Meniscus: Reckoning … a new book of science fiction adventure
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The next book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series is now available: #13 … Meniscus: Reckoning. The series tells the story of humans who are brought against their will to the planet Meniscus and are determined to build new relationships, new lives, and new communities. Meniscus: Reckoning continues the story begun in the Rosetta Stone trilogy of how the Humans discover a way to overthrow the dominant alien Dock-winders and their cruel ways.
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Meniscus: Reckoning takes the Humans of Themble Hill on an adventure like no other. In Reckoning, a small group begins the arduous journey to El’ban where Dock-winders are still in control and have captured James, the leader of the Resistance Movement. With them is the Dock-winder child, Don’est, who continues to mystify the Humans with her false-empathy and strange logic. Others in the Resistance Movement, the brilliant Bleth’nan triplets, become part of the group and part of Don’est’s Human family.
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In the book, you will travel across the El’ban Elevations, and into the Hollows (a landscape made from the discarded cocoons of alien insect pupae). Then, the group must find a way to rescue James from the layered city of El’ban and its inescapable prison.
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Many of the main characters of the first twelve books in the series have returned to this story: Odymn, expert at parkour, Daniel, the Slain (a genetically enhanced Human), Belnar and his ridiculous ways, Kotildi, wolf-like and loyal, and the evil Dock-winder Garg who has antagonized the Humans of Themble Hill though all their adventures.
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Meniscus: Reckoning is available on Amazon.ca (click here) and from me, as I travel the three upcoming Book Fairs in Moncton (July 27, 2024), Saint John (September 14, 2024), and Fredericton (October 19, 2024). Only $12 for lots of adventure! And the e-book will be available soon.
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Enjoy the upcoming days of summer when reading is one way of escaping the black flies and taking yourself on an adventure out there among the stars.
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All my best!
Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)
a botanical alphabet
In the last couple of years, I have had the happy task of helping Jennifer Houle, award-winning author, produce her new book, A Child’s Botanical Alphabet. The book takes the reader through the alphabet with examples from the world of botany, plants local to New Brunswick and the Maritime provinces.
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My specific work was to produce the drawings for the book and undertake its formatting on the way to it becoming a published book. I also wrote ‘Notes for the Curious,’ to enable caregivers to give a little more information to children abut the plants they encounter in the book.
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The images in the book began as black and white pencil drawings. Before this, I had never done digital illustrations, so I began by colourizing each drawing. After this, I leaned to do grades of colour and shading. In the end, I did the 26 illustrations, one for each letter of the alphabet, and other images to illustrate the life cycle of the luna moth and fill in the story we wanted to tell.
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I also experimented with background colour and learned to present the images in the proportions of the final book. For the first time, I attempted images that would bleed to the very edge of the page.
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The book is an old-fashioned approach to learning the alphabet, but also a way of encouraging children to look closely at their surroundings and interact with them. To help with this, we have shown that plants are part of a larger community of plants and animals. The book shows the life cycle of the luna moth–we have hidden the luna at various stages of its life throughout the images in the book. We also encourage children to collect, with respect, examples of the plants they find and to learn about the other plants they see. Where I have left parts of the images without colour, the children are invited to add their own colour to the book.
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At last, A Child’s Botanical Alphabet is ready to present to the world! Both paperback and hardcover versions of the book are now available at Amazon.ca by clicking here. On May 11, Saturday, we will launch the book at the Kennebecasis Public Library in Quispamsis, with a special presentation and art activity for the children. After that, the book will be available in both paperback and hardcover at various events, including 2024 Book Fairs in Moncton-Riverview (July 27), Saint John (September 14), and Fredericton (October 19).
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We hope you enjoy this wonderful book! We are looking forward to showing it to you and introducing children to the world of local plants.
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All my best!!!
Jane
a life-list first: sandhill cranes
As the result of a posting on Facebook (in New Brunswick Birders), my husband and I took a drive to the Canaan Forks area of New Brunswick to see if we could see any of the sandhill cranes spotted there. We had given up on finding them and were on the road out of the area when my husband spotted two in a field between us and the river. I wish I was a better photographer: they were so elegant and deliberate, walking the edge of the field. As they walked and fed, their legs and necks were in a strange sort of synchrony. They appear quite ‘muscular’ and could be confused with a deer if their heads are down feeding.
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Both birds had the red patch on the front of the head. They stayed together, turning to retrace their steps when they came to a small ditch between fields.
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The sandhill crane (Antigone canadensis) can now be added to my life list!!!!!
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Have fun watching the birds now returning from their migrations!
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All my best,
Jane
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)
bookmark
In March, I promised information on a new project I am undertaking, Bookmarks and Dog Ears. I have lots of projects on the go, at various stages of completion, but I find I need something new and creative to invigorate my writing process. In April, I began a new endeavour, a poetry manuscript about bookmarks, those bits of ephemera left to mark a place in a book.
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I first became interested in this project when the owner of Dog Eared Books in Oromocto, showed me a binder full of the bookmarks she has collected from used books coming into the store. Perusing the binder is fascinating: it contains photos, grocery lists, cash register tapes, old letters, money, even a dreidel. I imagined a manuscript of poems and drawings built around the variety of the bookmarks – their physical structure, purpose, history and symbolism. After a little research, I was caught up in the way bookmarks are an expression of the Human activity of reading a book. I am interested in the historic use of bookmarks, the past of a well-used bookmark, how bookmarks are linked to feelings about reading and the fate of the bookmark in the digital world.
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With the help of the Library Director at the L.P. Fisher Public Library in Woodstock, I have been able to identify some libraries where bookmarks are also collected, so I will have no shortage of subject matter.
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To give you an idea of the type of poem that this project could generate, I will tell you about my response to a bookmark collected from books at the Saint Paul Public Library in Minnesota. To see a short video of some of their bookmarks, click here.
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The bookmark that interested me the most was a 3” by 3” black and white photo of a woodland scene. Perhaps my preference is related to the many photos I took of the canopies of woodland trees during my Master’s thesis research. In the photo, you can see the trunk of an older poplar and, in the background, a group of about eight younger trees, their trunks curved and bent dramatically downwards. The photo is a study in contrasts between the dark trees and the bright skylight filtered through the leaves.
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After a little research I discovered that Minnesota had a strange winter last year, with heavy snow and rain over a five day period after a relatively mild winter. Some of the woodland trees, burdened with over 20 inches of heavy snow, bent under the weight. Many have not recovered, according to the Extension Department of the University of Minnesota. To read about the effect of the winter on these trees, click here.
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I don’t know if the photo is actually a response to the snowstorm, but most bookmarks are anonymous and speak to different people in various ways. To me, the photo represents the photographer’s need to document the result of the snow event. The owner of the photo may have been unhappy at the memory of the storm or the consequences to a well-known bit of woodland.
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I am still feeling my way in this project, but here is an early attempt to capture this particular bookmark in poetry.
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storm damage
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tried to take a photo
in black and white—
bent trees in the summer woodland
birch over-laden by winter snow
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a photo to capture
desecration of forest—
behind a straight and sturdy
trunk of aspen
a clump of saplings craft
an archway in forest
usher of summer light
trembling leaves
against sky
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no wish to remember
five endless days of storm
heavy snow, burdened with rain
a charming path through woodland
rendered impassable
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abandoned
the photo
in a book
about despair
after alteration
no recovery, no hope
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A rather dismal interpretation of why the photo was forgotten in a book. What does the photo-used-as-bookmark say to you?
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All my best,
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)
soundscape and birdsong
These last two weeks have been fun for bird watchers. I saw my first dark-eyed junco, just back from a winter spent to the south. I also heard that lovely, impossible-to-imitate song of a winter wren. And I have cleaned up our feeding area so the spring birds will be easier to watch.
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This weekend, I am looking forward to talking with other bird watchers about my new poetry book ‘mnemonic – soundscape and birdsong.’
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I am looking forward to the event, hosted by the folks at the L.P Fisher Public Library, who have been so supportive of my writing through the years! Wish you could come and hear me read …
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All my best!
Jane
an alien flora
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soon! a new children’s alphabet book
On my list of goals for the year is a project I haven’t talked about before. A friend and I have been working on her new book, A Child’s Botanical Alphabet.
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I have known Jenn for years, since we both worked on Fredericton’s WordFeast in 2017. Jennifer Houle is a seasoned author, with two award-winning poetry collections, The Back Channels and Virga (Signature Editions). Her first children’s book, Un logis pour Molly/A Home for Molly, was published by Éditions Bouton d’Or Acadie in summer of 2022 in both French and English.
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Here is what Jenn is saying about A Child’s Botanical Alphabet:
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This book started out as a little rhyme I made up for my boys when they were toddlers. I loved teaching them to name common flowers & trees around the yard & neighbourhood. Having a vocabulary for things helps deepen imagination, sense of relatedness. I imagined it as a book that caregivers could read with children as they explored … the pages are meant to be coloured on & leaves & flowers pressed between pages. So it’s a book meant to be used. Oh! And there are Luna Moths fluttering throughout. . .presiding spirits.
Jennifer Houle, Facebook, March 20, 2024
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When Jenn asked me to do the illustrations for her book, I said yes because I loved the concept and I had some suitable pencil drawings already done. I knew from the start I wanted the illustrations to be in colour, so I did my first work of this sort in the digital world. I used GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) to colourize each pencil drawing. I have learned so much about colour and its presentation. Jennifer was easy to work with, so in spite of some learning curves, we are very happy with the result.
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As we work on the last small edits, we are excited to see A Child’s Botanical Alphabet in its final form and show it to you. Stayed tuned for more information!
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All my best,
Jane
nichepoetryandprose 