Posts Tagged ‘poetry’
Winner … what is ‘beelwort’?
I am happy to announce the winner of my contest ‘What is beelwort?’ Beelwort is a mysterious item mentioned in the first book of my Meniscus sci-fi series — Meniscus: Crossing The Churn. My books give only small hints about the nature of beelwort: it get slipped into pockets as a joke and, although edible, is not very palatable.
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The winner of the contest is Allan Hudson. Allan is the editor of the South Branch Scribbler, an on-line blog exploring the arts. Every week Allan posts an article, guest blog or question and answer session about an author, musician or artist. Have a look at http://allanhudson.blogspot.ca/ The blog includes some interesting insights into the process of writing and the methods of some well-known authors.
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Allan’s answer to the contest defined beelwort as ‘… an edible, hallucinogenic fungus only found on Meniscus …’ To this, I will only add ‘rather squishy’. Beelwort will finally be defined, using Allan’s definition, in Book Five of the Meniscus series — Meniscus: Karst Topography. Also, Allan will receive a postage-paid copy of my first poetry book within easy reach, poems about eating wild edible plants (available at http://www.chapelstreeteditions.com or on Amazon).
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available from www.chapelstreeteditions.com
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Meniscus: Karst Topography (I took geology as a minor in university) is in draft form at present. However, the first book in the series — Meniscus: Crossing The Churn — is now available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B06XPPNCGF/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Meniscus: Crossing The Churn is a science-fiction adventure/romance describing the meeting of Odymn and the Slain. Written as a long poem, it is a book about loss, freedom and relationship. The remaining books in the series will bring new characters into the mix and tell a story about building companionship, family and community on a dystrophic planet where even casual contact between humans is discouraged. Don’t let the poetry format put you off! The tale is told in short lines, written as concisely as is possible to tell a story!
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Thank you to Allan for entering the contest! Your book within easy reach is in the mail!
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Belnar, one of the characters from Book Two is into the honey mead, but he could be eating beelwort!
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
spring comes to the Saint John River
We have waited eagerly for spring here in New Brunswick. With late snow storms and temperatures still in the minus degrees Centigrade, my day lilies are just peeking through the grass at the edge of the snow.
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There is still ice on the river with windrows showing the last snows …
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but the ice is gradually receding, revealing vast strips of blue water …
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Every year, my husband and I watch for our own harbinger of spring …. the return of the Canada geese to the river. We went for a drive last week to find many examples of geese feeding in the bare fields and along the river edges.
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We saw geese in several fields along the way, but our best view was on a side road to one of the river’s many concrete wharves …
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prediction of spring
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necks of geese
are the steep upward
curve of charts showing:
—— longer , brighter days
——- larger areas of meltwater
——— warmer expressions of sun
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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims
Authors Coffee House – a reading by poet Shari Andrews
Hi Everyone. Our church (Holy Trinity, Nasonworth) is holding the third in our series of Authors Coffee Houses next Thursday evening (March 23, 2017) at 7:00 PM.
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Our author this month is Shari Andrews, award-winning poet and a resident of New Maryland. Shari will be reading from her books “Crucible” and “First Thin Light”.
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“Crucible” is a tribute to St. Catherine of Siena who lived in the Middle Ages, and a dramatic imagining of the people and events in her life.
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“First Thin Light” is about the ties that bind our past to our present.
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Shari’s writing is steeped in history and many of her poems are responses to works of art. Her poems ponder women’s experience —
From her poem ‘Where She Laid Her Body Down’ (After “The Walk to Work” by Jean-François Millet, 1851) in “First Thin Light”:
“She wears the withy basket,
she will fill again and again with potatoes,
upside down
like an over-sized hat,
a roof she wants to keep over her head …”
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There will be a free-will offering to benefit the Fredericton Food Bank.
Dessert, tea and coffee and good company!
Hope to see you there if you are in the Fredericton area!
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
Meniscus: Crossing The Churn …. published!
I am so proud to announce that my new science-fiction book Meniscus: Crossing The Churn is now available in paperback through Amazon. The book is written in the form of a long poem and includes my pencil drawings.
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To quote the book cover:
On the alien planet Meniscus, Humans are slaves. Every twilight, Odymn runs through the forests of Meniscus, practicing the art of parkour. Her runs give her strength, flexibility and endurance, and a way to survive a life of servitude under the oppressive Dock-winders. When the silent Slain rescues her from a brutal encounter with a gang of Gel-heads, Odymn believes she has reached the end of her search for freedom. In their travels through the Prell’nan District of Meniscus, she and the Slain encounter dangerous woodlands, dramatic water-climbs and an impassable water churn. Odymn and the Slain work together to evade the Gel-heads and overcome the dangers of the landscape. But is Odymn really free or is she caught in a cycle of trying to escape the inevitable?
In the first of the Meniscus series, Crossing the Churn tells the story of the meeting of a young woman and a genetically-engineered Slain whose kindness may not be consistent with his purpose.
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This is the first book in a series of five, all in various stages of completion. I aim to publish a new book in the series every couple of months during 2017.
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I have published this book under my first name Alexandra so be sure to look for it under Alexandra Tims. Hope you will come with me for a run through the landscapes of the planet Meniscus.
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or for Canadian customers:
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If you buy my book, please leave a short review on Amazon!!!
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True to my botany training, part of the story reveals how to stay fed on an alien planet with no grocery store nearby! If you want to stay fed on this planet, have a look at the poems in my other book within easy reach (Chapel Street Editions, 2016), also available on Amazon.
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Odymn and the Slain
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
The “proof” arrives!
A knock on the door yesterday afternoon brought the “proof” of my new book Meniscus: Crossing The Churn”. So exciting!
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The proofing with CreateSpace takes a while if you follow their process. At the suggestion of one of my blog readers, I sent for the hard copy “proof” and I am so glad I did! I am also reviewing a virtual book and a PDF version, both provided by CreateSpace.
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I know from my read of the virtual book, there are several things I want to fix. But having the proof makes publication of the book more “real”. Also, a read of the real pages will probably point out other edits … there always seems to be a difference between my perception of paper and screen versions!
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It will take a few hours to read the “proof”, make any changes and go through the process of downloading the new version to CreateSpace. Then, a repeat of the proofing process. Nevertheless, I am that much closer to the publication of my book on Amazon!
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Copyright Jane Tims 2017
A muse takes over – final edits
This week I am working towards final publication of my first sci-fi novel on CreateSpace – Meniscus: Crossing The Churn.
I have incorporated the comments of my editor ( Lee Thompson Editing + https://leethompsonediting.com/ ) into my final draft.
I have sent my beta-version to my six beta-readers and will make a few edits based on their comments.
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A glimpse of the book in final editing. The blue paper was a gift from my husband who thought he was buying white paper! The yellow tabs are just a few last minute changes. The white frame is my way of seeing how the book will look on the final page size!
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At the last minute I decided my font was too small and switched from Garamond 12 to Garamond 14. It took a while to get all those drawings back to the left hand page!
Now, I have printed out a final version to have one last view before I load the cover, text and other information into CreateSpace.
A comment about independent versus traditional publishing:
I realize how patient the publisher was with all the edits for my poetry book within easy reach (Chapel Street Editions, 2017).
I also realize that my publisher made the final call and ‘pushed the button ‘ regarding the final, final, final draft. Left to my own, I realize I am a bit nervous about this last step and find myself procrastinating, just a little.
To that end, I spent all morning, not working on Meniscus:Crossing The Churn, but on the early draft of the fifth book in the series!
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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims
a muse takes over – character arcs
Every character in a novel needs a background and a story arc of their own, in order to make them interesting and realistic. This creates challenges as I proceed through the drafts of the five books of my sci-fi series ‘Meniscus’.
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In Book One (Crossing the Churn), I have only two main characters, Odymn and the Slain.
In Book Two (South from Sintha), they rescue three new characters from servitude under the Dock-winder aliens and a simple community begins to take shape.
In Book Three (Winter by the Water-climb), a transport crash brings six more humans to the settlement.
By Book Four (The Town at Themble Hill), the settlers are actively seeking new recruits to the community and there are sixteen characters for the writer (me) to manage.
At the end of Book Five, even I don’t know how many characters will survive/be added!
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Character arcs assist with the forward motion of the entire story. Each character’s story arc contributes to the whole and is usually connected in some way to the main story arc.
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I express my character story arcs in a three-part sentence — what the character wants, the obstacles he or she encounters, and the resolution.
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For example, one of the new recruits in Book Four (The Town at Themble Hill) is Edward, a medical doctor. Although the settlers can get the help of an alien elder, a doctor who has actually treated human illness will be a great asset to the community. When he enters the story, he has been a Dock-winder slave, used to treat the ailments of other human slaves.
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In the Dock-winder city of Prell, Edward has been able to work with complex technologies. But in the new human settlement, deep in the Themble Woods, even simple tools like stethoscopes or standard pharmaceuticals don’t exist. Edward has to reinvent his approach to medicine, developing his own methods with available tools and embracing alien natural medicines and techniques he previously belittled.
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So, Edward’s story arc is expressed as follows:
Edward wants to help his patients but when technology is no longer available, he has to learn to embrace alien methods and natural herbal medicines.
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This sentence, once written, can help determine the mood of the character, his attitude towards other characters, his response in various situations and the risks he is willing to take. Now I can revise my draft to make it consistent with Edward’s story arc.
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There are often three ‘bumps’ to move the character’s story arc along. Edward’s three ‘bumps’ are consistent with his story arc:
- Edward is skeptical of the Argenop methods (the Argenops are primitive aliens, cute and furry)
- He encounters a medical challenge that, with technology, could be easily resolved
- He tries an alien, herbal treatment and learns to trust new methods
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Back to work!
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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims
a muse takes over – telling a story through the seasons
In New Brunswick, the passage of time is measured in part by the seasons. Right now we are in winter, in the midst of another snow storm and taking a lot of care when walking on all the ice. Soon it will be spring with crocuses blooming on the lawn and water in every hollow. Then summer, days on the deck and keeping cool. Finally, my favourite season, autumn, colourful leaves and starry nights.
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Since I am a writer embedded in the winter-spring-summer-fall cycle, it’s natural that changing seasons are an important part of my sci-fi novel. Although weather is often a factor in story telling, I find many books ignore the changing of the seasons.
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Seasons on planet Meniscus occur in a cycle of four, as in the northern and southern latitudes of Earth. On Meniscus the seasons are the result of a changing heat regime as once per ‘year’ one of the twinned suns slips behind the other. Whether the physics of this makes much sense, I can’t say. “I’m a biologist, Jim, not a physicist!”
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Book One, Crossing the Churn, begins in summer. Foraging for food is easy. As the days pass, leaves begin to fall and soon the characters wade rather than walk through the forest.
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Book Two, South from Sintha, finishes in autumn, as the days grow colder. New characters in Book Two are looking for a home before winter sets in.
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Book Three, Winter at the Water-climb, takes place in a world of ice. The plot focuses on the coming of cold weather and shorter days. Foraging for food is difficult since everything is hidden under snow drifts. Survival depends on what has been put into storage.
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Book Four, The Town in the Themble Wood, celebrates the coming of spring and the vibrancy of summer. The Slain and Odymn scout the Themble Wood for a town-site and help the other Humans establish a new community.
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Book Five, so new it has no name, will take the characters back into autumn. In many ways this book will be a race against time as winter approaches and the Slain must find Odymn and other characters who have been lost after a crisis.
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Including seasons in my story adds to the possibilities for describing setting. The cinnamon scent of trees in the autumn Themble Wood, tracks in the snow of the new town, and melting water-springs add to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes my writing can explore.
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The progress of getting my first book into CreateSpace has been hampered this week by the appearance of ‘The Blue Screen of Death’ on my computer. It is fixed now, but I am sure the folks on Meniscus have never faced such a challenge!!!
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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims
a muse takes over – creating alien animal species
In this post, I’ll show you some of the animals I have invented for my science fiction tale of life on the alien planet Meniscus. If you think I have gone crazy, keep reading anyway!
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Hiking through the woods on planet Meniscus is dangerous. At any moment my characters can be attacked by carnivorous club-mosses, voracious bird-like reptiles seeking hair for their nests, packs of wolf-like ‘kotildi’, or three-eyed ‘slear-snakes’. Writing the scenes with these creatures has been so much fun.
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… the wolf-like kotildi are denizens of the Meniscus woodlands – wild, they are voracious, but tame, they are endearing!
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… Odymn and the Slain spend a bit of their time fending off trolling ‘slear-snakes’ …
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Probably because I love birds, I have included lots of birds in my list of species on Meniscus. These include large flightless and burrowing ‘grell’, the wheeling ‘wind-fleers’, and woodland song-birds.
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… Odymn sees a bird that looks like a ‘scarlet minivet’ on one of her adventures … not afraid of her at all …
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Here is a list of some of the animals on planet Meniscus.
| animal | description |
| elginard | wingless insect; moves by floating on air currents |
| evernell | feral cat-like scavenger, with whiskers; slinks, sprays saliva |
| grell-swallows | large burrowing birds; used for a food and fat source |
| kemet | striped horse-like animal with hooves and a long tail |
| kotildi | woodland carnivore, like a large wolf with a hump and mane; source of meat |
| midlar | territorial, tree-living rodent; hoots |
| nelip | small external parasite, infesting fur and hair |
| slear-snake | snake-like reptile with poison teeth, claws, and pincers |
| warbel | song bird living in the woodland |
| windfleer | heron-like bird; moves in flocks |
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My favorite species on Meniscus is a small insect, the ‘elginard’. Wingless and fluffy, it follows currents of air, at the whim of the universe. Dandelion fluff and wooly aphids were my inspiration for the ‘elginard’.
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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims
a muse takes over – creating alien plant species
When I was in university, we spent lots of time in botany courses discovering the concept of ‘form follows function’. This means that plants have adapted to their surroundings so almost every physical feature reflects the requirements of landscape and habitat. Good examples:
- thorns discourage predators
- tubular flowers to enable pollination by insects with long mouth parts
- hairs on leaves help conserve moisture by blocking air flow
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This concept is foremost in my mind as I try to populate my fictional planet Meniscus with plants. Plants are important to my story because my characters have to forage for their food (the main character, Odymn, is particularly good at finding food in the forest). My alien plants have to serve the purposes of the story. They also have to be credible and follow biological logic. Form must follow function.
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This drawing of Odymn practicing her parkour in the woods shows two plant species on Meniscus — a banyan-like tree and ‘slag-fern’. This banyan is great for climbing and jumping!!!
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Some sci-fi readers prefer authors not to invent new species, but to use our familiar species. I decided to create new species because my story is about what humans have lost when they were brought to an alien planet. I plan to help my readers by including a glossary of alien plants in the back of each book.
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Although they are alien, most of my plants are reminiscent of our species here on Earth. A good example would be ‘arbel’ a small woodland plant used to treat ailments on planet Meniscus. One of the chemical components of ‘arbel’ is ASA (acetylsalicylic acid or aspirin), making it similar to tea berry (Gaultheria procumbens), a plant common in our woods. I imagine ‘arbel’ to look like our woodland species trout lily (Erythronium americanum). Like trout lily, ‘arbel’ has edible corms. Also like trout lily, ‘arbel’ has thick leaves to conserve water on a planet where surface water is rare.
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Another of my alien plant species is a carnivorous club-moss, a dangerous inhabitant of the Themble Woods. Sheets of this moss crawl across the woodland floor, engulfing their prey. I want to include carnivorous plants on Meniscus because our own carnivorous plants, such as the sundew (Drosera sp.), are so intriguing. My carnivorous ‘club-moss’ has glands to absorb nutrients from its prey and touch-responsive tendrils to help it crawl through the forest. For a while I thought I would use carnivorous vines but I have seen too many movies where vines take over the earth!
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Odymn falls asleep in the woods and is overtaken by a carpet of carnivorous club-mosses.
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An earlier drawing showing vines attacking Odymn.
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Following is a list of the plants I have planted on Meniscus. Beverages to keep the folks on Meniscus awake are brewed from the leaves and berries of ‘thief-bush’!
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| plant | description |
| arbel | nodding woodland flower; corms edible |
| glasswort | transparent, low-growing plant, adapted to the edges of the Churn |
| grammid | tree with orange leaves and edible seed pods; smells like cinnamon |
| ransindyne | plant grown for its edible root |
| slag-fern | fern-like plant with leathery leaves |
| spenel | small plant with edible berries |
| thief-bush | bush with thick leaves and blue berries; used to make beverages |
| tussilago | plant similar to colts-foot, used to sooth a cough |
| walking-vine | vigorous vine native to the edges of the Darn’el desert |
| yarnel | tree with edible fruit like pomegranate |
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This writing has given me new appreciation for the interesting and complex plants we have on our own planet!
Next post I will show you some of the animals on Meniscus!
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Copyright 2017 Jane Tims
nichepoetryandprose 