Minnetonka Publisher Has Exclusive Rights to Publish Novels Based on TV Series

MINNETONKA, MN: The TV series aired in 1965-66. And yet the appeal of "Thunderbirds" is still amazingly strong; a search on Google for 'thunderbirds tv series' (not in quotes) brings 204,000 hits; DVDs of the series continue to sell well.

Now, more than forty years later, a Minnetonka publisher has secured the rights from Granada Ventures in London to create and publish original novels based on the British TV series that starred primarily American characters, was set 100 years after the world of 1965, and used a form of electronic audio-synchronized puppetry called "Supermarionation."

In each of the 32 original episodes, the Tracy brothers, named after five of the astronauts in the Mercury space program, their father, Jeff, and assorted agents, respond to a distress signal picked up by their organization, International Rescue, and use their fleet of five ultra-high-tech Thunderbird air/space craft to rescue someone who is hopelessly trapped and in terrible danger—often involving collapsing or burning structures (buildings, towers, or bridges), criminal plots, or environmental disasters.

FTL Publications, a multiple award-winning science fiction, fantasy, and mystery publishing house founded in 1993, obtained the only license ever issued in the U.S., and the only current license in the world, to create original novels based on the series. Joan Marie Verba, FTL's Publisher, has already written and published four novels based on the series. All have received the Mom’s Choice Award® for the best in family-friendly entertainment. The fifth novel, Extreme Hazard, has just been released (December 2011).

Verba is a long-time fan of the series, and sees its relevance for our own decade: "These stories of disaster and rescue really resonate with people." She expects the book series to kindle interest in the Thunderbirds phenomenon among a whole new generation.

Verba is a member of both the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and a former associate instructor of astronomy. She is a graduate of Minnetonka High School and the University of Minnesota (Bachelor of Physics).

Readers who wish further information can visit the site http://www.thunderbirds.com.