R.A. Dines
Biography
Ever since she first laid her hands on a keyboard, R. A. Dines has been fascinated with the intersection of art and technology. Dines spent the first two decades of her career in big tech and startups and is now in the second chapter of her career as a full-time author and creative. These days, you can find her reading, writing, coding, and 3D printing with her family outside Boston.
She is the author of the Moon Hackers series, a bestseller sci-fi adventure for ages 9-14.
Achievements & Recognitions
BookLife Prize - 2025
Semi Finalist
Plot/Idea: 10 out of 10
Originality: 10 out of 10
Prose: 9 out of 10
Character/Execution: 10 out of 10
Overall: 9.75 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Big Tech needs more energy than ever, so the solution is building facilities on the moon—and sending children to grow up there, learning how to tend to the server farm. Moon Girl just turned 13 and is experiencing all that comes with growing up, but she’ll need to add saving her home to that list.
Prose: Dines excels at world-building and delving into the adolescent psyche, applying universal experiences to a childhood that plays out on the moon. Explaining some of the world—such the hierarchy of the LCC—upfront would anchor the setting more firmly for readers.
Originality: Children taken at a young age to live on the moon, learning how to tend a server farm for a corporation, is as original as it gets.
Character/Execution: Through Jenny, a.k.a. Moon Girl, readers experience what an adolescent—captive on the moon—hopes, dreams, and cares about. Tensions mount as circumstances become dire for her and her friends.
