Archive for the ‘off-planet’ Category
Cover Painting for ‘Meniscus: Reckoning’
In preparation for the release of ‘Meniscus: Reckoning,’ the next book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series, I have finished the painting for the cover.
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The painting is based on the pencil drawing ‘Travelling the Lip.’ It shows six travellers as they cross the treacherous El’ban Elevations, on their way to rescue James, imprisoned in El’ban. The group, in order, are Kotildi (the wild alien ‘wolf’), Belnar (one of the Slain), Odymn (heroine of many of the stories), Daniel (also a Slain), carrying Danny (Odymn and Daniel’s baby), and Don’est (the Dock-winder child, with her long neck).
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To be consistent with other covers, I need a distant view of the Meniscus moons (Cardoth roe and Cardoth grill’en), a mid-range view of the travellers, and a nearer scene from the book. Campfires are a common theme in the story and who better to sleep by the fire than wolf-like Kotildi?
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I was pleased with the painting. For a couple of days, I showed the travellers as black silhouettes against the Elevations. In the end, I gave them some colour, to suggest clothing and hair. I love the browns, blues and yellows in the painting.
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To make the painting fit the space on the book cover, I made some alterations in GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). I brought the moons closer to the mountain silhouette and moved the fire and sleeping Kotildi closer to the travellers. In the end, the image fit well with the cover design. Here is a sneak peek at the final cover.
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I am now re-reading Meniscus: Reckoning for the last time, making a few revisions as I go. I have also sent the proof to my beta-reader for her reactions.
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I plan to release Meniscus: Reckoning in early May. I am looking forward to my reader response!
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All my best!
Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)
solar eclipse
On Monday we joined other people of New Brunswick, all eager to view the total eclipse of the sun. We planned carefully, arranged to pick up our son and drive to our chosen viewing place, at the picnic grounds of the Department of Agriculture Experimental Farm. Other people had the same idea so we were among a small crowd of viewers.
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We had obtained the necessary ISO eclipse glasses (ISO 12312-2 standard) to protect our eyes from harmful rays but I take extra care since I have several problems with my vision. So I did not look continually at the sun but glanced at it occasionally with the glasses on. The sequence I saw was:
- the sun in normal mode – seemed much smaller than usual since ordinarily when we glance at the sun, we see the sun itself and a glare of light;
- a curved black shadow at the right edge of the sun;
- a bigger ‘bite’ of darkness from the sun;
- a larger ‘bite’ of darkness so the sun resembled the crescent moon;
- a creeping towards totality where the crescent became smaller and smaller;
- the moment of totality when you could see nothing at all but darkness through the glasses;
- with the glasses off, totality, a dark disc with a thin rim of light;
- a moment when the edge of the sun re-appears, a sort of flaring diamond on the edge of the ring.
- glasses on, a gradual return to the crescent, through the bite of darkness to the disc of the normal sun.
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Between my glances at the sun, I gazed at the scene before me, the shadow of twigs from a young maple tree on the gravel road. As I watched, the area around us darkened and all along the horizon in every direction was a rosy glow, as though evening had arrived. But the effect was not really like that of evening, more like a wan darkness, eerie. On the road, the shadows looked like those cast by a full moon.
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And now, all this in a poem:
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total eclipse of the sun
Fredericton New Brunswick
April 8, 2024
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twig shadows drowse on road
red maple carved into gravel
sun dazzles against blue sky
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first moment of eclipse
a nibble from a dark cookie
a bite
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crescent like a waning moon
creeps towards
totality
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image
through special glasses
goes dark
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evening settles on the hill
russet sky at every horizon
street lights blink on
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a white bird climbs, confused
whisps of corona
around silhouette of moon
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eerie lull in murmuring
as a diamond sparkles
along the lower edge
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twig shadows
tremble, pale-washed
beneath full moon
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Hope you enjoyed your look at the eclipse if you were in an area to view it!!!!
All my best,
Jane
new book coming soon! Meniscus: Reckoning
Today, after many hours of editing and formatting, I sent for a proof of my new book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series. Meniscus: Reckoning will be out in early May. This will be the story of a perilous journey to a distant city, over difficult alien landscape, to rescue a member of the Human Resistance. The book is set in the El’ban District of Meniscus, a city mentioned but not visited in other books in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series.
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To find out a little more about the steps from draft to proof, have a look at the whole story here. Below is a peek at the first draft of the cover for Meniscus: Reckoning (the final cover will be a painting of the scene).
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All my best!
Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)
an alien flora
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New Science Fiction book! Meniscus: Return to Sintha
It’s out!
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Meniscus: Return to Sintha
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You can order it now from Amazon.ca, in both paperback and e-book, here.
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Return to Sintha is the twelfth book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series and number three in the Rosetta Stone Trilogy (beginning with Meniscus: Rosetta Stone). Abra, historian, uncovers a mystery in an ancient Dock-winder text and sets out to deliver the secret to all the populations of Prell-nan District on Meniscus.
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Also, Book Two in the Trilogy, Meniscus: The Struggle, is now available in e-book form.
Just click here.
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If you want to get a local paperback copy of Meniscus: Return to Sintha, I will have my order of paperback books no later than March 24 and after that they will be available from Dog Eared Books in Oromocto and Westminster Books in Fredericton. I will also have copies of all the Meniscus books at the Greater Moncton Riverview Dieppe Independent Book Fair at the Riverview Lions Club……. on Saturday April 22, 2023! I would love to see you there.
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All my best,
Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)
Meniscus: Return to Sintha … meet the characters
I have completed the final edits of my new book Meniscus: Return to Sintha and my beta reader’s comments are in. The book is heading towards its publication in early March, under my pen name Alexandra Tims.
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For this post, I will introduce you to some of the characters in the book. If you are a reader of the series, you will already know many of these characters, but some are new.
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In the book, Abra and Drag-on set out on a journey to deliver critical information about the Dock-winders to every population centre in the Prell-nan District of planet Meniscus. Abra’s friends, Tagret and Rist, set out in the opposite direction to help with the distribution of the information. The information will, they hope, end the Dock-winder hegemony, the enslavement of Humans and the indenture of Gel-Heads. That word ‘hegemony’ is known to me because my son is a political science major, but it may not be familiar to everyone:
hegemony: leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.
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The main characters in the book are:
Abra: historian, who studies the languages of aliens on Meniscus; married to the Slain, Trath, she lives in the abandoned Museum in Prell-nan;
Trath: a Slain, a dealer in the illegal drug bellwort and an addict; Abra’s husband;
Drag-on: an alien native to the planet; looks like a forkful of spaghetti without the fork; telepathic and friendly to Humans;
Tagret: chemist, brought to slavery on Meniscus and freed by the Slain, Rist, who is now her companion;
Rist: a Slain, a courier, once married to a Gel-head named Semala; now companion to Tagret;
Semala: a Gel-head and Rist’s wife; died in an accident on the road to Sintha but she still haunts Rist and Tagret.
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In each city, our heroes must find the small group of Humans who work for the Resistance.
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The Resistance includes:
Aella: known as The Whirlwind, the one-woman resistance in Enbricktow;
Di-gett’ath Roth’: The Blood-Let, resistance movement in Prell;
Ora-nen Uth: Curfew Dark, resistance movement in Sintha, a spirited group who meet in the darkest of alleyways;
Ora-toll: Light Tunnel, resistance movement in Nebul-nan;
Marneth Hath-arn; the Shadow Builders, resistance movement in Bleth-nan, includes the triplets, Twilla, Titha and Trill who talk in their own secret language;
In De’men, the only resistance is a group of three street-sweepers;
In Tre’men, the only resistance is a wizened Gel-head named Weddle.
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Now that you know some of the characters in Meniscus: Return to Sintha, I hope you will read the book, to find out what happens and if the information changes the hegemony on planet Meniscus.
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On the release date, I’ll let you know where the book will be available. If you want to catch up on the series, you could begin at the first book in the Return to Sintha Trilogy — Meniscus: Rosetta Stone, available at Westminster Books in Fredericton, Dog Eared Books in Oromocto or on Amazon.ca.
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All my best,
Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)
New science fiction book: Why visit the planet Meniscus?
The next book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series, Return to Sintha, will be here in March. Perhaps you’d like to know why you would want to visit Meniscus??? No, it is not a part of the knee, but a planet out there among the stars. The word ‘meniscus’ refers to its meaning as the ‘curved upper surface of a liquid in a tube’ and refers to the way water behaves (mis-behaves) on the alien planet.
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When you read, do you love:
- adventure – lots of action and danger?
- a short read (all the Meniscus stories are about 20,000 words or less)?
- an interesting setting – lots of alien species, plant and animal?
- an alien language with a dictionary and in-text translation of what the aliens are saying?
- a bit of romance – not explicit, but relationships front and centre?
- following the action with a map? and a glossary of alien terms for plant life, wild life and measurement?
- an annotated list of all the characters in the Series?
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There are twelve previous titles in the Meniscus Series. You could start anywhere, but I recommend beginning with Crossing the Churn, Oral Traditions or Rosetta Stone.
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as yet, has no title on the unfinished painting.
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In my next post, I will talk a little about the setting of Return to Sintha and some of its main characters.
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All my Best,
Jane Tims (a.k.a. Alexandra)
new book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series available today!
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The next book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series is out today in paperback! The e-book will be available within the week.
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Meniscus: The Struggle continues the story of Abra who is trying to decipher a mysterious Dock-winder document. Abra believes the information in the manuscript will enable Humans to overcome their nasty alien overlords. Abra continues her work with the help of old friends from Themble Hill: Odymn, Tagret, Zachary and, yes, the annoying Dock-winder child, Don’est. And we learn more about her new friend, Drag’on of the Hooplore, who will be at her side through the adventure.
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Meniscus: The Struggle is available in paperback form at Amazon today (just click here). And I will have copies by the end of August. I will be launching the book at Dog-Eared Books in Oromocto: just watch for announcements. Dog-Eared Books and Westminster Books in Fredericton have copies of other books in the Series if you’d like to catch up. Book One (Crossing The Churn), Book Six (Oral Traditions) and Book Ten (Rosetta Stone) are good places to dive in to the story.
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Read on!
All my best!
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
next book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series
The editing and formatting always takes time, but I am aiming to publish my new science fiction book in July. Meniscus: The Struggle will be number eleven in the Meniscus Series and number two in the trilogy begun with book number ten, Meniscus: Rosetta Stone.
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Life on the planet Meniscus is interesting and challenging. But for a Human, life can be dangerous, deadly. And Humans are below the lower rung of the social ladder, treated as chattels and slaves by the alien Dock-winders. Humans are not allowed to have families, not allowed to chose their own pathways in life.
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In Meniscus: Rosetta Stone, we meet Abra, a translator and historian who thinks she has found a secret to change the Dock-winder control over Human destiny. With the help of her irresponsible husband, Trath, she must recover a manuscript written in both Gel-speak and Dock-winder. They find the manuscript but during the effort, Trath falls into a chasm and certain death.
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In the next book, Meniscus: The Struggle, Abra must forget Trath and begin the arduous task of translating the manuscript. In the community of Hath’men, centre of the Human resistance movement, she discovers there may be help far to the south, in the Village of Themble Hill. But how will she bring the assistance she needs to Hath’men? And how will she fend off the advances of James, now that Trath is no longer in his way? If you have read other books in the Meniscus Series, you will be happy to know that Don’est, the Dock-winder child, will be there to thwart Abra’s progress.
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All my best,
Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)
Next Meniscus: The Struggle
In the Meniscus Science Fiction Series, I am now working on Meniscus: The Struggle, the sequel to Meniscus: Rosetta Stone.
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Meniscus: Rosetta Stone introduced us to Abra, a translator who has discovered a manuscript containing the mysterious Dock-winder language. As Abra works on the manuscript, she begins to think the words will hold the secret to the downfall of the cruel Dock-winders.
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In the sequel, Meniscus: The Struggle, Abra will enlist the help of Tagret, a chemist, to decipher the symbols in the manuscript. She will also try to get the help of Don’est, the Dock-winder child adopted by the Humans of Themble Hill. But will peculiar Don’est be a help or a hindrance?
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Meniscus: The Struggle will be available in June, 2022. Next post, I’ll show you some of my work on the cover of the book.
All my best,
Jane
nichepoetryandprose 