The tenth book in the Meniscus Series and the first in the upcoming Trilogy is available on Amazon here. Meniscus: Rosetta Stone tells the story of Abra and her travel to Hath-men, centre of The Resistance, a movement to rid Humans of cruel treatment under the Dock-winder overlords.
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The next book in the Trilogy will be Meniscus: The Struggle. This book will bring together many of the previous characters in the Meniscus world. Tagret, chemist, and Abra, historian, will study the Dock-winder manuscript to discover its secret. But perhaps not everyone wants to see the end of the Dock-winder hegemony.
Meet Abra and Trath as they try to rescue a manuscript written in both Gel-speak and Dock-winder. The manuscript is a kind of ‘Rosetta Stone’ which could unlock the mystery of the Dock-winder language. And could contain information to lead to the end of the cruel domination of all sentients on Meniscus.
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Rosetta Stone is the tenth book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series (eleventh if you count Meniscus: 1.5).
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If you haven’t read any of the Series, Book One (Meniscus: Crossing the Churn), Book Six (Meniscus: Oral Traditions), and Book Ten (Meniscus: Rosetta Stone) would be good places to jump in to the story.
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Each book has a list of characters, a glossary of Meniscus-peculiar plants, animals and items, and a dictionary of Gel-speak. All the books are illustrated with my black and white drawings.
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I hope you will enjoy the new book and the new characters introduced to the stories.
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I will receive my copies ofMeniscus:Rosetta Stone by November 15 and, soon after, they will be available from Westminister Books in Fredericton. Copies are also available at Amazon.ca here.
Next in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series? A Trilogy. Three books telling the story of how the Humans discover a way to overthrow the Dock-winder overlords.
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The books will be:
Meniscus: Rosetta Stone
Meniscus: The Struggle
Meniscus: Return to Sintha
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The books will feature two new characters: Abra, a translator and historian, who is working to understand the secret Dock-winder language; and Trath, her husband, a Slain, who deals in beelwort, the drug-of-choice on Meniscus.
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Their adventures take them to an amblion mine, a brothel in Bleth-nan, the hide-out of The Resistance movement, and every city in the North and South Districts of Prell. You will meet The Resistance movement in various cities: The Whirlwind in Enbricktow, the creepy triplets (the Shadow Builders) in Bleth, and the ragged members of Curfew Dark in Prell.
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Abra
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Trath, a Slain
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In the world of Meniscus, in the halls of the Museum of Dock-winder Legacy in Prell, is a statue of The Five Planners, leaning over a strategy table, necks entwined. I am certain they did not foretell the clever way Abra will bring the Dock-winder hegemony to its end.
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The first book in the trilogy, Meniscus: Rosetta Stone, will be available at Amazon on October 15, 2021.
I am a botanist, so when I write about the alien planet Meniscus, it is only logical that I should populate the planet with lots of plant-like species.
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A few of my characters are also interested in the plant-life. Odymn, my parkour-loving protagonist, wants to be able to live off the land, so she samples a tiny bit of every plant she finds and has gathered a considerable list of edibles (do not do this at home!). Madoline, who loves to cook, is interested in the edibles as well, since she can put them in her delicious stews. She is also interested in poisonous plants since she hates the local aliens; by Book Five, she has a reputation as Nan’math Madoline (Madoline the Contaminator), poisoner of hundreds of Dock-winders and Gel-heads. Kathryn, an artist, is interested in plants because they are great subjects for her drawings.
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Odymn shows Madoline the toxic plant ‘dagger-drip’
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As Kathryn drew more and more plants to illustrate the Meniscus books, I got the idea of creating a Flora of Meniscus. For the last few weeks, Kathryn and I have been drawing new plants, adding colour using GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) and thinking about plants on other planets.
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‘find-a-way’ vine
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Are these classifiable as plants? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But to the Humans, the non-botanists of Themble Hill, they look and act like plants.
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Why do ‘plants’ on Meniscus resemble plants on Earth? Since they do not know the local names for plants, the Humans name the plants they find by the names they know. So the slag-ferns look like ferns, but they may not be ‘ferns.’
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‘slag-fern’ looks like a fern, but may not be a ‘fern’
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The plants that populate Meniscus illustrate a principle in biology: ‘form follows function.’ Over and over again, living things solve problems in similar ways. So the slag-fern, needing to access sunlight for energy, maximizes leafy area, using a strategy common to ferns on Earth. The principles of parallel and convergent evolution are expressions of similar strategies (for an explanation of parallel and convergent evolution, see https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/convevol.htm )
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In creating a Flora of Meniscus, I have learned so much. First, I have realized that passing mention of a new plant by one of my characters can never hope to detail the morphology of the plant. As a writer, I need to have my characters pause and report the sights, smells and even sounds that characterize these plants. Secondly, publishing this Flora will mean I have to learn to work with colour in my publishing platform, KDP. And lastly, I know I can use the Flora as a method of keeping my descriptions consistent in future stories.
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At the rate I am working, I think the Flora of Meniscus may be out by the end of this year!
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I hope you enjoy these samples of a few of the coloured drawings.
When Daniel, the Slain, rescues his wife, Odymn, from the clutches of the Dock-winders, he is bewildered to discover: Odymn does not know him. She does does not remember the last twelve years of her life.
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For the reader, Meeting of Minds means seeing the alien planet of Meniscus through Odymn’s eyes as if for the first time.
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For those who have read the earlier books, this means knowing more than the protagonist. The reader knows Odymn should not wander by herself in the woodland. She should not eat that weird plant. Water will not go down the throat so easily as on Earth. If she only knew, she can trust Daniel, the Slain.
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For those who have not read the series before, this is a great book to break in to the story. You can see this weird, dangerous world through Odymn’s eyes and get to know the characters she meets.
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Meniscus: Meeting of Minds is the ninth book in the science fiction series. It is now available through Amazon (just click here) or, if you live in the Fredericton area, in Westminster Books.
Get your free e-ook copy of Meniscus: Oral Traditions on Amazon.com from December 7 (Monday) to December 11 (Friday). The book is written in narrative poetry and is illustrated with my drawings. It is a quick read and includes maps, a glossary and a Gel-speak dictionary. Just click here.
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This is a story about Tagret who is waking on the alien planet Meniscus for the first time. Perhaps strangest of all her encounters is with the Slain, Rist, who saves her from an unsavory attack by a Gel-head. Rist is likeable and someone Tagret thinks she could make a life with. But Rist has a secret.
Want to give yourself a free gift during this Christmas season? If you are staying at home and would love some down-time with a good book, here is your opportunity.
The Meniscus Science Fiction Series follows the adventures of humans trying to build a life and a community in an alien, dystopian world. The first five books focus on Odymn and Daniel the Slain as they flee from the Dock-winders and find love in the strange Meniscus landscapes. Book 6 … Meniscus: Oral Traditions … introduces two new characters and the unique problem they encounter as they get to know one another in the streets of the alien city Sintha.
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The story focuses on Tagret, newly kidnapped from Earth, as she opens her eyes on Meniscus and tries to understand the weird world she discovers. A world where taking a drink of water is a challenge and the local sentients are purple Dock-winders and transparent green Gel-heads. Then she meets the Slain, Rist, and comes to understand what those tattoos on his arms really mean.
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Get your free ebook copy of Meniscus: Oral Traditions on Amazon.com from December 7 (Monday) to December 11 (Friday). The book is written in narrative poetry and is illustrated with my drawings. It is a quick read and includes maps, a glossary and a Gel-speak dictionary. Just click here.
Meniscus: The Knife, next book in the science fiction series about planet Meniscus, is now available in paperback and e-book. Just click here to order the book on Amazon.
This is the story of Tagret and her quest to save Rist, the man she loves, from certain death at the hands of the Brotherhood.
On her journey, Tagret will encounter dangerous geysers and the half-inundated city of Nebul-nan. As always, the book includes maps, a glossary, a Gel-speak dictionary, a character guide and my original illustrations.
Meniscus: The Knife science fiction adventure is available today from Amazon in paperback.
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I will have copies to distribute in the Fredericton, New Brunswick, area by November 20. If you prefer e-books, the Kindle version will be available by November 4.
off planet 