But that is certainly not the case for three Wick schoolboy brothers who have used their alien-zapping talents as a springboard to writing a book.

The Risbridgers – 18-year-old Adam, 15-year-old Calum, and Donald (12) – put the final touches to their joint effort at the end of their summer holidays.

And they have just signed a deal with an Inverness publishing house, with the result that The Third Millennium is due to roll off the presses before Easter.

What makes it even more remarkable is that the trio are to provide all the illustrations for the 101-page sci-fi novel as well as designing the dust cover.

All three are big Star Wars buffs and that influence is clear in some of the zany individuals that inhabit their fantasy romp.

John No 5 is cast adrift on a galactic cruiser and ends up on the planet Pharsee and encounters a host of exotic races.

His allies, the Alpha Team, try to rescue him from the clutches of baddies such as the Dark Sun Clan, the Reptins and the wily space pirates, the Bigadoons.

It all had its origins in a computer game where the young writers' imaginations were fired by being able to create their own characters.

Calum, the bookworm in the family, was the first to come up with the idea, from which the book took shape, nearly three years ago.

He said yesterday: "We started with a basic storyline and doing some comic-strip drawings of the characters and it just snowballed from there.

"We never in our wildest dreams thought we'd end up having a book published."

All three brothers chipped in ideas and images as the project started to take up just about all their spare time.

Adam refined some of the illustrations as part of his Higher Art exam.

When Adam and Calum differed on how to advance the story, younger brother Donald intervened to arbitrate.

Wick brothers (from left) Donald, Calum and Adam Risbridger, who have signed a contact to publish their first sci-fi novel The Third Millennium. Photo: Robert MacDonald.

Mum Diane said: "If Adam and Calum couldn't agree, Donald stepped in and would have the casting vote."

She said she and her husband Robin had next-to-no input in the project.

Mrs Risbridger has no particular interest in sci-fi but was pleasantly surprised when she read the final 50,000-word manuscript.

"When they started writing it, we thought it was a bit of a laugh," she said.

"They bounced a few ideas off us but we did not realise the size of the undertaking they were involved in."

Mrs Risbridger said the publishers quickly gave the thumbs-up, sparking celebrations in the family's home in East Banks.

"They said that after reading the first few pages, they knew they were on to a winner," she explained.

"They were very impressed by the standard of writing and with the illustrations."

Adam said: "It's been a lot of hard work as it's taken up most of our evenings and weekends but it was a ball to do it – it's been really enjoyable.

"It's still surreal that there's a book coming out – everything has happened really fast."

With a deal now signed with Aultbea Publishing, the lads are now hard at work completing the final images and preparing the all-important dust cover.

And, like all dedicated authors, they already have plans for a sequel.

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