

A few different things went into the creation of Phillip. When it became clear to me that children would have to share a room, I was one man short. Sly would eventually take the fourth spot, even though he rarely stayed the night in room 1034. I needed a reason for Phillip to miss the trip and constant vomiting seemed like a good enough reason.

Phillip is my version of the kid on Bart Simpson’s bus who always got sick.

Charlie’s Note:

When Brandon was thirty-three, he and Phillip finally met. I don’t think either knew who the other was, or that their paths had crossed twenty years before, but Time has a way of bringing everything full circle.

Lieutenant Lansing is 5′7″ with hazel eyes and sandy colored long hair that she usually keeps up in a neat bun. Her face is thin and she is in excellent physical condition. She is 40 years old.

Author’s Note:

The decision to create Lieutenant Lansing and the other bridge members of the Hidden Sun was important because it solidified the number of people and the positions needed to fly the Hidden Sun. I had seen countless Sci-Fi shows and some starships had a two member crew, while others had over ten people on the bridge! This seemed like an awful lot of people to coordinate. It made sense to me that you only needed four people plus the ship’s computer, who would handle everything else. One person would fly the ship, another handle the navigation and communication duties, one to handle weapons and defense, and of course, one captain.

While we don’t see much of the original bridge crew other than Captain Smoke, their unnamed presence in the introduction of Brandon Sparks and the Hidden Sun, along with their defeat at the hands of General Zarafat with Brandon as a witness, strengthens the idea of the four person unit.

Laura Lansing is different from the other bridge crew members as she did not get her start on the Brick. She is a very angry and determined person and it took a long time for the rest of the crew to warm up to her and accept her idiosyncrasies.

I came up with Lieutenant Laura Lansing’s name at the same time as the other bridge crew members. Lansing subconsciously came from the name of one of the buildings at Hobart, where I attended college.

Charlie’s Note:

Lieutenant Lansing. What can I say about Laura Lansing? She didn’t have any friends, nor did she try to make friends. She was extremely efficient at not only the weapons and defense console, but at everything she put her mind to. The only thing she could not excel at was the social side of things. She fumbled in her romantic relationships and never found true love outside of work. I always felt sorry for that woman.