For Immediate Release
February 9, 2008

MINNETONKA, MN: The TV series aired in 1965-66; the books were published in 1966-67.* 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. Thunderbirds toy vehicles are among the hottest sellers ever made by Matchbox, Konami,  and Dinky.

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.

Now, more than forty years later, a Minnesota 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."

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, announced that the first book, which she will write herself, will cover the origins of International Rescue, and will feature "plenty of action and adventure, as well as rescues, rescues, and more rescues." Publication is slated for early summer 2008, with a cover by one of the classic Thunderbirds artists.

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 the author of Boldly Writing and the co-author of a five-way collaborative novel, Autumn World. She has also written several stories based on Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover series, published in the anthologies that Bradley herself edited.

Readers who wish to know when the first book is available, can visit Verba at http://blog.ftlpublications.info

Journalists: Verba welcomes your questions and interviews.

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* Original novels based on the books; 4 children's novelizations of specific episodes were released in 1992, in Britain