The Okal Rel Universe in evolution and in the world.

 
Wrote up the synopsis of Healer's Sword, below, as an intro to a sample chapter I am sending to a travel-grant opportunity, and rather liked it so I thought I'd share it here as a sneak preview to Part 7: Healer's Sword which is awaiting editing by editor Richard Janzen for release no later than 2011. (Next book out is Part 6: Avim's Oath - Aug 2010 from Edge.) I don't include the unedited chapter, below, just the synopsis introducing it.

Synopsis introducing sample chapter

In Part 7: Healer?s Sword, middle-class Ilse Marin gets embroiled in the reforms of military genius Horth Nersal in an attempt to solve her financial problems back home. Against her better judgment, since Horth is not only her social superior by birth rank but belongs to an incompatible sub-species of human with respect to male/female behavior, Ilse falls for him very hard in a lustful sort of way that she has never expected to experience. Sevolites, like Horth and Ilse, are bio-engineered humans designed for the faster-than-light mode of travel called reality skimming which is too taxing for most ordinary humans (a.k.a. commoners). However, the bio-engineering took place on Earth a thousand years ago. Sevolites have since rejected their origins to evolve a neo-feudal culture with two distinct sub-species: the Demish, like Ilse, who believe in treating men and women differently; and the Vrellish, like Horth, who are all male in terms of their behavior from the Demish standpoint. Both the Demish and the Vrellish are leery of bio-sciences due to bad past experiences with a third kind of Sevolite called Lorels, but Horth?s friend Erien is trying to revive bio-science which is where Ilse got her training from a medic Erien employs named Mira. In the excerpt below we see Ilse doing a work stint on one of Horth?s battlewheels ? a kind of flying space-station shaped like a torus that acts as an carrier for spherical rel-fighters. But in this scene the pilots, or relsha, haven?t been fighting other Sevolites. Instead, they?ve been doing the necessary but menial work of sweeping space lanes free of dust using their skim-intrusion fields. Reality skimming requires hard vacuum to be safe.

Labels: Part 7: Healer's Sword, Richard Janzen

posted by Lynda at 19:27   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post

 


Always pleased to hear about a new reader about to embark on the ORU adventure ...

Labels: David Juniper

posted by Lynda at 20:01   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post

 
Mel created an iThemes video of ORU character profiles.

Mel's iThemes ORU character profiles on PhotoBucket.

Labels: Mel

posted by Lynda at 20:30   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post

 
Okal Rel Legacies author Krysia Anderson, who is working on a novella about half-Vrellish Demish-raised Victoria of Princess Reach, reports the following amusing fact, by texting ...

"Amel in spell checker. Suggestions: camels, males, axels

Labels: Krysia

posted by Lynda at 16:21   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post

 
It was my birthday yesterday and it was pretty special. Flowers delivered to my place of work by my husband, David Lott; a fabulous (they are pretty damn cool) kindle reader from my sister Holly Williams; enthusing with Krysia Anderson about her first draft novella for the Okal Rel Legacies series; a warm family weekend; greetings from friends on facebook and some cool digital greeting cards from friends, including the one shown as a screenshot above, sent by friend and fellow writer Elizabeth Woods.

Labels: Elizabeth Woods

posted by Lynda at 08:07   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post

 
Recently received two lovely messages from old friends who are getting "into" or back into the saga and refreshed connections with two others. All four are men and they like more than just the "Horth" book. :-) So I am proud to share their comments. These days there are so many ways to get messages! One of the two below came via e-mail and one via facebook. I saw the third reader-friend, Garth Frizzel, in Books & Company where he told me he picked up a copy of Far Arena in Ontario and enjoyed it. He said "hi" on behalf of another of my favorite ORU readers, his friend and partner in business, Rémi Després-Smyth, who is now living in the maritimes.

Hal Friesen

Hal is pursuing post-graduate studies in physics. I met him when he was an undergraduate student at UNBC. He writes stories about Nester Nersal for ORU legacies anthologies. I received the following from him earlier in Feb, by e-mail. The message repeated below was originally posted on facebook.

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Hi Lynda,

I recently finished Far Arena. I loved it. The cultural clashes were so well done and all of the beautiful characters played off each other magnificently. I couldn't put it down during the scenes on the Kali, and there was incredible tension throughout despite the fact that most of it took place in Erien's home. I laughed out loud when Horth got cats out of the trade deal, and I was terrified when Amel was being questioned.

I'll probably write a better review for Amazon but I just wanted to let you know that I thought it was awesome :) I can't wait for what's next!

Hal

David Juniper

David Juniper worked for me in the early Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Northern B.C. We had great times promoting the educational use of technology in the early days of the popularization of the internet. David moved eastward and works in digital arts.

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I have (finally) started reading Throne Price, and I love it!! Somehow
the time had to be right before I started reading it, which is why I
carried it across Alberta and down to Vancouver. Now I cannot put it
down! You and Alison are truly gifted writers, and I look forward to
reading my way through all the Okal Rel books ...:)I love that the Gelack word for peace shares a common root with the word for shame ;-)Thank you for such an amazing work.[David Juniper February 11 at 8:46am]

Labels: David Juniper, Hal Friesen

posted by Lynda at 09:50   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post

 
Slow progress continues with Opus 4. Production date for Opus 4 and Opus 5 is summer 2010. Dreadful long delay getting these two anthologies into production! Partly due to my change in job, partly to changes at Absolute XPress, and partly due to my preoccupation with getting Part 6 and Part 7 of the saga written. Determined to see the anthologies in print this summer. I am very fond of some of the stories, and committed to all of them. Summer is the production slot available with Absolute XPress and David Lott is helping me with contracts and managing payments once the contracts are done. Meanwhile, I continue to make progress with Part 8: Gathering Storm. Now up to 80,000 words of the first draft. The majority of it is set at the first Cultural Exchange between the Reetions and the Gelacks, with some excursions for visits and rescues.

Labels: opus 4, Opus 5, Part 8: Gathering Storm

posted by Lynda at 07:32   2 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 2 comments links to this post

 


Found a 2006 review of Courtesan Prince that showed up on a site called bookpleasures. Click the image or title to visit.

Paul concludes with:
"This is a good piece of society-building. Since this is not the usual sort of
new world, this novel will require some patience on the part of the reader (it
takes a while to get going). It is also the first of a projected ten-book
series. It's very much worth reading."

Labels: Part 1: Courtesan Prince, Review

posted by Lynda at 21:02   0 comments permalink comment? e-mail lynda@okalrel.org 0 comments links to this post