Book of the Week, JA'HANNA, Wildvine Book 1

Wildvine Series Book 1
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

"Ha!" Neelian shrieked, as she popped out of thin air onto the gravel of the trail. She lunged, off balance and disoriented for a precious two seconds.

Dayree spun sharply left, when common sense said to turn right and leap onto the trail.

Neelian fell to her knees on the place where Dayree should have been. Her triumphant cry turned to a yelp of pain.

Dayree's skin tingled on her left arm. She turned, sensing power at work like when her father created an illusion solid enough to hold in her hands. Neelian appeared only three steps away. Dayree twisted back toward the trail, putting all her strength into her legs. Neelian let out a shriek, echoed by her brother and cousin as they stumbled onto the gravel path and lunged at Dayree.

She leaped out of their way and threw herself straight at Neelian.

Dayree wished she could Skip, just once. Anywhere away from here. To her parents' suite. To the Council's chamber, to prove to them she did have Talent. To the forest gate. Even twenty steps away, to startle her enemies and give her time to flee.

Neelian yelped and her arms automatically closed around Dayree as their chests collided.

The world went blank for a heartbeat, then reappeared, with the sunlight at a different angle and brighter. The smells were no longer of green, moldering forest life but flowers and stone baking in the hot afternoon sunlight.

Neelian collapsed to the grass, retching, shaking, her wheat-toned skin like alabaster. Dayree staggered backwards a few steps, straining to find Noris and Miklan before they attacked.

Her hand touched iron bars. She turned, stumbling, and stared at the forest gate.

Ten steps into the outer gardens, Dayree could think clearly enough to wonder how that had happened. The forest gate was nearly ten minutes' walk from the spot on the trail where the three had ambushed her. Neelian had only enough strength and control to Skip from one floor to the next in the Clan House, and that effort left her breathless and dizzy for a good ten-count. How had they Skipped so far?

Book of the Week, JA'HANNA, Wildvine Book 1

Wildvine Series
Book 1
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

Another stick snapped. Leaves rustled. Her hunter was clumsy. Her cousin, Kedrin, said the overconfidence of one's opponents was often the best weapon to turn against them.

Branches rustled, off to her left. Between her and the trail. She paused and pretended to examine a skinny, prickly little plant with one long stem, one blossom and only four leaves.

In that pause, only six or seven seconds at the most, she heard more movement. Branches rustling, the scratching sound of thorns on cloth, twigs snapping underfoot. When the faint, almost non-existent breeze died for a few seconds, she even heard breathing.

More than one person followed her, making clumsy attempts at stealth. They were all together in one place. No one had thought to separate to surround her.

She was too far from the gates to call for help. Dayree whispered a prayer to D'hune and straightened from her pretend examination of the plant. She stretched her arms to the sky and forced a yawn. Let them think she was tired and not paying attention.

Too bad the stealth games her cousins taught her had to be used against her own clan, rather than the Tobrizz or other enemies.

Book of the Week: JA'HANNA, Wildvine Book 1

Wildvine Series
Fantasy

From Writers Exchange

In multiple worlds, universes and dimensions of reality, there are tales of Hub Worlds, where many different realms can meet and intersect. Some travel between worlds through the power of the mind and Talents born into the blood, while others are chosen through vision and prophecy and step between worlds with the power of talismans. None can go to the others' worlds, except when they meet in a Hub World.

Wildvine County, somewhere in the United States, is that pivotal point where the travelers from

multiple worlds and universes meet.


Dayree was born to a powerful family in the Taksearhe Clan. She was expected to have strong Talents, yet her gifts never emerged. Mocked by some, ignored by others, she took the opportunities offered to her and explored other gifts, becoming a craftsman and then a teacher. In the process, she found her soulmate, Jayx.


Years later, when their village was threatened by rebels who wanted to control their world, Dayree's gift awakened, enabling her talented cousin to evacuate the entire village to safety--stepping through the vortex between worlds, to a planet called Earth.

Book of the Week: NOVA VENDETTA #2: The Truce

Commonwealth Universe

Downfall Era/Era I

The Sorendaal/Pirate novels

From Writers Exchange

“What’s been going on outside?” Niall finally asked, when the hubbub finally calmed down and people went back to their bunks, got in line to use the sanitary cabinets now that there was hot water available, or gathered at the other table groupings to talk. Kimber and Sureena and the leaders of the prisoners in the other compartment joined the command team and Dr. Hallbar. It was time for a serious conversation, to finally get facts and decide what they could do.

“All clear, Doctor.” Selendon’s voice came through the medical insignia pin on the doctor’s collar. “Tell them whatever they want to know. It’s the only way we’re going to survive.”

“Tell me, Commodore,” Niall said, struggling to keep his voice calm, though it still felt like his throat had been scraped with sand, “did you authorize--“

“Absolutely not. And you should know that the ship punished those skabblenaqs before we even knew what was going on.”

“How?” He met Dr. Hallbar’s gaze, saw the shift to bleakness mixed with something like weary horror.

“Everything that could go wrong in the room where they conducting their questioning,” the doctor began.

“This is no time for niceties, Dru,” Selendon cut in. “Call it what it was, torture, plain and simple. The ship turned everything backwards in the room. We’re still trying to untangle the programming, figure out if it was a cascade failure on a massive scale, or this ship of … it’s our ship, not mine any longer.” A gusting sigh came through the connection, buzzing a little. “Our ship might just be sentient. Somehow. An angry, confused, hurting, frightened child, lashing out at the ones who hurt its friends. Or maybe even part of its consciousness. Who knows? We have no access to any of the research, any of the theories or science behind what the researchers were doing when they built the ship. Too much was either lost or deliberately destroyed and hidden.”

Book of the Week: NOVA VENDETTA #2: The Truce

Commonwealth Universe

Downfall Era/Era I

The Sorendaal/Pirate novels

From Writers Exchange

At the end of twelve days, Niall was escorted to the captured RA ship -- expected. The cargo bays had been modified into dormitories, and all the former crew of the Nova Vendetta were housed there -- also expected. The section where Niall was left contained almost all of his command crew -- not expected. He hadn’t identified anyone by name, but then again, Selendon also hadn’t asked about any of his tribe.

Everyone wore clothes similar to his. Simple, long tunics and loose trousers and shipboard-boots with magnetic plates in the soles. Dark cloth in blue, green or brown, with the silver sensor threads woven into a loose square over their hearts. Niall looked around the dormitory room with bunks for thirty and found an unoccupied bunk. He assumed it was unoccupied because the sleeping sack was still rolled up on one end, unlike the other bunks. Most of them had bags hanging from the support posts, just like the bag given him when he was finally dismissed from Selendon’s office for the last time. There were a few personal items in his bag, retrieved from his prison quarters. He assumed everyone else had been given the opportunity to find something they valued, to take to their next point of incarceration.

“They fixed the engines,” Nesta said, approaching him.

“Their mistake.”

“They’re listening,” Doc said from a bunk two rows away.

“We’ve had bigger challenges.” Niall sat down and settled the bag at his feet. He closed his eyes and felt the rumble of the engines coming up from the deck, through his boots. Flickers of his hallucination-dreams came to him, and he shivered deep inside as he imagined the Nova Vendetta had welcomed him home.

Book of the Week: NOVA VENDETTA #2: The Truce

Commonwealth Universe

Downfall Era/Era I

The Sorendaal/Pirate novels

From Writers Exchange

Niall and his crew were just centimeters away from freedom, escaping in the stolen starship they had christened the Nova Vendetta. Then disaster struck, paralyzing their ship. Retaken as prisoners, they found themselves transported on the very ship that had been their ticket to freedom.

Then the unthinkable happened: experimental technology and a risky gamble put the ship under their control. The escaped prisoners headed for the furthest reaches of known space, determined to stay free at any cost.

Labeled rebels and pirates and criminals, they held to the principles that had let them survive and stay Human during their time in prison. To the outlying colonies slowly being abandoned by the disintegration of the Central Allied Worlds, the crew of the Nova Vendetta and its slowly growing fleet of allies were heroes in the truest sense of the word.

Then the revolution reached out to threaten Niall's homeworld. It was time to go home. He had to protect Sorendaal, even if it meant giving himself into the hands of the very people who wanted him dead.

Off the Bookshelf: SOMETIMES THE MAGIC WORKS, Terry Brooks

The subtitle is: Lessons from the Writing Life

In case you've been living under a rock for the last forty years, Terry Brooks is the author of the Shannara and Landover books. He's been compared to Tolkein -- all other comparisons don't really matter, do they?

I remember reading Shannara in college, with the incredible Brothers Hildebrandt illustrations. The glory days when I was buying every book I could afford from the Science Fiction Book Club.

Yes, this book is about writing. I love seeing inside other writers' heads, getting glimpses of their struggles, the processes they go through, the breaks they got and didn't get. Brooks offers some insights and wisdom applicable to all writers of fiction, no matter what genre you love or loathe. It's a shorter book compared to some of the massive explorations of other writers' careers and minds and journeys that are on the market. Easy to digest, but a lot of "writerly nutrition" packed into it.

Read it. You'll be glad you did.

And when I get my to-be-read skyscraper whittled down a few million pages (yeah, that big!) I'll have to pull out the first books of Shannara and Landover and read them again, and see how different they are, now that I've had a glimpse through the eyes of the wizard behind the words.