alien landscapes

new book in the Meniscus Series – Meniscus: Reckoning

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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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the adventurers travel across the El’ban Elevations

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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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a map of the El’ban area of planet Meniscus

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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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Daniel, the Slain

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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). 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)

plants on an alien planet

jane tims2 Comments

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.

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All my best!

Notice the plants around you!

Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)

Meniscus: The Knife now available in e-book

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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.

a map of Tagret’s travels

I hope you enjoy the book!

All my best,

Alexandra (a.k.a. Jane)