Copyright 2002 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

October 08, 2002, Tuesday

BY MICHAEL STOREY ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Zaptopkaka! Aliens have landed in Pine Bluff. Put down the gingok, get on the snogelplat and tell all your friends. Beta and Gamma, the aliens concerned, come from the fertile imagination of childrens author H.B. (Hillary Beth) Homzie, a Virginia native currently
livingin Napa, Calif.

In her just-published chapter book series, Alien Clones From Outer Space, Homzie plops her creations down in Pine Bluff, of all places. The four-part series is intended for children ages 6 to 10 and is available from Aladdin Paperbacks/Simon & Schuster for $ 3.99 each.

The first books subtitle, Two Heads are Better Than One, introduces the space duo from Ungapotch (a million, trillion light years away) and their Pine Bluffian counterparts, fraternal twins Barton and Nancy Jamison. Funny, kid-tickling stuff happens.

The other subtitles in the Alien Clones series are Who Let the Dogs Out, The Baby-sitters Wore Diapers and Food Fight!The books may be ordered through Amazon.com and are available at Barnes & Nobel, Waldenbooks, Brentanos, WordsWorth Books & Co., The Book Store and Lorenzen & Co.

The larger question of interest is how Homzie came to set her series in the Jefferson County city thats not particularly known for being the Roswell, N.M., of Arkansas.

The tale goes back 14 years when Homzie made "a pilgrimage" to Arkansas with her University of Virginia boyfriend, a Pine Bluff native with additional family in Jonesboro.

"For three years all I heard about was Arkansas, Arkansas, Arkansas," Homzie recalls. "So the entire state had a mystical quality for me. This was pre-Clinton when Arkansas was not as famous as it is today." Homzie said she and her Arkansas beau traveled to several cities, "but the town that really stuck with me was Pine Bluff." She added, "The downtown was very quaint the lake; the pine trees. It just seemed like a nice, well-balanced place. It seemed itd be a fun place to set something extraordinary."

The arrival of alien clones would certainly qualify as extraordinary, even in Pine Bluff. Although Homzie and her sweetie eventually went their separate ways, his hometown stayed with her. "Everybody in Pine Bluff was very friendly, very welcoming," Homzie said. "Theres something about Delta people. Pine Bluff just stuck in my mind and when I started doing this childrens book series I thought Pine Bluff, theyd be welcoming to aliens. "

Pine Bluff isnt the only Arkansas connection in this project. Julia Richardson, executive editor for Aladdin Paperbacks /Simon & Schuster, also has state ties. Richardsons grandparents, Ernest and Winnie Sibert, were from DeQueen and Richardson spent her childhood summers there. There are no reports of alien clones in DeQueen.

Homzie, who is also a wife, mother of two boys, playwright, Off-Broadway sketch comedian and over-achieving owner of two masters degrees (education and childrens writing), says shed love to go back to Pine Bluff to visit schools.

Teachers are welcome to contact her through her colorful, kid-friendly Web site at www.homzie.com.

By the way, that was "clone talk" at the beginning of this story. "Zaptopkaka" means "Wow!" in the native Ungapotchese. The other words shall remain a mysteryuntil you read the books.

This story was originally published on Tuesday, October 08, 2002.