Falling Into Flight!

A long time ago, perhaps even thirty years, I spent a lot of time reading Irish mythology. I was completely entranced by the world they described. (Okay, maybe not just Irish Myths. I’m fascinated by all Mythology and how people make sense of the world.)

One of them stuck in my mind – The Penguin Classics Edition of ‘Early Irish Myths and Sagas’ translated by Jeffrey Gantz, called it ‘The Dream of Oengus’. Other versions of the myth named the man Angus and the woman/swan he’d fallen in love with – Caer.

That story lived in my head for a while and I got an idea. So, I wrote a Science Fiction story about the two characters. Instead of a woman turned into a swan, Caer became a genetically engineered human born with wings, an air dancer. She lived with an entire troupe of air dancers. I loved the characters, but the story was a complete flop because it wasn’t a short story. It was a piece of a novel.

At that time I wasn’t ready to write a novel about anything. So I stuck the idea in a drawer. And waited. Last year when I was casting around for ideas about a novel to work on, I found the old manuscript. Typewritten. Yes, it was that old.

I tossed huge chunks of the world I’d built back then and came up with a whole new world and more characters, although Caer and Angus are still there. And a completely new story.

The novel was published last week, but it was spring break and life was crazy, so I didn’t write anything about it. And I felt lazy, it was sunny. What can I say. I was a sloth last week!

So here I am to tell you about it now.

All last year people kept complaining within earshot about all the dystopias being written. And how they were wishing for a positive and hopeful vision of the future. I had several books in the works that were hopeful visions of the future. This is one of them.

In a world where polar ice caps are nearly melted and the big quake rocked the entire west coast of the U.S., New Seattle rises from the ashes. A series of islands, a community divided.

Angus grows living buildings, the first of their kind. But something’s gone terribly wrong.
Caer is an air dancer. The first human born with wings after decades of engineered humans. She’s expected to become the best of the best.

Then she meets Angus and all hell breaks loose.

If you click on the tab for Books & Stories, then Novels, it will take you to the links of your favorite store. It’s not in paper yet, I’m still hoping that when I get a new computer late in the summer I can start working on that.

Right now old computer is dying and it’s all I can do to make digital files and upload them. Hoping this lovely old beast can hold out till then!