In preparation for the release of ‘Meniscus: Reckoning,’ the next book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series, I have finished the painting for the cover.
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The painting is based on the pencil drawing ‘Travelling the Lip.’ It shows six travellers as they cross the treacherous El’ban Elevations, on their way to rescue James, imprisoned in El’ban. The group, in order, are Kotildi (the wild alien ‘wolf’), Belnar (one of the Slain), Odymn (heroine of many of the stories), Daniel (also a Slain), carrying Danny (Odymn and Daniel’s baby), and Don’est (the Dock-winder child, with her long neck).
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To be consistent with other covers, I need a distant view of the Meniscus moons (Cardoth roe and Cardoth grill’en), a mid-range view of the travellers, and a nearer scene from the book. Campfires are a common theme in the story and who better to sleep by the fire than wolf-like Kotildi?
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I was pleased with the painting. For a couple of days, I showed the travellers as black silhouettes against the Elevations. In the end, I gave them some colour, to suggest clothing and hair. I love the browns, blues and yellows in the painting.
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To make the painting fit the space on the book cover, I made some alterations in GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). I brought the moons closer to the mountain silhouette and moved the fire and sleeping Kotildi closer to the travellers. In the end, the image fit well with the cover design. Here is a sneak peek at the final cover.
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I am now re-reading Meniscus: Reckoning for the last time, making a few revisions as I go. I have also sent the proof to my beta-reader for her reactions.
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I plan to release Meniscus: Reckoning in early May. I am looking forward to my reader response!
Today, after many hours of editing and formatting, I sent for a proof of my new book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series. Meniscus: Reckoning will be out in early May. This will be the story of a perilous journey to a distant city, over difficult alien landscape, to rescue a member of the Human Resistance. The book is set in the El’ban District of Meniscus, a city mentioned but not visited in other books in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series.
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map showing the landscape of the El’ban District and the path the people of Themble Hill must follow (dotted line)
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Preparing for independent publishing of a book involves many steps. After finishing the final draft of a book, there is still a lot of work to do.
incorporate the editorial comments of my editor Lee Thompson. He has been with me since Meniscus: Crossing The Churn and through the next twelve books in the Series. He understands what I am trying to accomplish with these stories and has taught me to write my alien characters without using words that feel too Human. For example, when one of my aliens is hungry, he should not want ‘his supper’ but ‘his evening meal,’ his athlan-doe. Lee has also taught my characters to frown less;
read through the entire draft, making minor changes to small words and phrases, looking for inconsistencies;
do a final revision of the Meniscus map and make sure location names match those in the text. I also check the east, west, north and south references to make certain they sync with the map;
add page numbers — very challenging for me. I have learned how to remove page numbers from blank pages and pages with illustrations. However, starting the numbering on the correct page and separate numbering of the front matter (the first section of any book) always gives me trouble. Some of the last edits – to make certain all illustrations are on an even-numbered page (the left side of an open book) and all Chapters begin on an odd-numbered page (the right side of an open book);
position illustrations consistently on the pages;
create a pdf version of the manuscript and follow the steps to download the book to KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing where I self-publish my books);
create the main cover in GIMP and download to KDP. For the proof, I am using a black and white drawing. This week I will create a painted version of the chosen drawing in acrylics for the final book cover;
use the KDP tools to merge the cover and pdf document into a print-ready virtual book. This virtual version of the book shows me what the paperback book will look like. In spite of its usefulness, I still need a proof, in real book form, to be sure everything is the way it should be;
fix any final edits;
send for the proof!!!!
the adventurers rest by the fire
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Here is a first glimpse at what the final book will look like:
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When the proof arrives I will have another chance to scout out any problems before I finally push ‘Publish’ !
~ One of my goals this year is to work on a project begun a few years ago, preparing a Flora of Meniscus, an alien flora because Meniscus is a planet out there, in a solar system far, far away.
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Of course, that is one thing about being a writer: as I write the stories of Meniscus, I am there. I have walked on Meniscus just as certainly as I have walked the Earth. In my imagination, I can feel the give of the vegetation beneath my feet. I can hear the bird-life singing. I can see a new plant, just there, hidden among the ‘greenery’ of the forest floor. I experience each new plant found and described by the Humans of Themble Hill. And my characters have been obsessed about the plants they find:
1. plants as food (the main character, Odymn, says she takes a nibble of every new plant she finds to see if it is edible); for example, ransindyne, a plant grown for its edible root;
2. plants as poison (Madoline, the cook, searches diligently for plants she can use to poison her enemies); for example, dagger-drip – a plant with clusters of toxic pink berries;
3. plants as medicine (Edward, the doctor, learns from the native Argenops, what plants have special healing characteristics); for example, arbel – a nodding woodland flower with an edible corm, makes a tea helpful to treat pain;
4. plants as recreational drugs (Trath, one of the Slain on the planet, makes his living selling beelwort, and is always on the lookout for new commercial possibilities);
5. plants as art (Kathryn, a character who escapes bondage under the Dock-winders, spends her time drawing the plant-like organisms she sees). Perhaps Kathryn will be credited with doing the drawings for my Flora!
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Before I begin, I will state that if life does exist on another planet, it would not necessarily be classifiable in one of the five groups assigned to living things on Earth (for example ‘plant’ or ‘animal’) (for an explanation of classifications of life on our planet, click here). But, because living things tend to solve problems in similar ways, I have decided that some of the life on Meniscus would be ‘plant-like,’ ‘animal-like’ or ‘protista-like,’ etc. I have also assumed that on an alien planet, there would be a relationship between any living form and the space it occupies …. an ecology.
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As I draw and colour the images of the various plant-like organisms on Meniscus, I know my human, earth-bound brain tends to invent variations of plants we have here on Earth. But I don’t feel worried about that since I understand a principle of ecology. ‘Form follows function’: living things, no matter where they occur in the universe, are bound to solve physical problems in similar ways. In terms of evolution, when unrelated organisms solve problems in similar ways, the concept is called convergent evolution.
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‘arbel’ is one of the first plants Odymn finds to eat on Meniscus
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For example, a plant needing to lift its photosynthetic structures upward, toward sunlight, needs a way to do that. Short of evolving wings, a sturdy ‘stem’ provides a simple, elegant solution. So most of the plant-like organisms on Meniscus will have stems. To solve the issue of efficiency in gathering sunlight, most plant-like organisms will use a flat, horizontal surface, a kind of ‘leaf. So, we have a ‘fern-like’ plant form, the huge slag-fern which occupies a lot of the forest understory in the Meniscus woods.
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The people of Themble Hill give some plants on Meniscus the names of plants they resemble on Earth; for example, a plant resembling Earth’s blackthorn is called sloe. Some plants are actually from Earth. For example, there are whole forests of banyan on Meniscus. Banyan is ‘a tree, native to Earth, with aerial prop roots; an individual tree spreads by these roots until it resembles a grove of trees; brought to Meniscus as an ornamental but escaped to overtake the natural grammid forest when birds carried the banyan seeds to their nests.’ The characters in the Series also find other ‘escapes’ from Earth: coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara, a dandelion like flower whose leaves appear early in spring) and glasswort (Salicornia sp., a succulent that grows in salt marshes on earth).
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To continue creating a Flora of Meniscus, I decided to re-read all of the books in the series and list the ‘plant-likes’ as I encountered them. As I read, I recall that I have already done this in creating a glossary of plants in each book. However, I am so glad I took the time to reread the series since I enjoyed my re-discovery of the characters and their stories. This renewed familiarity will help me when I refine the last book in the Series – Meniscus: The Reckoning.
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Now that I have a list of the ‘plant-likes’ on Meniscus, I will have to decide if I should add some plants not encountered by the Humans of Themble Hill. I think I will, for the following reasons:
realistically, the Human of Themble Hill would not have found every plant living on the planet;
as a biologist, the subject interests me;
adding plants to the Flora would broaden the scope and interest of the Meniscus setting for my readers;
adding plants may suggest possible future stories in the Series.
My next step will be to start designing some new ‘plant-like’ species for Meniscus. I have also decided to follow the tradition of various Earth ‘floras,’ and describe the physical setting of the various ecozones of Meniscus and a little of the planet’s vegetation history.
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A quick splice of the Meniscus maps shows possible ecozones: the deserts of Dirth and Darn’el, the Flame mountains, the woodlands of Themble and Prell, the woodlands of Sintha and the areas north of Sintha, the En’ast Wood, the coastal areas along the Vastness sea, the Churn and the Fault, the mysterious Entag of hovering vegetation. And what special plants could live in the Geyser field at the foot of South Flame Mountain?
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Lots of work to do. I hope this Flora will add new value and enjoyment to the reading of the books in the Meniscus Series.
I haven’t posted here in a while and lots has been going on. Since I introduced Meniscus: Rosetta Stone, I have finished two more books in the trilogy: Meniscus: The Struggle and Meniscus: Return to Sintha.
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Meniscus: Rosetta Stone … On Meniscus, Humans live under the rule of the cruel Dock-winders, and are unable to have families or Human communities. Abra, an historian, wants to change all that. She finds, by accident, a kind of Rosetta Stone, a mysterious document in the unknown Dock-winder language and the better-known Gel-speak. She hopes the manuscript will provide a clue to the downfall of the Dock-winders and sets out for the hamlet of Hath’men, the centre of the Resistance movement. But the way through the woodlands of Meniscus is not easy for a Human travelling alone.
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Meniscus: The Struggle … In the rebel village of Hath’men, on the alien planet Meniscus, expectations are stirring. Abra, historian, has found a secret document that may prove the downfall of the evil Dock-winders. Abra is stalled in her efforts, but her hope is renewed. when her husband Trath, thought dead, arrives in the village. Then, some of the Humans of Themble Hill come to help. As an incredible truth about the Dock-winders is about to be revealed, the loyalty of the Don’est, the Dock-winder child, is tested and the valuable manuscript goes missing.
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Meniscus: Return to Sintha … After translating a secret Dock-winder document, Abra discovers a hidden truth that could mean the end of the evil Dock-winder rule. With a plan to tell all Prell-nan District the secret, Abra and Drag-on, and Rist and Tagret, set out in opposite directions to spread the word to all the major cities. On their way, they encounter the various members of The Resistance and discover that all friends cannot be trusted. And, in the end, what changes will knowledge of the secret mean to the lives of the inhabitants of Meniscus?
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The next book in the Meniscus Science Fiction Series will be released later this spring.
Meniscus: The Reckoning is in final format with all the illustrations complete. I have to incorporate my editor’s comments and paint the cover art before it is published. In this book, several of the characters introduced in the previous novels take a perilous journey to rescue the leader of the Human Resistance.
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In order to begin a new Meniscus project, I have been re-reading the series. You would think that, as author, I remember every word, but reading them after some time away, I found them new and a little mysterious. I loved meeting each new character and was able to see the gradual development of Don’est from story to story. I had forgotten that the Humans of Themble Hill had started a school to help Don’est learn good behaviour!!
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Next post, I’ll tell you about that new Meniscus project.
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.
off planet 