Haarsma, P.J.

Personal

Born June 5, in Canada; married Marissa Grieco; children: Skylar (daughter). Education: McMaster University, B.S.; attended University of California—Los Angeles Film School.

Addresses

Home—Los Angeles, CA.

Career

Writer and professional photographer and filmmaker. Owner and producer for film production company for over 15 years. Creator and developer of Rings of Orbis online role-playing game; director of film Devious Beings. Presenter at schools. Volunteer for Kids Need to Read project.

Awards, Honors

New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age designation, 2007, for Virus on Orbis 1.

Writings

Virus on Orbis 1 (science fiction; part of "Softwire" series), Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2006.

Betrayal on Orbis 2 (science fiction; part of "Softwire" series), Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2008.

Also author of film scripts, including Devious Beings.

Sidelights

P.J. Haarsma turned from a career in film production to one writing science fiction with his "Softwire" series of novels, which include Virus on Orbis 1 and Betrayal on Orbis 2. Set in an imaginative world and inspired by Haarsma's own love of science, the "Softwire" novels are also the basis for the online role-playing game "Rings of Orbis," which Haarsma created and developed and which serves as a companion to the fiction series.

Haarsma's fiction debut, Virus on Orbis 1, is the first novel in the "Softwire" series and focuses on a group of orphaned children who are enslaved to an alien people on a remote interspace hub called the rings of Orbis. As readers meet twelve-year-old Johnny Turnbull, he is living on a spaceship, together with his sister and dozens of other parentless children. The ship was designed to carry a group of adults to a planet far from Earth, where they hoped for a better life. When the adults died, the fertilized embryos also carried on the ship are all born simultaneously after being incubated and brought to term by the ship's computer. Landing on Orbis 1, the children discover that they are destined to fulfill their parents' obligations: they are indentured to the planet's native creatures until they can repay the cost of their space voyage. On Orbis 1, Johnny discovers that he has the ability to communicate with the planet's computers, and because of this talent he is labeled a Softwire. When the aging computers on Orbis 1 begin to malfunction, Johnny is blamed and must discover the true cause of the malfunction in order to protect himself and his friends.

In her Booklist review of Virus on Orbis 1, Diana Tixier Herald wrote that the novel will capture readers' interest due to its mix of "exotic aliens, dangerous situations, and fast-paced adventure." In Kliatt, Lesley Farmer noted that Haarsma's young hero is "very likeable," and that the novel's subplot "provides a supernatural spin." Noting the story's fast-moving plot, Melissa Christy Buron added in her School Library Journal review that in this debut novel Haarsma "deftly introduces the futuristic setting without getting bogged down in long and detailed descriptive passages."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2006, Diana Tixier Herald, review of Virus on Orbis 1, p. 59.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, November, 2006, April Spisak, review of Virus on Orbis 1, p. 125.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2006, review of Virus on Orbis 1, p. 904.

Kliatt, September, 2006, Lesley Farmer, review of Virus on Orbis 1, p. 12.

School Library Journal, December, 2006, Melissa Christy Burton, review of Virus on Orbis 1, p. 142.

ONLINE

IGN.com,http://comics.ign.com/ (October 4, 2006), Stephen Horn, interview with Haarsma.

P.J. Haarsma Home Page,http://www.pjhaarsma.com (October 27, 2007).

Rings of Orbis Web site,http://www.rintsoforbis.com/ (October 27, 2007).