Young adult author U.W. Leo was inspired as a young child to become a writer, having spent much of his childhood with his uncle, David Shachar, a well-known Isaeli writer and winner of the prestigious Prix Médicis award, a French literary award for fiction writing. The seed for U.W. Leo’s writing passion was planted and grew as he continued writing short stories, poems, and letters. 

U.W. Leo’s new upper middle-grade / YA science fiction release, Arko: The Dark Union, explores our world’s current environmental troubles and expresses the idea that science is the tool to the redemption of the world and humanity. The story’s premise reveals that children and adults from all cultures collaborate together across all boundaries of religious or ethnic goals for the most important and common goal of saving our planet and humanity.

An interesting experience that U.W. Leo has while writing is the feeling that the book is writing itself as the story comes to life on its own, seemingly with no control from U.W. Leo, and that the story is also writing a part of his own existence. He finds this process to be magnificent and a true reflection of the wonder of life itself.

U.W. Leo’s story ideas, at times, simply emerge from him out of nowhere and yet other times an observation of a situation in real life will further inspire his imagination. A clinical psychologist by trade, U.W. Leo draws on his professional experience, at times, for information for his books such as research on physics or biology topics. The content he weaves into his books are grounded in scientific facts or theories, or from interviews he conducts with people in the field.

Part of the adventure of writing has U.W. Leo traveling to some of the places that he writes about in his books. For instance, a mention of a NASA lab in a book led him traveling to one. This authenticity comes through in his writing. Other destinations in his stories cannot be reached as they are thousands of light years away or deep within the bowels of the Earth. 

While writing science fiction novels, U.W. Leo was surprised how the field of quantum physics is much stranger than he imagined. He thinks a great story is one that has an engaging plot with surprising and believable characters that readers can relate to. U.W. Leo hopes his young readers will not only enjoy his story, but also that their awareness is heightened of the environmental challenges our society is facing and their critical importance to the fate of our world.  

When he isn’t writing captivating young adult stories, U.W. Leo enjoys learning new things, reading, watching movies, and playing chess. One of his greatest pleasures is simply having a chat and coffee with a friend or family member. U.W. Leo is also the author of Red Silkworms, winner of the Ministry of Education’s Award for Emerging Authors, and Days of Light and Shadow, both novels of fiction. U.W. Leo lives, physically, near Jerusalem in Israel and, mentally, at Kepler 66, a planet 17,000 light-years from Earth.