Archive for the ‘Meniscus’ Category
Book Covers: from sketch to design
In producing my science fiction books, one of the many tasks is to produce a book cover for each book. I could hire this step out, but I made a decision early in my author experience to feature both my art and writing in producing my books.
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There are ten (soon to be eleven) books in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series. Once I decided on the design for the first book (Meniscus: Crossing The Churn), I knew I wanted all the books in the series to follow a similar cover pattern. I liked the format of a single block showing the cover art and the general placement of title, volume number and author’s name. I also wanted all the cover art to show the two Meniscus moons (Cardoth-roe, the big moon, and Cardoth-grill’en, the little moon) and the characters in the book in silhouette.
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Creating a book cover takes four main steps.
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Step One is to consider how I want to present the book and what themes could be displayed.
Step Two is to do a black and white drawing of the cover.
Step Three is to do an acrylic painting of the drawing.
Step Four is to create a cover for the book, to be up-loaded to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for both paperback and e-book editions.
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The only cover to depart from the pattern (no drawing was produced that led to the cover), was Book Seven, Meniscus: Encounter with the Emenpod. Here are the drawings and final covers for all the books after the first:
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There is one other book, Meniscus: One Point Five – Forty Missing Days, that should be shown. Its cover came from a painting done to welcome people to my sales table at various book fairs.
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)
Meniscus: The Struggle … Creating the Cover
Sometimes choosing the theme for a book cover is difficult. Sometimes it is so easy.
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In my new book, Meniscus: The Struggle, Abra is trying to discover a way to overthrow the alien Dock-winders. As she wanders along the shore of the Vastness, she thinks she sees a Dock-winder from the corner of her eye.
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Startles as she sees a shadow.
Parody of Dock-winder physique—
purple, angular, thin,
long neck, single coil of hair.
Abra relaxes with a nervous laugh.
The shadow an anomaly, a teetering pile
of pebbles built
by some wandering child.
All the real Dock-winders
are gathered in arrogant bouquets
on the streets of Sintha, Enbricktow,
Prell and Bleth.
I liked this idea of the Dock-winders casting their shadows across the sands of Meniscus.
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The cover painting took less than a day to paint. The colours are mellow and there is lots of room for the cover text. All of the Meniscus books have included the two Meniscus moons: Cardoth roe and Cardoth grill’en.
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A lot of the work for the final book is done. The edit is complete, as are the drawings. I was without a scanner for a while but with our new printer, I can scan each drawing and place it in the text where it should be.
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Then I will order a proof and use it to make any final adjustments. Once my beta-reader has had a chance to react to the book, I will be ready to publish.
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June, sometime in June.
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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
A Milestone: Ten Books in the Meniscus Series
With the publication of Meniscus: Rosetta Stone, there are now ten books in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series. Well, since I always make life difficult for myself, there are actually eleven books (if you count Meniscus: 1.5 and you should – it’s a great little book).
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In any case, this is a milestone in another way. Rosetta Stone is the first book of a Trilogy aimed at ending the oppressive rule of the Dock-winders, overlords of planet Meniscus.
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The Meniscus Science Fiction Series tells:
- the story of abducted Humans and their fight for freedom
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- the love stories of memorable characters:
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- the adventures of characters pitted against the wilds of planet Meniscus:
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The stories are told in free-verse poetry (do not be afraid) and illustrated. Each book includes maps, character backgrounds, a glossary and a Gel-speak dictionary.
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Try them, you’ll like them. Click on any of the covers to the right to see the book for sale on Amazon.
All my best!
Jane
Meniscus: Rosetta Stone – now available
The tenth book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series is now available:
at Westminster Books in Fredericton,
at Amazon (click here) as an ebook or paperback,
at the Fredericton Public Library,
and from me.
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Even if you haven’t read any of the Meniscus stories to date, this book will introduce new main characters and begin a new story.
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Abra, translator and historian, has found a previously unknown Dock-winder manuscript. She thinks it may contain a clue to overcoming the evil Dock-winders but first, she will make a hazardous journey to Hath-men, the centre of the Resistance movement. Join her as she faces dangers in the Meniscus woods and capture by the disgusting Gel-heads.
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All my best
Jane
(a.k.a. Alexandra)
how much for a trip to space?
Yesterday, October 13, 2021, will be part of Star Trek history since William Shatner (a.k.a. Captain James T. Kirk) took a real journey into space, on board the space tourism ship, Blue Origin’s New Shepard. The cost of a ticket is variable, but in the range of hundreds of thousands into the millions. I said to my husband, “I’ll pass. I’ll just let the Dock-winders come and get me, and ‘take’ me to Meniscus.”
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So, if you are a reader of the Meniscus Science Fiction Series, you will know that the Dock-winders of Meniscus have visited (or will visit Earth) seven times: 1982, 1988, 1995, 2008, 2013, 2020 and 2023 (two years from now). Each time, they harvest Humans for transport to their planet. In every Meniscus book, there is a list of characters and the years they were taken. Next year, I will be publishing three novellas, short urban mysteries, in the Meniscus Peripherals Series. In each book, set on Earth, there will be a mention of a Dock-winder abduction and a connection to a Meniscus Science Fiction Series story.
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If you are not fussy about being ‘taken’ to Meniscus, for free, you can still be transported to the Meniscus world, for the small price of a paperback or e-book. There are now nine Meniscus adventures (ten if you include 1.5), and the tenth in the series, Meniscus: Rosetta Stone, will be released tomorrow, Friday!
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The books in the series are:
Book One – Meniscus: Crossing The Churn
Book 1.5 – Meniscus: One Point FiveBook One – Meniscus: Crossing The Churn
Book 1.5 – Meniscus: One Point Five
Book Two – Meniscus: South from Sintha
Book Three – Meniscus: Winter by the Water-climb
Book Four – Meniscus: The Village at Themble Hill
Book Five – Meniscus: Karst Topography
Book Six – Meniscus: Oral Traditions
Book Seven – Meniscus: Encounter with the Emenpod
Book Eight – Meniscus: The Knife
Book Nine – Meniscus: Meeting of Minds
Book Ten – Meniscus: Rosetta Stone
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Reading will transport you to Meniscus, second planet in the solar system of Tathlet-Amblyn, a double sun. Meniscus is a world of woodlands, deserts and mountains and the cities of Prell District, North and South. The plants and animals are peculiar and sometimes dangerous. And water moves upward, not down. Rivers do not flow and water is hard to swallow. The Humans who find themselves on Meniscus are the slaves of the Dock-winder system. But sometimes they are able to escape and, with other Humans, build relationships and communities and have exciting adventures.
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Meniscus: Rosetta Stone will introduce two new characters, Abra and Trath. Abra, an historian, finds a manuscript written in both Dock-winder and Gel-speak. Abra believes translation of the document may reveal a secret to overthrow the Dock-winders. She sets out for Hath-men, a village where The Resistance is centred. But traveling alone on Meniscus can be very dangerous.
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Meniscus: Rosetta Stone will be available on Friday, October 15, in both paperback and e-book versions. Once I get copies, it will be available from me or at Westminster Books in Fredericton.
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All my best.
(The Dock-winders are fictional.
You don’t have to worry about them!)
Jane
(a.k.a. Alexandra)
An Upcoming Trilogy in the Meniscus Series
To the right of the post, you will see, in a column, a list of the nine existing books in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series. This summer, I am working on books 10, 11 and 12, a trilogy in that the books are connected in theme and story. The three books are (provisionally) entitled:
Meniscus: Rosetta Stone
Meniscus: The Struggle
Meniscus: Return to Sintha
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The books tell the story of how Abra, historian and transcription expert, works to solve the mystery of the Dock-winder language, hoping an ancient manuscript written in Dock-winder will contain a clue to the downfall of these oppressive overlords.
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The books contain many old friends from previous books in the Meniscus Series, including the people of Themble Hill. They also introduce two new characters: Abra and her husband Trath, a Slain.
From the list of characters at the end of each book:
Abra– an historian; transcribes, transliterates and translates Museum manuscripts from Gel-speak to English; brought to Meniscus in the 2013 harvest; taken as she worked in the library of the Peabody Museum of Natural History in New Haven, Connecticut, translating a codex of Maya glyphs into English; used as a processor of the beelwort drug by the Dock-winders of the Prell-nan Ogle-hath syndicate; met her husband Trath when he brought raw beelwort to be processed; lives with Trath in the Museum of Dock-winder Legacy, Prell; as she works in the Museum library, she sometimes forgets she is no longer on Earth.
Trath – a trader; gathers wild beelwort for sale to the city syndicates and hospitals; brought to Meniscus as a baby by the Dock-winders in the 1988 harvest and genetically altered to be a Slain; makes his home in the Museum of Dock-winder Legacy, in Prell; addicted to beelwort; married to Abra.
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Here is an excerpt from Rosetta Stone:
“Why did you leave me?”
says Trath.
Abra lifts her head.
Stares at Garnock,
the Wandering Star.
Careful of her words.
“You are never home.
Never tell me
where you have been.
Hardly speak to me
when you are there.”
“You are always
in the archives,”
says Trath,
“with your books and papers.
Never seem to care if I come or go.”
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All my books are illustrated and include maps, a character list, a glossary and a Gel-speak dictionary.
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Meniscus: Rosetta Stone will be out this fall.
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All my best,
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
new in the Meniscus Series: Meeting of Minds
For your summer read, visit another planet. The plants and animals are strange, the aliens are evil. But some things don’t change. Good memories. Love and friendship. Family.
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But sometimes memories, love and family are lost. When Odymn is captured by the Dock-winders, they erase ten years of her memory. There are two moons in the night sky. Her husband, Daniel, is a stranger. Food and even water are unfamiliar.
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Follow Odymn and Daniel as they get to know one another again. And when the Dock-winders capture Daniel, how will Odymn rescue him?
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Meniscus: Meeting of Minds is available now on Amazon, here, in paperback and ebook. By the end of June, you will find the paperback at Westminster Books in Fredericton. This is the ninth book in the Meniscus Series … time to introduce yourself to the series by reading Volume 1, here, or Volume 6, here. Lots of love and adventure.
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All my best,
Jane
Starting a new book 2
Today, I finished the rough draft of my new book in the Meniscus Series. This book will deal with discovery of a secret that will bring down the nasty Dock-winders.
The working title of the book is Meniscus: Resistance.
Before you become amazed at my productivity, remember that my Meniscus stories are in narrative poetry and are a quick read. At this early stage, this book has 11,600 words.
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The next step in my process is tedious, but very helpful.
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I create a Table of Chapters. Each ‘Chapter’ in the table is described by ‘What happens,’ ‘Setting.’ ‘Point of view,’ ‘Characters,’ and ‘Theme Progress.’ I can work through my entire document:
- change all the place holders to actual Chapter numbers;
- make certain the setting is described in detail;
- ensure point of view in each chapter is clear and does not waver;
- list the characters in the chapter and ensure everyone has a role to play; and,
- check on progress made towards resolution of the story.
Table of Chapters for Meniscus: of Resistance
| Chapter | What happens | Setting | Point of View | Characters | Theme Progress |
| Prologue | James escapes | Space dock | James | James, D, DW, GH, Drag’on | Introduce antagonists |
| 1. | Trath crawls from mine | base of Flame Mtn | Trath | Trath | Trath escapes |
| 2. | Abra finds six glyphs | obelisk at The Tip | Abra | Abra | Abra finds glyphs |
| 3. | Evening meal at Hath’men | Village of Hath’men | Omniscient | James, Drag’on villagers | Drag-on set apart |
| etc. |
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If the story is missing an ending, or has continuity issues, this building of the table helps me to focus on the story progress and, by the time the table is completed, the story is more complete.
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Once these tasks have been done, the Table of Chapters can be set aside and used later for any stage of the revision process. For example, I can check each chapter for phases of the moon, so the full moon doesn’t occur two days before the crescent moon! I also use the table to make certain the illustrations are evenly distributed throughout the text.
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Off I go, to fill out the Table of Chapters and to find an ending for my book.
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All my best!
Stay safe.
Jane
nichepoetryandprose 