“Hey Suzy!” Jeff gasped. “Have you seen Nacho? Did he make it back inside before we switched the school?”
Suzy considered. “I don’t know. But I’m sure there are people who got left behind. I think there’s going to be some work to do to before everything’s right again.”
Jeff picked up the wand and nodded. “Well good thing for them, I’m a kung fu wizard with a giant wand.”
THE END
Until book 2 – HIGH SCHOOL
A Note on the Alien Language, Urcyew
When I was a little kid, maybe five or six, I had this wrong idea about languages. I thought that learning a foreign language meant learning the code or cypher to translate words, and once you had learned the code, it was simply a matter of practice until you became fluent. I probably got that idea from Pig Latin.
When I learned later that there is no code to decipher languages, that you actually have to learn thousands of new vocabulary words, new rules of syntax, new conjugations… it was a disillusionment on the scale of learning that there are no talking animals or that cartoons aren’t alive.
Now jump forward twenty-five years to when I started working on this book and realized I would need to make up a language for the aliens. Hundreds or thousands of new words to make up? Laws of syntax and conjugation? At every step in writing this book, my ruling principle was, “What is the FUNNEST way this can go?” And making up a language did NOT sound fun.
So I didn’t.
Urcyew is not a language; it is encrypted English. If you can figure out the cypher, you can decode every line of Urcyew in this book. And if you yuotu qu o quzocu ox ronoreuyjoshsquor.ggiqu/eoquzizquoshx, you might just win a prize. I’ll be posting hints periodically on my website, nathanielhardman.com, as well as updates on book 2, High School. Thanks for reading, and good luck!.
Acknowledgements and Thanks
I know of writers who have a hard time getting people to read their books and give them feedback. I am very grateful that I haven’t had this problem. I have been absurdly fortunate to have so many people willing to read this and make it better. And it IS better because of each of these people. So here’s a thank you:
To my family: Ammon, Felix, Amelia, Nephi, 2nd Nephi, Seth, Anika, Nancy Hardman, Sarah Jenkins, Melinda Hardman, and Michael Leué. Thank you!
To my family who ALSO were part of my writing group when I was just starting to write this: Heather Webster, Daniel Hardman, Brent Webster, Josh Hardman, Becca Rasmussen, and Drew Vincent. You’re all wonderful, and everyone should read your books too.
To church friends: Monica Ballash, Bonnie Matura, Isaac A., Abbie A., Katie Allen, Tyler H., and my very first beta reader, Brandon L. You all made this book better, even (and especially) Brandon who gave up halfway through because it was too confusing. Painful feedback I needed to hear. Thank you!
To my writer friends: Sally Apokedak (sally-apokedak.com), Malissa Richeson, Cheryl Secomb, and Steve Eston (sceston.ca). Some of the most pointed, painful, and useful feedback I got. Thank you.
A special thank you to my wife, Lina, for encouraging me even when she would probably rather have had my help on more useful projects. She deserves credit for this book being done. And finally, to my eldest daughter whose tireless, “Dad, can you tell me a story?” led directly to this book: thank you for loving my stories!
About the Author
Nathaniel has a bachelor’s in Statistics and a master’s in Business. Working in business by day, he has worked by night as an intern at the Les Stobbe Literary Agency and the Apokedak Literary Agency since 2017, where he reviews author submissions and edits manuscripts prior to submission to publishers. He also edited the website freebetareader.com for several years, where he read and edited dozens of manuscripts for various writers. Today he manages the Middle-Grade Story Contest for middle schoolers at mgstorycontest.com.
SCHOOL is his debut novel, but he has been writing since he was a child, posting short stories and poems online and once winning a small scholarship from the Utah State University student writing competition, Scribendi. In addition to his own book, Nathaniel narrated his brother Daniel Hardman’s book, Viking, also available on Audible and iTunes. He used to reside in Alpharetta, GA, but was magically whisked away to Utah, where he lives now. To connect with Nathaniel or get updates on Book 2, High School, visit nathanielhardman.com
Enjoy stories? Like winning prizes? Then consider submitting a story to the Middle-grade Story Contest, a fiction-writing contest for students in U.S. grades 6-9!
Winnings* are awarded monthly (*currently $25 Amazon gift cards, but subject to change)
Submission is free
Unlike any other writing contest we know of, we give constructive feedback on EVERY submission
The focus of the MG Story Contest is on helping young writers learn the craft and improve their writing skills. We hope to foster a love for writing and reading as well as celebrating (and not avoiding) the editing and revision process. We also aspire to build a community among literary-minded youth.
The contest is sponsored by the Sally-Apokedak Literary Agency and managed by Nathaniel Hardman. For full details and submission guidelines, visit mgstorycontest.com or go to nathanielhardman.com and follow the links. Hope to see you there!
[1] This is not true at all; balut is not rotten, and it is cooked before it is eaten. But this is what someone had told Jeff, and he believed it.
[2] Why is that cow riding a stage coach?!
[3] For reasons that will be explained later, “gg” will be used for a very gutteral “h” sound, as if you were hocking a loogie.
[4]Tuynomosh couldn’t understand the human’s words, but they were, “Please identify
