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99-CENT SPECIAL

ON FIVE TERMITEWRITER BOOKS!

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5

THROUGH 

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12

The Termite Queen (a 2-vol. novel)

 v.1: The Speaking of the Dead  http://amzn.to/Imh3kd

v.2: The Wound That Has No Healing  http://amzn.to/LnvhbL

Excerpt from an Amazon review  by Jack A. Urquhart

Though the author modestly characterizes TQ as literary Sci-Fi, the description doesn't begin to capture the full flavor of Taylor's accomplishment. Rather, in TQ V 1 and 2 the author serves up a tome that crosses genres as easily as her intergalactic cast of characters crosses from real time space travel to temporal quantum space travel and back again. In fact, the complete TQ saga is part traditional love story, part epic adventure tale richly seasoned with mythic and religious overtones, as well as copious references to literary classics (each chapter is introduced by a literary epigraph). That said, it is not incidental that Taylor's epic is set in the thirtieth century (2969--2971). Hardcore Sci-fi aficionados will appreciate that Taylor's literary recipe includes science so convincingly researched and/or fabricated as to concoct a perfectly plausible and believable future.

It helps that Taylor's `future' is inhabited by a cast of engaging and believable characters--human and alien.

The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars: A Biographical Fiction

Part One: Eagle Ascendant http://amzn.to/2iTNuUd

Part Two: Wounded Eagle http://amzn.to/2rfAaP4

Part Three: Bird of Prey http://amzn.to/2ytDmt8

Excerpts from an Amazon review of Part One by Colleen Chesebro

The date is October 31, 2729, and Robbie Nikalishin comes roaring into a not so perfect world. As a young boy, his father instills a love of space into his young psyche. Robbie’s most prized possession is a tiny metal airplane  that accompanies him through his life journey. That aircraft stands for his aspiration to become the captain of his own starship. Gifted with the ability to solve elaborate string theory mathematics, Robbie pursues his dream with a determination that propels him to the head of his college classes.
With expert detail and descriptions, the author immerses the reader into Nikalishin’s futuristic world. This first book covers his childhood and his teen years, eventually bringing you to the peak of his flying career.
What I loved most about Robbie’s character was how utterly human he was. From Robbie’s youth onward, I followed his experiences and saw first hand who Robbie the man became. It was a rare opportunity to witness the events that shaped a character’s personality.
Robbie’s personality is multifaceted, and at times, he comes across as self-sabotaging and selfish. Yet, I couldn’t help but like the guy. For all of his brilliance, he possessed an innocence that tugged at my heart. Sometimes he made his life choices so difficult that I couldn’t help remembering myself at a younger age and how I didn’t make all the best decisions either. However, all of that drama only adds to the allure of Captain Robbie Nikalishin.
I won’t kid you… this book ended with a cliffhanger of phenomenal proportions! Robbie’s story left me hungering for more and turning pages at an abnormally fast pace. I stayed up into the wee hours reading to find out happened next. My only hope is that the author, Lorinda Taylor, writes as quickly as I read. I can’t wait to see how it all comes together in the next book in the series.

Remember - each volume is only 99 cents, one week only!

New 5-Star Review of The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars, Part Two: Wounded Eagle

http://amzn.to/2iTNuUd

http://amzn.to/2rfAaP4

Colleen Chesebro's Review 

of Part Two of

The Man Who Found Birds

among the Stars

Thanks, Colleen!

At the beginning of the second book in the series, we find our hero, Captain Robbin Nikalishin regaining consciousness aboard the rescue ship Reliable. The untold horrors of the space disaster have left the captain suffering from PTSD, along with an all-encompassing guilt for the death of his best friend, Kolm MaGilligoody.

Psychologically, Robbie is in a bad place. Kolm’s death haunts him day andnight. At times, the pain is so great he doesn’t feel he can go on. The physical damage of the crash has also taken its toll. The captain’s appearance has suffered from the effects of radiation poisoning, along with various bumps and bruises. These physical signs of trauma eventually abate, leaving behind the deep scars of emotional pain that Robbie must learn to embrace.

Captain Nikalishin discovers he has a long road ahead of him when it comes to healing from these psychological wounds. With the help of Dr. Souray, who becomes a surrogate mother to him, there is gradual improvement. The primary issue is that certain things set the captain off and he reverts back to relive the horror in a series of flashbacks. With the upcoming investigation into the crash, Robbie must be able to testify at a hearing and a trial.

While Robbie is undergoing extensive treatment, the issue of Prf. Karlis Eiginsh’s actions come to the forefront of the investigation. Why did he falsify equations to make the jump look safe when in reality it wasn’t? There is an interesting twist to this part of the story when the truth finally comes out that gives the reader a sneak peek into the man the captain is to become. I have to say, I thought it was great storytelling.

The book is long, but such is Robbie’s journey to reconcile who he is and who he has become. The mental trauma he suffered even caused him to question his desire to fly amongst the stars, and whether he could ever cope with the stressors of being a space captain again. Then, there are the unresolved issues Robbie has with his mother. The signs of that first mental damage from long ago always seem to resurface when he tries to have a relationship with a woman. Robbie’s wounds run deep, and to actually heal, he must come to grips with his demons.

I love this series. The writing is clear and concise and draws you into the character-driven plot. Yet, just like in the first book, I still find something poignant and raw about Robbie Nikalishin that makes me want to know more of his story. His character is imperfect, to say the least. I don’t know if he appeals to the mother in me or if I just want him to find peace and love.

Either way, the author has spun a tale filled with high drama and intrigue, healing and pain. I can’t wait to discover what happens next in book three coming soon! Make sure to take a look at the book’s cover art. Lorinda draws and creates her own cover art. 

See the review on Colleen's blog!

And check out her book

The Heart Stone Chronicles:

The Swamp Fairy 

Advice to Neophyte Writers: Don't Try This at Home!

       

Cover of Part One

       I'm getting good results after publishing The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars, Part One: Eagle Ascendant.  I've already had six reviews, all of them 5 star.  It seems my friend Neil Aplin was right in maintaining it would be a success.  I had my doubts about publishing any of the book, because the entire piece is way longer than any book should ever be.  Neil didn't think so -- he read it in manuscript and he wanted it to be even longer, and it was his enthusiastic support that convinced me to publish the beginning of it.

       Part Two: Wounded Eagle is in the works; I'm revising like mad, trying to shorten it.   Part One is a long book, but at least it covers the first 31.5 years of Capt. Nikalishin's life.  Part Two only covers 2.5 years and it's even longer than Part One.  There will be at least six more parts after that so you see my problem.  The ultimate conclusion isn't even written yet.

       You might be saying, how in the world could you let this happen?  I've written a bit about my writing history before, but now I have new readers and Facebook friends who may not know how my writing came about, so I need to construct an apology, in the sense of a justification.

Sneak peak: cover for
Part Two (tentative)

        I've always been inclined to write long.  In college when the professor would assign a 20-page paper, the other students would be groaning -- how would they ever be able to make it that long?  And I would be wondering how I could keep the paper under 40 pages.

        I started to write fiction after I read Tolkien in 1969, and I had no real thought of publishing at that time. I simply found the act of writing to be tremendous fun.  So I wrote my first endless story. It was somewhat Tolkienesque imaginary-world fantasy and it was my million-word learning process.  It will never be finished and I will never publish it, but in case anyone is interested, my novel Children of the Music was written as a prequel to that long piece.

       From 1983 through 1999 I took a hiatus from writing because of family responsibilities.  Then in January of 2000 I bought my first computer, which made the act of writing infinitely easier.  And I had a sudden surge of literary inspiration, beginning with "Monster Is in the Eye of the Beholder" (a novella! Amazing!) and then The Termite Queen and the rest of the termite stories (I've discussed them plenty elsewhere, mostly on my other blog The Labors of Ki'shto'ba Huge-Head).  I completed the sixth volume of Labors in July of 2003, so you can see that I wrote furiously for those 3.5 years.  By that time I was a little tired of termites and even though I needed one more tale to complete the Quest, I wanted to do something else for a while.  (I did manage to compose the sequel volume for the Ki'shto'ba tales in 2015 while I was on chemo.)

       I should say that during this time I also never contemplated publishing -- I was simply enjoying myself too much.

       And then I got the idea for The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars.  I had invented the Bird People of the planet Krisí’i’aid, along with their language, for The Termite Queen, and I decided it would be interesting to write about the first contact with the Krisí’i’aida, which had occurred a couple of centuries earlier.  How about writing a biography of the spaceship Captain who made the first contact?  This would also give me a chance to develop my future history to an extent greater than I had been able to do in TQ.  I never intended for the piece to be so long or so detailed, but it was one of those stories that just grew like a clump of mushrooms.  And again, with no intent to publish, I paid absolutely no attention to the length. (A really serious mistake -- again I say to beginning writers: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!)   I started writing in November of 2003 and worked on that thing until January of 2011, when it suddenly hit me that I was 70 years old.  If I ever wanted anyone else to read my books, I'd better suspend writing and focus on publishing.  So I began to work up "Monster Is in the Eye of the Beholder," self-publishing it in November of 2011, and that was followed by The Termite Queen and the Ki'shto'ba series -- and the rest is history, as they say.

       So what was I going to do with all that manuscript for The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars? (By the way, that was not the original title, but I don't seem to have recorded the original title anywhere and unfortunately I can't remember what it was.  Once I thought of MWFB, it seemed perfect and I never looked back.) I decided to publish excerpts from the book on my blog -- those excerpts are still here, on this very blog, but they've been radically altered in the final form of the book.  My friend Neil Aplin was mesmerized by those excerpts and so I agreed to email him longer pieces of the book.  He continued to be crazy about it and finally he convinced me to begin to working over the piece for publication.

      At one point I considered getting a professional editor to shorten it.  I'm sure a professional could do that -- just take shears and whack away.  But then it wouldn't be my book and I think I would have an apoplexy trying to deal with that person no matter how tactful and truly interested they were. Nope, that doesn't work for me.  I'm not concerned with becoming a bestseller, and it costs me nothing but time to self-publish, especially since I do my own covers.  However, I do like for people to read what I write and enjoy and comment on it.  I'll take my chances that the lengthiness may exhaust my readers' patience.

       So I think the world is stuck with something no writer is supposed to do -- an interminable novel cut into many segments, each one too long in itself.  That's why I call them Part One, Part Two, etc.  It suggests a single story rather than a series.  I made that mistake with The Termite Queen.  It was too long for one volume, but it is really all one story, and by designating the halves v.1 and v.2 rather that Pt.1 and Pt.2, I made people think it was a series and too many people have stopped reading after v.1 and so don't get the full effect.  The Ki'shto'ba books really constitute a serial rather than a series, but the volume designations seem to fit OK in their case.

So here are the upcoming volumes in the endless progression of MWFB:

Part One: Eagle Ascendant (already published)

Part Two: Wounded Eagle (being edited)

Part Three: High Feather

Part Four: Survivor

Part Five: Phenix (this is the one that requires drastic cutting -- Fathers and Demons was extracted [and will be cut] from that section)

Part Six: Rare Birds (still experimental)

Part Seven + : ??? not written yet!

       Do you think any reader can survive all that?  Do you think I can live long enough to actually accomplish the required editing?  I had some other books I wanted to write, too. Sounds hopeless! Anyway, I just wanted everyone to know how this all came about and warn them about what might be coming.  I beg your indulgence!  At least you've seemed to enjoy Part One.  Who knows?  Maybe you'll enjoy the other parts just as much!

Two New 5-Star Reviews on The Man Who Found Birds, Part One

http://amzn.to/2iTNuUd

Here are the texts of two great reviews on Amazon:

Science fiction epic!

       An epic of true Taylor proportions! In the 28th century world of the future created as home to our hero Robbie Nikalishin we share all his trials and tribulations as he seeks to fulfil his ambition to fly to the stars. As with all Taylor's characters we are faced with our own shortcomings and weaknesses despite the distances of time and space that separate us from Robbie and his compañeros. A page-turner of a book - impossible to relinquish until the pages run out ... leaving us hungry for more.

What a ride!!! More, please!

       This may be the best book I have read in the last ten years. Certainly it is the best science fiction book I have read since Mary Dorian Russell's "The Sparrow" and "Children of God" books. Please, PLEASE, Ms. Taylor, write the sequel soon!

      This is a story of flawed heroes and perfect plot, of hard science and tender hearts. It is intelligently written, fantastic entertainment for the imagination, fascinating, and the characters are very three-dimensional. There is excitement, humor, adventure, and exploration not only of quantum physics but of the human spirit, all against a backdrop of an all too plausible future.

       The only complaint anyone could possibly have with this gem of a story is that the sequel isn't here yet. Eagerly awaiting the next part of the saga.

This isn't the first time my books have been compared to Mary Doria Russell's.  Here is a paragraph from a review of Monster Is in the Eye of the Beholder, written way back in January, 2012:

Lorinda J. Taylor's imaginative and entertaining science-fiction novella, Monster Is in the Eye of the Beholder, reminded this reader of Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow (1996). Both works are first-contact stories that turn on what happens when human beings, acting with best intentions, behave in ways that cause catastrophic damage. Doria Russell and Taylor both explore the nature of good and evil, cultural difference, and prejudice, and both choose to tell their stories, for the most part, in framed flashbacks.

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The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars - Now Published!

THE MAN WHO

FOUND BIRDS

AMONG THE STARS

PART ONE

EAGLE ASCENDANT

Special price:

  only 99 cents

until the Launch

Party 

Launch Party to be held on Saturday,

January 14, 2017, on Facebook

You may win a FREE Copy!

You'll love this book

if you like biography and you like space heroes who have flaws, and

if you're interested in my version of the future history of Earth.

Buy at

Amazon (US) (note pbk and Kindle haven't been linked yet)

Smashwords

       Like all my other books, I began this one years ago; I found older versions of the MS that were created in 2005, and I continued writing no matter how long it became.  After I began to self-publish my books, this one remained on the back burner because its length had gotten out of hand and it still wasn't finished.  I put up some samples on this blog and one person who read them was ecstatic about the piece.  I proceeded to send him the MS and he read the whole darn thing and urged me to publish it.  So -- I'm making a beginning on that, even though the entire opus still isn't finished.

       A lot of you have been reading lines from Part One on the Twitter hashtag author games lately, and others have seen excerpts on certain Facebook events like Tidbit Tuesday.  I hope this has whetted your desire to read the entire book.

       Also, some of you have read an extract from a later part of Man Who Found Birds, which I published as Fathers and Demons.  The current offering gives you the earliest history of the Captain who appears in that book.

       Here is the description that you'll find on Amazon and Smashwords (an expansion of the blurb on the back cover above):

Robbin Haysus Nikalishin was born on 31 October of the year 2729 and ultimately became the first starship Captain to make contact with extraterrestrials.  This fictionalized biography, composed 50 years after Nikalishin’s death, recounts the first 31 years of the life of a man who is hailed as one of Earth’s greatest heroes. During this portion of his life he enjoyed many triumphs, joys, and loves, but he was not immune to failure and tragedy.  In 2761 a major space disaster completely changes the course of his life.  Whether it will be for better or worse is left for the reader to decide.

All heroes are human beings and all human beings are flawed, and the man the Earth came to know as “Capt. Robbie” was a very human man.  

The Precepts: No. 6 in my New Series of Mythmaker Posts

     So how did I come up with these Precepts?  I’m really not quite sure.  I only know that somewhere back when I was composing The Termite Queen, or maybe even earlier (when I was writing “Monster Is in the Eye of the Beholder”), I started writing them down.  It’s almost like they just emerged from the void.  I knew I was creating a humanistic civilization and I felt guidelines were needed.  The only revision I’ve done recently involves the final four or five, which I reordered and renumbered.  This has caused some of the numbering to be off in my previously published books, I’m afraid, and if I ever update those books, I’ll fix that, but I figure nobody will pay much attention, since the whole list of Precepts doesn’t appear in those publications.  Everything should be correct in The Man Who Found Birds among the Stars.

       The list begins by dealing with religions and gradually progresses to what it means to be human.  Most of the ethical material is in the middle along with the nature and value of science and art.  The order is pretty arbitrary, however. 

       All I'm doing in this post is presenting the list so you can get acquainted with the Precepts.  Remember, they are not meant to be laws or rigid rules – they are meant to be guidelines, capable of interpretation.  They are intended to make you think.   In subsequent posts, I intend to discuss the individual precepts, some in groups and some as stand-alones.  In the meantime, I welcome any comments or questions.

The Mythmaker Precepts

Precept No. 1: No one can know deity; neither can it be proven that it does not exist.

Precept No. 2: Humans have within themselves the ability to see beyond themselves and hence to act rightly without supernatural stimulus.

Precept No. 3: Since the purpose of deity for humans, or even whether it had a purpose for humans, is unknowable, it is incumbent upon humans to look within themselves and find the way to right action.

Precept No. 4: Humans must take responsibility for their own behavior, not seeking to put blame on imposed rules (of deity or human) or on fate, chance, or the intervention or willfulness of deity.

Precept No. 5: Humans will never succeed absolutely in achieving these goals; nevertheless striving for right action is its own purpose.

Precept No. 6: The closest humans can attain to deity is the symbolism of myth and art.

Precept No. 7: If a human have nothing else, it has its own soul, which must remain inviolate.

Precept No. 8: Science has a soul; technology is soulless.

Precept No. 9: Conduct your wars with words, not weapons.

Precept No. 10: The Right Way is universal; the Truth is parochial and divisive.

Precept No. 11: Institutions that grip souls merely for the purpose of gripping souls will always become destructive.

Precept No. 12: To achieve understanding of the unlike is a divine goal.

Precept No. 13: Love is as unknowable as deity, but every soul attests that it exists.

Precept No. 14: Let men and women make the vows of love in the music of the bedchamber, not with empty words.

Precept No. 15: Evolution has failed to structure the human organism for moderation; nevertheless the ability to recognize and strive for this virtue distinguishes human beings from other animals.  [Corollary:  The human organism is not innately a peaceful animal, but its ability to recognize and strive for peace sets it apart from other animals.] [Corollary:  Moderation promotes peace.]

Precept No. 16: Animals neither punish, seek revenge, forgive, nor blaspheme, nor recognize a need for any of these things.

Precept No. 17: Study history and learn from it, but look to the future and do not let yourself be trapped by nostalgia or revenge. 

Precept No. 18: There are creatures on this planet [amended later to in the universe] who speak, form symbols, and share emotions; these may be called human.

Precept No. 19: The humans of our planet are all the same species; therefore they should care for one another and avoid the destruction of their own kind.

Precept No. 20: Since humans share their genetic heritage with all the bio-organisms of this planet [and of the universe – amendment added later], they should always seek to preserve life.

Previous posts in this series:

No. 1: What Can We Expect from the Future?

No. 2: How Will Humanity Lift Itself out of the Second Dark Age?

No. 3: Humans Are All the Same Species!

No. 4: The Mythmaker Canon

No. 5: The Valley of the White Bear