BY WENDI REARDON
Clarkston News Staff Writer
What would happen if 10 humans were abducted by aliens for a tournament where the humans have to fight to see if Earth is worthy?
Clarkston native and author Travis J. Thompson answers the question in his series Tournament of the Worlds. Thompson will be at Clarkston Independence District Library to sign books on July 6, 6-8 p.m.
Thompson shared the first book in the series – the 10 abductees are from different regions of Earth and the book opens with the governments from the 10 countries they are from, meeting.

“It’s science fiction fantasy,” he added. “I am getting some really good reviews on it so far. I don’t want to give away too much. I really get into it. You could compare it to Game of Thrones because it goes through different characters perspective and how they are dealing with it.”
The inspiration for Tournament of the Worlds came from dreams he was having at night.
“They were very vivid dreams,” he said, adding he decided to start writing out what he dreamt.
“It was a dream sequence writing out each chapter. I tried to write it from the characters. They are all different and not the people you would expect fighting for earth against the aliens that come here.”
One of the characters is Maximus Smith from Detroit, Michigan, and representing North America.
“I worked in Detroit so that inspired me quite a bit,” Thompson added about Smith’s background. “That’s how I got the idea for Max – seeing the city and being in the city and being from small-town Clarkston. It was eye-opening.
“Then, there is a character from India, a few from Europe, China. It plays on the whole globalization and internationalism with being what is going on in the world right now in political elections. I do enjoy political banter. I had to throw in a few things currently going on in the world and acting like these humans are abducted by aliens. It was interesting doing it. It’s been a fantastic project. I love writing. I could probably talk for days.”
Another inspiration was his mom, Tammy, who he dedicated his first book to.
“My mom has fought through cancer,” Travis said. “She has gotten into a pretty horrendous car accident. I dedicated the first book to my mom and the second book rolled from there.”
Travis explained it’s unique especially in a world where Hollywood and television gives viewers the same thing over and over.
“I want to bring something unique to the world,” he said. “I want to write books that can be turned into a television show or a movie someday. It won’s be a Star Wars 13. I think a lot of the series are fantastic. They are beautiful, but they are reboots.”
Travis grew up in the Clarkston area and played football with the Wolves.
“The people here have been good to me,” he said. “I want to continue to being good to the people who live here. Anything I can do or say to support the community is fantastic.”
He worked in Detroit between the ages of 18- to 26-years-old.
“I got to soak everything in that I could,” he shared.
Then, at 27-years-old he began writing the first book in the Tournament of the Worlds series.
“He buckled down and wrote a book in a year,” said Tammy. “It took another year to find an editor.”
“I have found my niche,” he said. “I can write in volume like crazy. I can write 4,000 words a day. I really believe this is my future and this is what I am going to be doing for the rest of my life.”
The first book was published through CreateSpace and the second book was released in May.
Travis invites the community and writers to join him at CIDL on July 6.
“If you are a writer looking to be inspired – don’t give up,” Travis said, adding he began writing when he was 18-years-old.
He admitted he wasn’t good at it when he began, but he improved over the years just by continuing to write.
“Even if you don’t think you are that good just keep doing it,” he said. “Keep pumping it out because your vocabulary, your sentence structure, your punctuation is going to improve the more you do it. The more you really look at a thesaurus and dictionary those are tools. I had thesaurus on the internet pulled up because I wanted my writing to be really good. I didn’t want to put out subpar work.”
Check www.totwweb.com or Travis J. Thompson on Facebook.