Teaser Tuesday - a snippet from Book 2

A staccato knocking had John jerking away, turning to see Christie accidentally drag the back end of the pitchfork against the far wall of the barn as she struggled to move the hay.  A few harmless pieces of tack were knocked to the floor, but she was seconds from hitting a section of nasty-looking tools.  John reacted without thinking.  He lurched futilely in her direction before projecting his Visity at her.  He didn’t prepare a pattern or even an exact intent; he just wanted to stop her from getting hurt.

Michael also reacted, lunging for the small girl and shouting, “Christine, STOP!”

Christie looked up at them, her light brown eyes wide in confusion, but she did not stop the swing of the handle. John watched in horror as his projection reached her and detonated like an invisible bomb, sending Christie and the pitchfork flying in opposite directions.  The side of one of the prongs clipped her hard under her little chin as she was thrown roughly away from the wall of hanging tools and into the side of a stall.  Her body hit the old wood with a sickening thud before she ricocheted off it onto a dirty pile of hay.  The few seconds it took John to reach her were pure torture.  He found her on her back staring wide-eyed at the ceiling. 

Christie sucked in a long, deep breath and then her face turned dark red as she scrunched her eyes and opened her mouth to let out an ear-splitting scream.  John and Michael hovered over her, not knowing what to do, afraid to move her.  She solved that problem by rolling over to her knees and pushing herself up, drawing short, quick breaths to fuel her wail.  She turned and wobbled towards John, holding out her soft toddler arms towards him in the universal “pick me up” gesture.

Made-up Monday - Pleovis

The Pleovis is at the core of New Zigon's science fiction.  I came up with the story for New Zigon over a decade ago, but it took me years to build enough pieces to start writing.  I knew my characters would have some kind of power, but I wanted a scientific reason for it other than magic.  I was so excited when I came up with the Pleovis concept.  I forget what exactly kindled the idea, but I was brainstorming, thinking of books and movies and how they incorporated science fiction.  I read a lot, but most of it is fantasy, so I didn't have many literary examples.  The Morganville Vampires series uses quantum mechanics to explain a portal system.  I started thinking of how much has been discovered since I graduated from high school.  We just studied protons, neutrons, and electrons, not quarks and leptons; if we did, it was nominal.  I have trouble with the concept of vacuums, having a space with nothing in it; I mean, it still is space... there has to be something there, right?  I had heard of the discovery of the "God particle," and I did a little research.  Here's a clip from www.gotquestions.org that sums it up nicely:

"Question: "What is the God particle?"

Answer: The "God particle" is the nickname of a subatomic particle called the Higgs boson. In layman’s terms, different subatomic particles are responsible for giving matter different properties. One of the most mysterious and important properties is mass. Some particles, like protons and neutrons, have mass. Others, like photons, do not. The Higgs boson, or “God particle,” is believed to be the particle which gives mass to matter. The “God particle” nickname grew out of the long, drawn-out struggles of physicists to find this elusive piece of the cosmic puzzle. What follows is a very brief, very simplified explanation of how the Higgs boson fits into modern physics, and how science is attempting to study it."

I thought, what if there is more to it?  What about all that space between the subatomic particles?  I am a huge Star Wars fan.  I was pregnant with my first son when they remade episodes 4,5, and 6 and re-released them to the big screen.  I thought he would come out of womb humming the Star Wars theme; he certainly seemed to jump to the vibrations in the theater where I spent many a late Friday afternoon.  Oh, how I wished the Force was a real thing; that would be so cool! 

I merged the God particle and the Force, and came up with the Pleovis.  It didn't have a name at first.  It was at the top of the list of words to make up when I did my Latin research.  "Pleo" means "filling," and "vis" means "power."  Filling power; perfect!

I often ruminate on how made-up words and names from books and movies make their way into common culture, like "the Force," "muggles," "mundanes," "warp speed, "kryptonite," and the like.  Maybe someday "Pleovis" will join that list...buy your license plates now people!

New Zigon is now available in paperback! Enter the Goodreads Giveaway to win a free copy!

After much hard work and many, many edit reviews, New Zigon - The Founder's Curse is now available for sale on Amazon and CreateSpace in paperback format!  I am giving away three free copies through a book giveaway on Goodreads.com.

To enter the book giveaway, click here.
To buy the book on Amazon, click here.
To buy the book on CreateSpace, click here.

New Zigon TFC has two new Five Star Reviews on Amazon!

My book has two new five star reviews on Amazon: 

"Highly Recommended: This book was very enjoyable to read and was beautifully written. The characters feel very real and relatable and the story felt very visual and fast paced. I was quickly [drawn] into the story and stayed up very late finishing it. I highly [recommend] this [book to] readers of any age."

"The Next Harry Potter! New Zigon a Wondeful Creation: I couldn't put this book down. It was obviously written for the Harry Potter generation but I belong to the Baby Boomer era. The character development was great, The world created and the explanations for extraordinary powers was so very imaginative.

My favorite part was the development of the relationship between the two main characters."

This gets me excited to get New Zigon available in paperback and dig into book 2!!!

My first blog review!

New Zigon has it's first blog review!  Alison, of The Cheap Reader Blog, accepted a copy of my book in exchange for an honest review.  I was absolutely thrilled when she agreed to read The Founder's Curse.  Many bloggers are inundated with review requests, and most won't accept self-published novels, which makes this review all the more exciting.  Allison runs a great blog that you may want to add to your news-feeds.

Here is her review:  http://thecheapreader.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/book-review-the-founders-curse/#more-13503

Do you know... #4

Do you know...     #4

Do you know whether the spelling of the color of shadows is spelled "gray" or "grey?" 
The answer is that it is spelled both ways.  Americans prefer "gray" and Brits prefer "grey."  Does that mean "Fifty Shades..." is British?  Not necessarily; either spelling is acceptable.

Made-up Monday - Crystavis

Crystavis is one of the first words I created for New Zigon.  One of my early concepts is that I wanted the characters to have a piece of jewelry (amulet and/or ring) that could help them focus their "power."  I spent several weeks going through a Latin-English dictionary and using Latin translation and information websites on the internet, looking for words or parts of words that I could use.  When translating "power," "force," and "energy," I continually came across the Latin word "vis," defined as "force, violence, STRESS, strength, energy, strain."  I have used "vis" in several of my New Zigon terms.

Translating "crystal," I found words such as crystallum, crystallus, and crystallinus.

You shouldn't need to consult the Letter People to see how the word Crystavis came about!