The problem with blogs --

The problem is that these entries come up in reverse chronological order, with the most recent first.

The next entry you are likely seeing right below this is the Abridged Galactic History that goes along with my novels. You see Part 4.  Do yourself a favor, scroll down past Part 1, and read

Intro for a Short History of the Galaxy

Then scroll back up to the first part, then second, third and finally fourth.  It will be a lot easier to follow.

As I mentioned, this is back-story for my novels. There is no information in this history that directly interacts with the novels, but knowing this could help you once you start reading the second and later books. (The first book takes place on Earth and the main characters know nothing about their ties to others out in the galaxy.  They just think they are doing "MAGIC" in the classic Earth sense.

Besides a few novel excerpts, I have also listed a few of my poems for your enjoyment. The poems are copyrighted, so "stealing" could get you in hot water, unless you credit me as the original author. <Grins>

Ok, scroll down, --even clear to the bottom and go to "Earlier posts". Do that a couple times to get back to the earliest entries here.

Hope you enjoy reading these samples.

Oh, it's Monday... History of the Galaxy (part 4)

I should post some more if I can make the time for it...
So much to do, so little time.
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Abridged History of the Galaxy (part 4)

The Zorn came here from Andromeda galaxy, where they had absorbed or wiped out many races.  They had their own method of crossing great distances quickly.  They had not perfected quantum movement, but rather they were masters of controlling black holes.  They had learned how to create them nearly anywhere, and learned how to generate worm hole corridors, through which they could travel where they wished in essentially no time at all.

Attacks on the Zorn by Abras ships did not stop them, but proved to be such a problem for the Zorn, that they concentrated all their efforts on stopping Abras.  They joined the Conclave with that purpose in mind.

The Zorn used their ability to manipulate black holes as a weapon against the planet Abras and its inhabitants.  The Zorn first created and then disrupted a large black hole about 300 trillion miles from the planet.  The resultant gamma-ray burst was enough to destroy life on Abras and shut down the planetary computers and robot workers.

Abras had only four hours warning.  That was not enough to set in play a planetary rescue mission, but they did manage to send out a small military mission to jump to Andromeda galaxy with instructions to set off their most powerful weapon near the Zorn home world.

They knew they were going to die, but they believed in "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth".  The Zorn were killing them, so they would kill the Zorn.  The weapon they sent out against the Zorn was an anti-matter time-reversal bomb.  The bomb contained an anti-matter singularity, which could be sent backwards in time and detonate in the past.

The bomb was set on a giant gas planet not too far from the Zorn's planet of origin. The singularity sucked in matter from the gas giant and when that matter met the anti-matter of the singularity there was total conversion to energy.  Eventually, this energy built up to the point where it disrupted the event horizon and the singularity exploded like a miniature big-bang.

Along with everything else within range, the Zorn home world was converted to nothing larger than atomic particles.  The time reversal effect had carried the bomb back to a time before the Zorn first ventured into space, killing them before they could cause trouble for anyone. This caused a disruption of the Space-Time continuum in that part of Andromeda galaxy.

The Zorn ceased to exist.  In one of the paradoxes that crop up when dealing with time, the time reversal only occurred locally in Andromeda, so the planet Abras was still bathed in killing rays, and the Zorn war machines still plagued the Milky Way.  The Conclave attacked and slaughtered the Nisse, Lepp-Ricans and Tomte.  The balance of power in the Milky Way turned and remaining humans became subjects of the Conclave.

The federation of worlds ceased to operate.

The Conclave controlled the Milky Way.

Only a few thousand people who escaped Abras survived.  One group of these took refuge on a planet very much like Abras in the Orion Spur, a small part of the galaxy with no known space-faring races.  It did have a rather small indigenous population of humanoids, but only about 2000 mating pairs.  If the refugees from Abras could hide among that population, they might avoid detection by the Conclave.
That planet is known today to its inhabitants by many names; a few of those include: Dharti, la Tierra, Terre, Terra,  地球, земля (Zemlia), Prithvi, Erde and Earth.

Abridged Galactic History -part 3 - the Galactic Federation

About one hundred twenty thousand years ago, the Federation of Friends expanded its charter and scope.  It transformed into the Galactic Federation of Worlds, much like the United Nations is today on Earth.  In it, individual delegations represented each world or group of worlds in the general assembly where they discussed and voted on matters relevant to their people.  The federation did not have any military arm, but since Abras was the original prime motivator of the federation, the Abras military enforced any unpopular decisions decided on by vote in the general assembly.

Being strong and powerful meant that Abras naturally made enemies, but in placing the word 'galactic' in the name of the federation, they opened the organization to all races and planets in the Milky Way, whether friend or enemy.  Enemies of Abras formed an alliance, which they referred to as the Conclave.  If all the Conclave planets banded together, Abras alone could not stop them.  To remain in control and keep the Conclave from taking over called for delicate maneuvering.  To stay on top, Abras had to rely on the combined strength of their friends and allies. so they formed alliances and kept their allies close.  Numbering among their staunchest allies were races like the Nisse, Lepp-Ricans and Tomte who were related races on planets within the same double star system.

Balance was carefully maintained for nearly 50,000 years until about 71,000 BCE, by Earth measurement.  At that time news began to reach the federation planets of an infestation which seemed to have appeared from nowhere, called Zorn or Zornan.

For some time no one learned anything about these malevolent monsters except that they were dangerous.  When planets came under the control of the Zorn, all communications with that planet ceased.  When the Zorn moved on, they left behind, not simply a lifeless world, but a world that had been stripped of valuable natural resources.

As to the makeup of the Zorn and how they operated, a breakthrough came when they encountered a world they did not strip.  The Zorn spared a water world populated by one of the Conclave races called the Slaaashleeshh.  Other than siphoning off some water, the Zorn did not have the facilities to mine and plunder a planet inundated by water.

It took some time, but the Slaaashleeshh eventually were able to talk to the Zorn.  This was a great accomplishment since the Zorn and the Slaaashleeshh had little in common to establish a mutual language.

Other races appealed to Abras for help and protection from the Zorn.  Abras realized it was in their best interest to try to stop the Zorn, before they wiped out other federation planets, so Abras accepted the responsibility of stopping the Zorn.  Through a third neutral race, Abras finally obtained intelligence information from the Slaaashleeshh concerning the Zorn; the type of atmosphere they needed to breathe and even a description of their physical bodies.

Abridged Galactic History -part 2

One race to do so:

The first to accomplish the technology upgrade was nearly five thousand years later.  Around 127,000 years ago, the first race to reverse-engineer the Abras work and develop the ability to build their own quantum drive ships was the Klai'trk'ha (Pronounced: kly-Trick΄-ha), whose home planet is called Mak'kla.  Oddly enough, the Klai'trk'ha were nearly human as well, —but any similarities were ignored by both sides.

In looks, the Klai'trk'ha were much like what Earth people think of when they picture devils or demons, —human looking, but with horns, barbed tails and skin with a definite red to reddish-brown color.  (No, I do not mean the so-called "red" of the American Indian, but rather a deep blood-red, similar perhaps to what you might think of as the color of a red rubber ball, especially when one begins to darken slightly with age.)

One thing of merit to be said for the Klai'trk'ha is that they consider themselves a warrior race and have a deep-seated sense of honor on the field of battle.  Despite their hatred of the people of Abras, the two races are more alike than either side would be comfortable to admit.

When the Klai'trk'ha engage in battle, they like to know the name of their enemy.  Part of their battle-honor includes the singing of death songs recounting battles and naming the winners and the losers in each fight.  It is their way of recording history.  When one warrior meets another of some renown, they can honor them by a simple statement such as, "I have heard sing of you."

Another oddity relating to their warrior spirit regards prisoners.  Prisoners are permitted to keep their weapons.  Here are the Klai'trk'ha thoughts on that.  To die without a fight is unthinkable.  It is assumed that a prisoner will attempt to fight their way out of a situation and are allowed to keep their weapons so they may have a 'fighting chance' to escape, or at the least to die with a weapon in their hand, as befits a warrior.  Anything but a warrior's death is a disgrace. Only the very old and infirm face death stoically without any attempt at fighting.

When a person dies this way, the most generous thing to say of them would be, "He died in his sleep."  It is still not a warrior's death, but has less stigma than to say, "He did not fight death."  The latter would be an insult and a stain upon the bloodline of the deceased's family.  All of life is a struggle against death.

An Abridged Galactic History -Part One

 Abridged Galactic History -part 1

Around one hundred fifty thousand years ago, on an Earth-sized planet on the far side on the Galactic core, scientists perfected the first quantum jump drive.  This engine allowed travel between star systems to become as easy as catching a taxi across town.  Detractors claimed that credit for the invention of the quantum drive should not go to the scientists from the planet Abras at all; –that they copied (i.e. stole) the design from a more ancient race and then attached their name to it.

As a side-note of interest to those reading these pages or my books is that the people of the kingdom planet of Abras were very close to what Earth humans are today.  The difference in DNA from people of Earth was (or is) only a fraction of a percent.  The two races could easily have come from the same progenitor race sometime in the distant past.

Who got credit for inventing the quantum drive was of little consequence, as the newly constructed shipyard on Abras was the only facility capable of building ships of this type.  Abras used their new ability to jump from one star system to another in a matter of hours and began to form new trade routes.  Friendly partnerships with other systems sprang up.  Given the availability of additional raw materials and a broader range of technologies than they previously had, Abras grew in power.  Their trade group became known as the Federation of Friends. (–best english translation)
By 140,000 BCE, they allowed their trade partners to purchase jump-ships, which the huge Abras shipyard manufactured.  Beginning around 132,000 BCE, with trade between planets becoming more widespread, Abras discovered their partners were reselling jump-capable ships to other planets and races, some of which proved to be enemies to the people of Abras.  It was too late to put Shrödinger's cat back in the box.  It had already escaped.  Those enemy races, unable to trade directly with Abras, began to concentrate on developing the technology infrastructure needed to produce their own ships with quantum drive capability.  For most of them, this took a great deal of time.

Some back story for the books

This page from a diary is on display in a glass case in the main entry hall at the Greenbriar school:

 Set by mine hande thys 23 Dae of April of 1590 —

        Upon ye storms and fflooding of thys spring time, all inhabitants of ye RoanOak colonie hae decided tae disperse tae other partes as ye storms frae ye ocean be overlye great beyand anie before experienced.  Some men following Kendall will join ye native population of Croatoans about 50 leagues southwest upon ye Croatoan Island, while others under R. Lane, not being welcomed by ye Croatoans, be travailing up ye RoanOak river tae  it’s headwater.  Ye remaining of us whiche  be of magical bearing shall take ye barque Pricilla and other four smaller boats and wyth them ye two pinnaces we hae builded at RoanOak for communicating wyth ye shore.  We will seek out a harbour wherein ye Pricilla, being ye largest, maye anchor and be safe frae storms.

        In as much as ye lands of Wococon island, RoanOak  island and Hataraske by letters- pattent, bearing date 25 of March in yeare 1584, licensed Sir Walter Raleigh by ye Englyshe  queene, Elizabeth, hae been placed under obedience & goverment of ye common wealth of England all soil with-in 200 leagues of these places (and also being infested of non-magical  peoples) all men and women of magical bearing hae decided tae take ouir seaven boates and sail north and west up ye Chesapeak Bay and beyonde tae a distance of 400 leagues.  In hope of stopping ye influx of non-magicals we will, upon finding a goodlie endowed place, set a Scots flag and claim all lands for a distance of 200 leagues in anie direction, for James, ye Sixth, Kinge of Scotland, therewyth forming a border whiche  maye stop us frae bother by ye non-magicals for a time.

            As part of her letters-pattent, ye Englyshe queene hae forbid ye  building of anie castle or fforte wyth-out her expres consent, and thus it be decided that contrarie-wise tae build upon thys newe land a castle of size and strengthe tae repell anie & all efforts tae dislodge us.  We shall in tradition of ye greate schooles builded in Scotland, such as ye schoole builded yea these five years back in Edinborough, form wyth-in thys castle a schoole specific tae teaching magical ways tae ye bairns.

            Upon building of ye castle we shall also be impervious tae anie onslaught from ye Inquisitors whiche  hae became more bolder in Europe.  All manner of spells shall be placed upon ye castle tae repell Inquisitors and non-magicals, that we mae live in harmonie in ye newelye founded colonie and be homagers tae nane.

——Gillecrist Waggrall ——

         

Intro for a Short History of the Galaxy

Background For My Galactic History

(as it goes along with my stories)

By Dan M.

Some may wonder why I started this new series of books in the first place.  What motivated me?  For those who are interested, I will give my reasons, before launching into the hinted "galactic history" which is background for the novels.

I heard of a discovery (a.k.a. theory) which came as a result of the mapping of the human genome.  About 70,000 years ago, the human race was down to only 2000 mating pairs. On the grand scale, that means we were rapidly approaching extinction.

Now here is where mental analysis joins with theory.  Seventy thousand years ago was not the end of the last ice age.  It was the middle.  If the human population was dying out due to cold or lack of food, why then did this suddenly turn around right in the middle of the freeze?  The last Ice Age began about forty thousand years earlier, around 110,000 years ago (or a bit more).  Most likely, the human population declined not only due to the direct freezing weather, but also due to the decrease in available food and fresh liquid water.  Core samples show there was some warming around fifty five to sixty thousand years back, but by thirty thousand the Earth was just as cold as it had been and then got even colder reaching its worst around 21000 years ago.  As of 70,000 years back, there were still fifty-five to sixty thousand years of ice ahead.   How did the downward slide of human numbers suddenly reverse right in the middle of a hundred-thousand years of ice and start an upward climb?

Did someone suddenly invent a warmer type of clothing?  Not too ruddy likely.  To do so would mean discovery and use of a new clothing material and in the middle of the ice age, where were they going to grow or get some new miracle material they did not think to use for the first 40,000 years of freezing?  The only easily obtainable materials would be things like animal skins and plants which they already had available.

"Nothing new to see here… —Move along.  Move along."
So what was it?

Did someone figure out a new food source?  The same things apply.  The growing of food was not an easy thing with a colder climate and as much as a third of the Earth under an ice layer.  Even in the warmer equatorial regions, the weather was generally much cooler than today's norm and not conducive to mass agricultural techniques. How could they suddenly have new plants or new agricultural methods which would make a difference in growing crops in freezing weather?

Why in the middle of a long age of ice, —a time of a frozen Earth, —did a dying populace suddenly find a new way of life and turn near calamity and extinction into near overpopulation today with over six billion, approaching seven billion, people?  What could possibly have driven the population increase even though there was still 50 millennia of Ice Age yet to come?  I puzzled about this for a time, and then one thing struck me.  If there was a "smoking gun" showing intervention by others (whether gods or aliens) this was it.  There are tales and legends of beings from space visiting Earth sometime in the past.  Some stories called them gods, but whether they were truly gods or not, they would be seen as such by the humans, if they landed and started handing out blankets and food rations at the right time.  Or if they taught the native people how to build buildings that would protect them better from the cold.  In the retelling, they may have gone from godsends to gods.

Regardless, I now had the answer that could launch a new series of books.  While many different races may have visited at different times, the ones who were of interest were the ones who were human.

How do I know some of them were human?  From the many stories told of "gods" (visitors) from the skies who mated with human females and brought forth offspring.  The only way this could occur is if those visitors had DNA very close to our own, —less than a one percent difference to be sure, —in other words, if they were human.  The great apes are only around 2% difference in their DNA and yet we cannot mate with them.  Just as we cannot mate with dogs or elephants or chipmunks, we surely could not mate with flying serpents, reptilians or other alien forms, —unless they were VERY close to human in their make-up.  Consequently, Earth was visited by people like us, and the most likely time this happened was seventy thousand years ago, when humankind was close to extinction.

* * *

Within my stories, there were indeed many different races strewn throughout the galaxy and beyond.  The people who arrived here were themselves refugees from a galactic war.  They saw the Earth with its people similar to them as a great place to hide from the enemies of man 'out there' in the galaxy.  Helping the people on this planet would increase the odds in their favor if their enemies found them.

The stories tell that the aliens, or at least their offspring, had strange powers and abilities.  Was this the beginning of the tales of magic which have come down to present day?  If there are people who can do magic living among us, are they showing their alien ancestry by doing so?

             I currently have four teen science fiction books finished, which explore these possibilities.  I hope they are found enjoyable.

a Rant about Poetry, Free Verse and Haiku

I was planning to introduce another long poem I wrote many years ago in the style of Geoffrey Chaucer.
In that day, much of Chaucer's verse was a bit suggestive or "bawdy",
and thus this poem is no different.  However, this turned out to be more of a rant about poetry and what I consider poetry to be.

To quote my poetry professor at university, "To be poetry, writing must have either rhyme or meter, and preferably both. Otherwise it is called prose".

I detest
unrhymed, unmetered verse
with a passion,
at least when
the vulgar and unthinking
attempt to pass it off as poetry,
for it is actually prose
with the thinnest of disguises
or none at all.

If I wrote in that form, and labeled it "free verse" some might think it poetry, but they would be wrong.
You will never find any of my poetry to be of such an unstructured form.
The word "verse" does not automatically mean poetry. (For instance it is common to speak of "a verse from the bible", but that does not mean it was written in a poetic style.)
Robert Frost once said that free verse was like playing tennis without a net.
—One could make a game of it, but that game would not be tennis.

Some might say, "All right, what about Haiku? That is unrhymed and unmetered other than that it has three lines of five, seven and five syllables..."
Oh, really?

My beer awaits me.
Like Homer Simpson I drink.
I burp and fall down.

That might pass for haiku in the USA, but is it haiku?
No, it is absolutely not for multiple reasons I will try to explain.
For one thing, traditional haiku must have a seasonal reference word. They use a special season-reference dictionary to find the right word for their haiku. If the verse does not have one of these reference words, then they do not have haiku; they have instead an embarrassment.
That is one part of the haiku definition that westerners do not understand and thus generally ignore.
Japanese haiku is not three lines but one line with words that make five, seven and five sound units.
A sound unit is not a syllable, but that is the closest English understanding of it.
Also, more strict than that, the first two sections must combine into one thought, while the last 5 sound units make a different thought. Thus the haiku, written as one line not three in Japanese, breaks down into two sections.
Last but not least, Japanese haiku must have sensory references. It should be an objective rather than subjective reference.
Too often short-sighted westerners simply write anything that comes to their minds in 5, 7 and 5 syllables and call it haiku.

Now if I were to rewrite the above haiku-look-alike as:

Autumn harvest brew
fermented to perfection,
Drink to lose control.

Then it might be considered haiku. After my explanation, I hope you see the differences.

Right you are, Harry! No post on Sundays. Hah!

So if you think you are seeing a post here, you must be mistaken...  —Or your name's not Harry.

Hah!

Friday Follow-Up

I believe I might continue on with the line of thought from yesterday and put a bit from later in the same chapter from The Helium Bomb. In this scene, Kevin, Billy, Amy and Patty sit in Nashotah Tower considering the news about Earth's impending destruction via the large asteroid.

Note: If you didn't read Thursday's entry, read it first. This part should then be more understandable.

     By the way, when the kids are talking about magic, it is what they think of their strange abilities, but don't let it confuse you.  You would not be too far off, if you think of them somewhat like untrained "Jedi" youths so far removed from the Federation, that they have no idea why they have certain powers and just call it "magic" for lack of a better term.
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* * *

Five houses divided the students at Greenbriar Academy. Each of these five houses had their own tower with separate dorm areas for boys and girls. Amy, Kevin, Patty and Billy all stayed in Nashotah House, where the asteroid was the only topic on anyone's mind that evening. "Commander," Amy whispered, looking at Kevin, "could we fly out to the asteroid in question? Maybe we will get some ideas after we look it over."

Two years earlier, Kevin had received his own spaceship from the queen of Abras, and since it was an Abrasax military Corsair, she had given him a rank in her royal guard so the ship's intelligence would follow his orders. His rank was Wing Commander.

"We could, but not now. It is past curfew and while we might get around that, we would still need to know the exact location of that asteroid," Kevin kept his voice low, "which we don't."

Amy offered, "Professor Grymm would have that information, but we wouldn't dare disturb him this time of evening, anyway. He is probably busy with Cassandra's private tutoring about now.” Blond-haired Patty Varian looked Amy in the eye and they both began to giggle.

"Smooch, smooch," Patty laughed.

Billy ignored the last part and noted, "It was really strange. When Cassandra showed up, why did Professor Thexia throw such a fit about it? It was like she just instantly hated Cassandra for no reason."

"Oh, Duh! You are not that dense, are you?” Patty goaded him.

"I get this from a blonde?” Billy wondered aloud.

"She was jealous, William," Amy informed him. "She has had a secret crush on Professor Grymm for ages, and it has not really been that secret, either."

Billy gasped. "On Grimy? You’re kidding. How could she like him?"

"Because from a female point of view, he is actually quite dashing. That British accent of his is exciting as well.” When Amy said this, it made Kevin look at her strangely, but he said nothing.

"Okay, I have an idea," Patty offered. "It involves using a big Abrasax ship like the battleship Enlil or even several of the larger ones. Could they hook tow cables to the asteroid and fire their engines at full power to make it change its orbit just enough that by the time it swings around the sun, it would miss Earth entirely?"

"Maybe," Amy agreed. "The sooner they try it, the more likely it could succeed. While the asteroid is still far enough from Earth, even a tiny change in its orbit would mean a large change by the time it gets here."

Kevin offered, "That sounds like a really great idea. I think I should contact my dad about it. The professor already shot holes in the idea of evacuating the Earth, but Dad will know what’s possible. He was head of the shipyard and now the queen’s put him in control of the whole fleet. He knows exactly how many ships Abras has and their sizes. He would also know how many people could be transported to Abras before time for the asteroid to hit Earth."

Amy's velvety black hair whipped around as she turned her head, causing a glance of annoyance as she brushed it from her eyes. "I agree. Even if not everyone can be saved, at least a few could be taken to Abras."

Kevin started to get out his communicator to call the ship for a link to talk to his father, but his mind wandered as he thought about the softness of her dark hair.

Patty added, "Well, all of us can go, right? I mean, we have our own ships, so we can take everyone in the school back to Abras with us, —everyone who wants to go, that is."

Billy spoke. "I bet my Uncle Orv won't go. Aunt Claudia's ghost has been waiting for him to join her some day. I don't think a ghost can leave the Earth."

"Right, but on the bigger picture of saving everyone on Earth, what if only a handful can be saved? We can't decide who stays and who goes.” Amy looked at Kevin, "I suppose it should be up to Queen Ishtaree and your father to decide who is allowed to live on Abras."

Kevin suddenly became conscious that he had been staring at Amy. He quickly got busy with placing a call to his dad.

"I hate to say this,” Billy said, "but hello! We keep our magical abilities from the non-magical public for a reason. If they reached Abras, it would be plain to all of them that magic is real and they can't do it. Do you know what would happen then? Jealousy and fear would take over. There would be fights, murders, and even wars when they found out. I'm sure you remember what we read about the witch trials and the Inquisition. It would be the beginning of that all over again, only it could be even worse."

After a moment of silence, Amy spoke up. "You're absolutely right, William. It would."

"Oh-my-gosh!” Billy's eyes went wide as if he were in shock. "Miss I-Know-Everything actually agreed that I was right about something! Someone mark this on the calendar, quick! It will be big … an international holiday … an interplanetary holiday even. They will call it 'Billy-Was-Right' Day. It will be monumental—a beacon of hope for the down-trodden everywhere."

"Down-trodden? All right, William. You've been asking for this…” Amy whipped out her wand, pointed it at Billy and said, "Hircus Finge!"

Instantly, a goat sat on the padded chair where Billy had been a second earlier. Amy smiled broadly. "Now he really is a Billy-goat. How long should I leave him that way?"

Kevin laughed. Amy had been threatening to do that to someone for ages, and had finally done it. In his mind, he heard Billy saying, "Very funny. You can change me back any time now." but all that came out were funny goat noises.

Amy suddenly spoke up again with a sneaky grin, "Oh, goodness. I just realized. I never did get the counter-spell from Professor Grymm. I don't know how to change him back."

Thursday's Thoughts

Now let me see. Here is a wee bit from book three of the Abrasax series, The Helium Bomb
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Chapter One — NEO (Near Earth Object)

______________________________

"This asteroid is fifty miles in diameter and on a collision course with Earth.” In the darkened classroom, the British professor, Callus Grymm pointed to the hologram behind him. The students saw a five-foot diameter image of a nearly round space rock.

"What does that mean, professor?" asked one of the female students.

"It means nothing less than the end of all life on this planet.” He paused. “Even microbial—one moment. What have we here?” In the midst of describing the death of everyone in the room, the professor noticed one student had fallen asleep in his class. He brought the lights up slightly.

Professor Grymm withdrew his wand from its robe pocket and aimed it toward the offending student, Oxford Peccant. “How do I wake thee? Let me count the ways.” He paused only a moment. “I shall take thee to the depth and breadth and height thy chair can reach…” As he said this, he raised both student and chair up to the high ceiling. “I could drop him from there, but the school would regrettably frown upon my intentionally maiming or murdering a student while class is in session. Pity.” The chair lowered back to a point only three feet off the floor instead. “Does anyone know what work of poetry I was paraphrasing just now?”

With no other hands in the air, he called on dark-haired Amy Levine; certain she would know the answer. She did. “Sonnet forty-three by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, written while she was—”

“Correct, Miss Levine.” Giving his wand a slight flip, the floating chair and the overweight ‘Ox’ Peccant, dropped suddenly to the floor. The chair broke under him, waking the sleeping Ox. “Mister Peccant, it appears you have broken yet another of the school’s chairs with your excessive mass. Please take another. ... Bring it right up here beside my desk. ... Now, sit.”

The professor walked around him, and continued speaking, “Where was I? Ah yes, I remember now.” His voice lowered more and more as he leaned closer to the student. In a quiet pleasant tone, he said, “While you were sleeping, I was just telling the class that an asteroid is going to hit the Earth, killing everyone.” He leaned closer to Peccant's ear and suddenly screamed, “We are all going to die!” Straightening back up, his voice returned to its normal pitch, “You will have plenty of time for sleeping after you are dead, which could come sooner than the asteroid, if you sleep in my class again.”

Gratified by the sudden look of terror on Ox’s face, the professor continued his class lecture. "May I presume you have all heard of the Chicxulub impact crater, known today as the Caribbean?” He glanced around. "That is the remains of an asteroid impact which many believe to be the event which brought the demise of the great dinosaurs."

Getting no response from most of his students, he sighed and continued. "Only three students? Why am I not surprised? The estimate of that asteroid's diameter put it at only six miles, while the one coming is fifty. It hit the Earth with an impact equal to approximately two hundred quadrillion pounds of high explosive. It is hard to imagine such a force, isn't it?” He paused a moment, “I shall attempt to enlighten you. The explosion was so great that not only did it melt hundreds of square miles of bedrock and turn thousands of cubic miles of ocean to superheated steam, but also an enormous quantity of the molten impact debris blasted into space, far beyond the atmosphere. This eventually rained back down dispersed around the globe. The energy released both from the impact itself and from reentry of the space debris had the effect of heating the air over the entire planet, touching every creature that did not hide underground in a cave or burrow. The heated atmosphere caused mass wildfires on a global scale, and was hot enough to cook the Dinosaurs."

He placed a blueberry on his desk. “If this were the asteroid that dug out the crater we call the Caribbean, let us compare that to the one coming now.” His hand appeared from behind him swinging in an arc over his head. With a resounding bang, he squashed the blueberry on the desk using a regulation-sized softball. “So much for the Caribbean, North, Central, and South America, Europe, and the Atlantic Ocean.”

As he spoke, a new image appeared behind him. This time it portrayed a fiery holocaust, with dinosaurs attempting to flee, but overtaken by a flash of fire, leaving a wake of death where once majestic creatures roamed. "That will be humanity’s fate."

Where Amy is introduced in Book 1

I have decided to jump to the middle of chapter three of Soul Keeper, where another of the main characters of the series is introduced—Amelexia Jodea Levine.
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“Boys! They are such a pain!” Amy Levine exclaimed, shaking her head. Her luxuriant black hair whipped back and forth, as she tried to clear away all thoughts of anything to do with boys. She wasn’t exactly speaking to her six-year-old younger sister, who sat on her own bed, dressing a doll. She was saying it to the whole world, to anyone who might be listening.

Some of the boys in the neighborhood, who were about her age, had built a clubhouse, and marked it clearly with a sign: ‘No girls allowed!’ Amy had looked at the sign, really hoping they had spelled it wrong. After all, they were only boys. Nobody expected them to spell words correctly. It must have taken all of them working together to get it right. Maybe they asked one of their sisters for help. Amy wanted to laugh as she made her private joke.

She didn’t hate boys. She hated that they excluded her from their fun. She wanted to have fun and be part of the crowd.

Instead, she was alone.

Amy picked a piece of darker blanket fuzz from her fluffy pink sweater. Their sign did not refer to just any girls. Of that, she was certain.

They had aimed that message straight at her, and she knew it.

They made no secret of the fact that they didn’t want her around. They never wanted to talk to her. They never wanted her to play their games. They always thought what she had to say was boring. Why? Just because she didn’t talk constantly about cars or planes or the army or those stupid video games of theirs!

Well, she had news for them. “I don’t want to go into their dumb old clubhouse, anyway. They are so juvenile and I am practically an adult. I wouldn’t go in there if they paid me fifty Loonies!” She was close to tears. She didn’t want her younger sister to see her cry just because some other kids didn’t want to play with her. At least she had her pretend friends: Patrixia, Nivek, and William. They really would be best friends forever. They would never leave her. If only they were real.

“Why do you care?” her younger sister, Lois, asked. She was trying to button the dress-pants on one of her dolls. “You won’t have to worry about them much longer, anyway. You are going away and I get to have my own room. I will get to use the computer, and I can go to Barbie-dot-com anytime I want to. I am going to sit all my Bratz dolls over there, and my …”

Amy stared at her red-haired little sister blankly for a few seconds. “Huh? What are you jabbering about now, squirt?” Was that red hair a recessive gene? Grandmother Rose said she had ‘a few red hairs’ in her head when she was younger.

“Your new school, of course,” said Lois, as though she didn’t know why Amy couldn’t understand.

“What new school? We go to this school until the eighth grade. I’m just finishing the sixth. I have two more years before I change schools. You aren’t making any sense.” She almost added, ‘as usual’ but didn’t.

“Don’t you know?” asked the six year old, trying to sound superior. “Mommy and Daddy are going to send you away to a new school that is a long ways from here. It’s in another country on top of a mountain!”

“In your dreams,” Amy remarked, as sarcastically as she dared without actually starting a fight with her sister. Amy didn’t want to fight because Lois had a nasty habit of tattling on her. That would bring Mommy or Daddy into it. That was not a good idea. At least not when she was on the wrong end of it.

“Yes, I dreamed it! So what? I know it is going to happen! It was very real!” Why did little sisters have to be such pains? She could be almost as much of an annoyance as those boys. Oh, no! She’d thought about boys again, and she was trying so hard not to do that.

No posts for the weekend. -I was tied up with other things.

I will probably drop down to posting once a week eventually, but in this case, I was away from my computer and didn't get around to posting.  Today, I will select a different spot from one of the stories and post it here.
I have selected the start of chapter 2 in the first book, Soul Keeper. This section holds the introduction of one of the main characters, Kevin, and his father, Mike. (Mike will play an important part in later stories.)
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Chapter 2 – Friendship Lost

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Safe and strong, our Alma Mater,

Greenbriar ever stand.

Send us now your son or daughter,

to our hidden land.

—First verse of the Greenbriar School Song.

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If you asked any of their neighbors, they would tell you that the Wells family of Toledo, Ohio, were perfectly ordinary people.  Mrs. Wells was a fine homemaker and kept a beautiful garden all summer.  Mr. Wells had a good solid job as a shift foreman at the Toledo Jeep plant.  The men working under him respected Mike Wells, because he was no common management type.  He had worked his way up to foreman after years as a skilled laborer on the assembly line.  He had been a line worker before the new series of automation robots, and had the muscles to prove it.

The other member of the Wells household, Kevin, was a quiet boy who never bothered anyone, although some of the other boys at his school bothered him.  None of them wanted to be his friend, and it is difficult for a boy to have no friends.  Apart from that, Kevin Wells was lucky in one respect.  He did have a friend, –just one, –but even that was hard for a boy his age.

The problem was that his only friend was a girl.

He had not planned it that way, but she was the only one in the neighborhood who was his age and would talk to him.  He told himself it was better than having no friends at all.  However, he had just learned something that could end that friendship forever.

Kevin realized now that there had been clues all along showing his difference from the other boys.  Being the only boy around with two-tone hair might have been a clue.  Most of his hair was medium brown, but there was one patch at the back, nearly the size of his fist, that was very light golden blond, more like gold than any normal shade of blond.

Why hadn't he figured out before that he wasn't like the others?  In many ways, Kevin Wells was like his father.  He didn't join in with a crowd just for the sake of belonging.  He was fussy about his friends.

Since Kevin didn't talk to the other boys, they hadn't learned about his friendship with a girl.  That was better to keep secret.  The other boys would never stop teasing him about it.

When he was around, Patty would set up tea parties with her dolls.  She always wanted to play "house" or "school", and he pretended right along with her.  Sometimes, they pretended so well that it even seemed like her dolls really drank the tea and talked, but he was glad no other boys saw him.  He shuddered to think what they would say.  He could well imagine what names they would call him.

He didn't really like to play girl's games, though.  When he saw her starting to set up teacups and saucers, he suddenly got busy with a video game, but it seldom succeeded.

Sometimes they would play school.  When they did, Patty was always the teacher and he was the student.

She had to be the teacher.

            She owned the green chalkboard.

Another of My Poems - A Border Epic

This epic poem was taken from actual historical accounts of events along the border between Scotland and England.
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                                                   A Border Epic

                                             © Dan Mickle (1981)

This tale of the Anglo-Scots border does tell;

Kerr, Fenwick, Scott, Maxwell, Gra'am, Johnstone, and Bell,

And so many others who pillaged and fought,

Over inches and acres that could not be bought.

The Romans decided their outposts would stand,

If they could just keep the Picts from their land,

So, four hundred years before Rome took its fall,

By the thousands, they toiled to build Hadrian's Wall.

In guarding this structure, it left little doubt,

The Scots and the Celts and the Gaels would stay out.

Though this was professed what the purpose had been,

The English, it chances, were also kept in.

The Romans who labored, marched, guarded and fell,

In rain, mist and winter o'er valley and swell,

Buried far from their homes, in the frostbitten North,

Their dead 'neath their banners will ne'er sally forth.

Stretching seventy miles between Solway and Tyne,

some twenty foot tall, the rocks marked the line.

Though it kept back barbarians, where it was laid,

Rome's influence waned, but the border wall stayed.

When passed many years to the south and the north,

the border had wandered much closer the Forth.

The push into England was thwarted in pain,

So buy back from Richard, to start it again.

When Scots helped the Barons, it drove King John wild;

And Berwick was ravaged; man, woman, and child;

But retaliation was just as severe,

Burn down English churches and things they hold dear.

And thus it continued, the fighting went on,

The Borders were born in the bloodiest dawn,

Blackmail and fighting and reiving was done,

No leeway was given nor ask, no, not one.

It wasn't all glory and chivalrous deed.

Crossing high craggy hills from which spring the Rede,

Three thousand lancers swept Teviothead,

And left smoking ruins to the waters of Jed.

A raid of three hundred or twenty or one,

might carry off cattle, or kidnap a son;

Steal two pair of breaches, a cloak and a skirt,

a cauldron, a skillet, twelve spoons and a shirt.

They stole sheets and a coverlet and one feather bed,

for a young English couple just recently wed.

And of the Scots donor who gave up his rest?

He lost more than these, as you've probably guessed.

Sometimes the whole house would be touched with a torch,

Or a bonfire of furnishings lit on the porch.

The Scots or the English, which one was the worst?

That's as hard to answer as “Who-did-who first?”

The borders were split; three March to the side,

Which Wardens protected from anie who tried,

But this didn't stop the thieving and gall,

For oft times the Wardens were worst of them all.

For five hundred years this fighting went on,

Each side self-defending though reason was gone.

A sword and steel bonnet, a jack-shirt and dirk,

then ride ' cross the Marches, a goodlie night' s work.

Sir Carlton of Cumberland wrote of one raid,

“In fifteen four seven was this escapade.”

In name of King Edward, both English and Scot

Rode with him to Teviot to subvert the lot.

With booty and plunder, the weather did change.

They sought help at Dumfries, which seemed a bit strange,

But Kirkcudbright beckoned, defiant to pledge,

So Carlton raided to drive in a wedge.

Soon routed by Scots, he fell back with his loot,

Two hundred of cattle and horses to boot.

Two thousand fine sheep would return to their fold,

When pressed from the rear, which he had not foretold.

And when they decided to split up to their loot,

Some brawling broke out, with backlash acute.

A disgruntled Scots-rogue with plenty of starch,

Returned with the Warden of the Scottish West March.

Now Carlton was circled by Scots, brave and young,

Which forced his escape through glib use of his tongue.

He promised persuasive that he'd set things right,

If they would but give him reprieve for one night.

Of course, by the morning his men were long gone,

To Dumfries and onward preceding the dawn.

Since they had to hide, he developed a plan,

Which gave him a way to protect every man.

Now Carlton craved Lochwood, as strong walls it had,

A fortress with good men proud wearing the plaid;

But Johnstone arrested, could not guard his keep,

And Carlton slipped in, while those left were asleep.

His men in the barnekin did break too soon;

And almost missed taking control of the Dhuin;

Once Keeper of Lochwood through Warton's decree,

His men raided daily with impunity.

Such blood-sports continued till James took the throne;

The sixth James of Scotland, but first English-knowne.

When he ventured south to his heritage take,

The Borders were torn with the "ill-week" outbreak.

The lances were freed; unrest was proclaimed.

Once Scotland and England, Great Britain was named.

He broke up the borders and put out some fires;

This portion from hence would be called, Middle Shires.

Thus in a short time he had snuffed out a flame,

Which smoldering and sputtered for an eon the same.

Some went to the gallows, some sped to exile,

For the purge of the Borders was traced out by guile.

So if you should chance to stand in your hall,

And reached to the pegs and take down from your wall,

A rusty old Claymore whose hilt fits your hand,

Remember, my children, that this once was your land.

Return to Abras

Today, I was fiddling with the beginning of the second book I've written in my series, which is titled, Return to Abras.  Here are the first couple pages for your enjoyment.
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RETURN TO ABRAS

By Daniel D. Mickle

Chapter One – Alien Dreams

        "Wake up Kevin!  You don't dare sleep; Patty's dying.  It's draining the life out of her," his friend, Billy, gasped while shaking him.  "If she passes out, we all die."

        Beyond the purple glow of the energy shield, produced by Patty's magic, Kevin Wells saw little but blackness in all directions.  He and his three friends floated in airless space, far from any visible planets or other places of refuge. Kevin knew with fearful certainty that they were going to die.  "We're running out of air and I can't even stay awake," he thought as he closed his eyes, perhaps for the final time.    

        The dark void disappeared. His friends were gone as well and he saw a planet that could have been Earth, yet somehow he knew wasn't.  What he could see of the sky above looked unfamiliar.  The stars looked strange.  No, not Earth.  Large planets and three moons hung frighteningly close, as he had never seen such things before.  Was he dreaming?  If not, the alternative was too terrible to contemplate, because he could no longer sense his friends nearby.

        "Yes, I'm dreaming." Looking around, he spoke aloud with certainty, trying to take comfort in his own voice.  "This is definitely not Earth!"  Wherever he now was, the stars were not tiny dots of light, but bigger, as though they were all much closer, –much larger than any stars he had seen before.  Could that truly happen?

        He remembered floating in space with his friends about to die.  This planet had to be a dream.  Lack of oxygen must have affected his brain and put him into a final sleep from which he would never awaken.

        Taking his eyes off the sky and glancing around the building, he noticed a large group of people nearby.  Because they wore robes, Kevin thought they could have been from the magical community, but these were hooded robes.  There wasn't a pointed wizard-hat amongst them.  He was on an alien world, without knowing how he got here.  "I'm sure this is a dream," he thought, and yet, even in the dream-strangeness, Kevin felt he had seen this place before.  Another dream perhaps?

        The nearest one of the ominous figures spoke to him with a voice like a human girl.  From the tone, he felt she was close to his age, but he could not see within the hood.  He remembered having seen this hooded figure before, –the same decorative filigree design, –but he was certain that she had not previously spoken to him.  "Kataska rohanoren iô mejasemu nurehşa bawee."

        "What?  What are you saying?"  Kevin urged the girl in the hood.  "I can't understand you."

        "Brahmana makane Abras azzabua.  Iô lauo Abrasax."  She reached out towards Kevin, and he saw pale delicate human hands emerge from the robe.  They held an amulet.  With both her hands, she placed it over Kevin's head lowering it until it rested on his chest, as did her light, delicate touch.

Kevin gasped, but this time it was not from lack of air. There was something pleasant and exciting about that gentle touch.

        "This place, this world, is called Abras and I am Abrasax," the girl said.

        "Hey, I understand you now."   He said, almost relieved when she lifted her hands away... –almost.

        "Ishtar smiles on you.  Now that you have received this gift of speech, be happy at your good fortune."

        "My name is Kevin.  What did you say your name was again, –Abrasax?"

        The girl giggled.  "No.  My name is Ishtaree.  I am Abrasax.  What are you?"

        She didn't ask 'who'.  She asked 'what'.  Suddenly in a flash of understanding, Kevin knew what she meant.  "Oh, this place is called Abras and you are Abras-ian, –or Abrasax, –You are from Abras?"

        "Yes.  What are you?"  She drew back her hood and he saw the alien looked like a human girl, but with brilliant golden hair. He had never seen golden hair before.  Each strand sparkled like his mother's and father's matching wedding bands when sunlight caught them.  Her radiant smile distracted him from everything else, until his gaze shifted to her eyes.  The dazzling golden irises hypnotized him as he noticed how they matched her hair in peculiarity of color.  They held tiny sparkles like the twinkling of distant stars, or like paint, sporting flecks of pure metallic gold, poured in circles on the surface of two deep dark pools.
        "My name is Kevin.  I am…" he wanted to tell her he was from Earth, but somehow, sudden understanding made him say, "–I was born on Earth, but I am Abrasax, also.  I am magical."

        "The Abrasax draw on the universal forces that you call magic.  That force shows me visions, and I have seen you in my future through such a revelation. I must tell you something important.  You must remember this word for it will help you when all looks bleak.  In the face of ill fortune, say once, 'Chahthrah.'  Once you have said it, the universe will cooperate with you in what you seek."

        Was she teaching him a magical power-word?  She spoke so cryptically. 

        "We stand here at a crossroads, you and I.  Through that same force, I sense that in the place-time you live, we… my people… will have gone on.  Of those who remain of our people, their ways will be different.  I see you playing an important role in that future.  Even though a great gulf separates us, I see my own future, and you are in it."  She smiled a glowing smile.  "I do not know how that is possible, for we are separated by over seventy thousand years.  For it to happen, one of us must travel through time, –you backward or me forward."

        What she said was confusing.  "To meet us, you have already crossed the great void in spirit form.  This is good, for I desperately need your help.  You have made a giant leap in your abilities to control the quantum force you know as magic, but I feel within you a struggle.  You are of two minds trying to sort out who you really are.  On one side, you are Nivek, descended of Enlil of Abras and controller of the force, while on the other side you are Kevin…"

* * *

        "Kevin… KE-VIN…" someone was calling his name, but it wasn't the alien girl.  She faded away.  "Kevin, come on.  You have to get up now or we will miss breakfast!"  The voice was Billy MacDuff, his roommate, and one of his closest friends.