Can you feel it? The universe correcting itself? Who knew it would happen in July and bring so much joy and hope in the process?
Things just keep getting better, with a monumental accomplishment of diplomacy by the Biden/Harris administration, as well as a victory for humanity, when many unjustly, horrifically, imprisoned in Russia have come home. To be with their families and friends, and to heal.
Now in August, Kamala Harris has secured the necessary delegates to the Democratic nominee, with her vice presidential selection soon to come and nary a bad choice among the bunch under consideration. Imagine having so many wonderful and well-spoken males vying to be the first vice president to our first female president.
Perhaps that’s why I’ve suddenly become a writing fiend again, now drafting chapter ten of my eighth Other Worldly novel, the last of the series featuring protagonist Rowan Layne. Hence, I thought writing Alien Origins would be difficult, bittersweet, but I’ve plowed through since tackling that all-critical first chapter. And I’m having a ball.
Like the universe seeming to fall back into alignment, the path that Alien Origins is already taking me—and Rowan Layne—is one I’d never fathomed when I first began crafting Alienable Rights in November 2017. The difference between my life then and now is nothing short of amazing, and I’m grateful for that.
Fact is, writing these novels has helped me heal and kept me occupied in the darkest of personal and political times, through January 6, the coronavirus pandemic and two stressful residential moves. This month will mark the fifth year-anniversary of my sister meeting me in Vegas to help me find a rental home and “escape” from rural central Nevada, where the hateful climate was not healthy for a progressive, outspoken, educated female. Though it did provide fodder for my novels.
My second move two-and-a half years later was only five miles away into an over-55 community I was finally ready for after turning 60. Rowan Layne has now turned 60 as well, though I’m already up to 63, and there are things she might find she’s also finally ready for—whether she initially realizes it or not—in Alien Origins.
Meanwhile, the seventh OW novel, Aliens Watch, comes back from my editor next week, so I’ll be busy readying it for publication in months to come. Which brings me to another related subject, the best novel I’ve ever read.
Not mine, of course, because it’s a debut novel and currently a celebrated best seller. And well The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley should be. How astoundingly refreshing it is. I say this because not only is the prose witty and snarky and brilliant, the author is a female, fairly young (not certain of her age) and of mixed British and Cambodian ancestry like her fascinating and complicated protagonist.
Myriad phrases of elegantly crafted wordsmithing comprise this debut novel by a writer/editor based in London, so much so I wanted to scribble them all down and share them here. A treasure trove of challenging words, beginning with two on the first page alone—medusae and Sisyphean, no less—that at first I wondered if that would be too distracting. Because of course I stopped to look up their meaning, and more than a few after that.
But it wasn’t annoying; it was marvelous. A whole new world of language and linguistics—lots of delightful British terminology and snark—that I never wanted to leave. So much so, I’m currently reading it all over again, this time often sounding out the words, letting their rich syntax reverberate in the air after rolling off my tongue.
The only criticism I have of the book is for the publisher. The cover does not at all do justice to the majesty of this book.
The best part of The Ministry of Time is there’s an uncanny connection to Aliens Watch that makes me feel a sympatico connection with author Kaliane Bradley (in addition to first name being unusually spelled). It involves time travel.
Not a typical futuristic dystopian tale, but it definitely warns of that, with an environmental message for Earth not unlike my Other Worldly novels, especially Aliens Watch. How tickled was I to realize that as I drafted it this past year, another author was in the process of publishing a true work of wonder, doing unique and I think important things with the concept of humans traveling backwards and forwards through time.
Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time also delves into history, especially including the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries of Great Britain. In doing so, she has inspired me— by bestowing the daring courage—to try to do so as well, in Alien Origins. I’m even researching bits about the thirteenth century.
Rowan Layne is on her way back to Scotland and England, first visited in Being Alien plus last year’s Altogether Alien, and I’m well on my way to drafting what I hope will be a worthy finale for my Other Worldly series. It helps to not have to be quite as worried about the demise of an American democracy and to also be reading books that leave an indelible mark on my psyche.