CLIFTON PARK — Frank Gratton has always let his imagination run wild. Now, through his books, he hopes to inspire kids to do the same.
Gratton, a Saratoga Springs native, has published two books, ‘Billbet’s Space Adventure,’ in 2020, and ‘Nula,’ in 2022. His third book, ‘Nula: Second Generation’ is planned to be released sometime next year.
The series details a group of children who become entangled in space adventures, traveling across the universe to save planets in distress. Gratton said the story begins in the first book, when the young Billbet, one of the main characters, accidentally lands on Earth. He befriends two human kids, Theresa and Kevin, who attempt to help him return to his home planet.
The second book, ‘Nula’, follows Theresa (now known as Nula) and Kevin (now known as Dauntless) as they travel across the universe on a ship they constructed with the help of Billbet.
“Of course, Nula is the star,” said Gratton. “She’s a young earthling who started off when she was 10 years old, and she became a hero. Not because she wanted to, she just kind of fell into it. The new book, she’s going on some real dangerous missions.”
Gratton said he is a science fiction fan who is particularly interested in space, and wants kids to simply have fun reading his books.
“I want it to be fun,” said Gratton. “I don’t want the reader to get scared, or anything like that. I just want them to have fun. I remember when I was reading Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, I just had a lot of fun.”
Gratton said his main goal is for kids to become excited about using their imaginations.
“My main hope is that I can get them to get excited about their imagination,” Gratton said. “Everybody’s got one. Most people just don’t do anything with it. … Imagination is what starts anything.”
The first book in the series was a long time in the making, Gratton said, with his first inspiration coming while he was serving in the U.S. Navy.
“I was in the Navy in the 1960s, and I was passing through the Mediterranean Sea, and I was on the midnight watch,” said Gratton. “It was a clear night, and there were a billion stars up there. I just started fantasizing, my imagination started running wild.”
Years later, while employed at G&H Hardware in Schenectady, Gratton said he began work on the book.
“There was a Stewart’s ice cream store right down the road. I went to work early every day, and I sat in that shop, and I wrote my first book,” Gratton said.
Gratton said he began writing the book during his time at the store, which came after a stint working at his father’s hardware store in Saratoga Springs. He eventually worked at Saratoga Casino Hotel from a year before its opening until he retired in 2016.
Four years later, in 2020, ‘Billbet’s Space Adventure’ was published, almost 25 years after Gratton began writing it.
“When I wrote the book, I wrote it by hand,” said Gratton. “Then I hired a guy to put it on a word processor. … He put it on the word processor, printed it out. I had the pages bound, and it laid in my closet. Then my daughter self-published it, which was a challenge all by itself.”
Theresa Gratton, Frank’s daughter and the namesake of the series’ main character, published the first book through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, she said. While she admitted it was a “learning process”, the book is currently available on Amazon and can be ordered by request at bookstores.
Gratton said after reading ‘Billbet’s Space Adventure’, he wanted to continue writing about the characters. The second book in the series, ‘Nula’, was published by Olympia Publishers, a London-based publishing company.
“After I read ‘Billbet’ when it was in cover, I really got choked up about the characters,” Gratton said. “I liked the characters, and I wanted to make them go further. So that’s really the reason why I did it.”
And now, Gratton is working on the third book in the series, ‘Nula: Second Generation.’ He has no plans to stop in the future, saying, “As long as I can write, I’ll write.”
“Right now, I’m content with just writing and hopefully somebody reading,” said Gratton. “I want people to read it. I don’t even care about making any money, I just want people to read it.”
And ultimately, Gratton said he hopes the books can help kids “dare to imagine.”
“That’s the beauty of books. They can take you wherever you want to go,” Gratton said. “That’s what I’m hoping to do.”
