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Book Cover for 'A Children's Crusade'
Pseudo-shrubs (detail)
Planet Surface (Detail)
Rai
Planet
Alphane life (detail) , dome in distance
Su Ying
Jorja
Priya
Senhora Daguia
The Dome (detail)
Han
Marta
Book Cover for 'The Leftover Girl'
Nurse G
Pseudo-crustacean

Recent Posts

Month: May 2016

Blog entry eight: Pandora’s box

Blog entry eight: Pandora’s box

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Pandora’s box

As with my last post, the accompanies and is designed to be read with the next chapter of A Children’s Crusade to be uploaded, chapter eight, which is called Pandora’s box.
The classical reference is not intended to be canonical, rather metaphorical. The actions of the Nurses clearly do not release all of the evils of the world, but do, nevertheless, upset the apple cart!
In this chapter we begin to appreciate the scale of the planet as the kids prepare to go on their first solo flights in the new aircraft. Marta and Jorge’s relationship has developed, and survives a shocking revelation, to emerge stronger for it…
We learn more about the long-term plans of the Nurses, and we discern what is either a frightening lack of empathy on the part of Mission AI, or an indifference to the wishes and feelings of the ‘biological units’. Certainly they beginning to display an increasing ruthlessness in the way they implement these plans.
In the course of this, the emotional price exacted by the strange existence of the children becomes clearer.
To balance all the melodrama, we learn more about the nature of the Centauran system, and its implications for the history of Alpha 5… Oh, and the chapter finishes with a declaration of undying love…!

Fear of flying

Fear of flying

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Apologies for the delay in posting this month, other things just got in the way! This post is designed to accompany chapter seven of our story, Fear of flying, and should be read in conjunction with it…
As a sidebar it’s worth reminding you that I’m currently working on chapter eighteen of the third novel in the trilogy, the Lost Colony, and it feels odd to be writing about a chapter I wrote nearly two years ago; sort of like being in two different time frames, simultaneously!
Anyway, enough of my issues. Fear of flying introduces the notion of different points of view (from now on referred to POV), and we get to explore, via this device, our new character’s sensory world. My intention was to use this device to make the experience of Alpha 5 more concrete….The chapter is very much a ‘touchy-feely’ one, where we explore things through the contrasting perceptions of two of the main characters… This is directly contrasted in the first section where we experience the same events first from Jorge’s POV, and then from Marta’s.
Marta finds that the path to true love doesn’t always run smoothly, as things she can’t control have a habit of getting in the way. Her rivalry with her fellow Brazilian, Jorja, also reaches a new pitch.
The theme here is the gaining of knowledge, and its consequences. My apologies to Erica Jong for purloining her title, but the metaphor is pertinent, if obvious. We learn more about the characters, and what it’s like to be a child growing up in these circumstances, experiencing the doubt, uncertainty, fear, and sheer embarrassment of going through puberty…but with the added burdens of enduring constant surveillance and having to take on adult responsibilities at a very tender age. These kids have it tough!
‘til next time…