Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "aliens"

This morning, it dawned on me that posting something fresh every day here is really overdoing it. So, as of today, I’m going to try to keep to a Tuesday, Thursday schedule unless I have special announcements I want to share in between. After all, a fifth book is coming . . .

Returning to my character descriptions from The Blind Alien, I thought it time you meet the very unusual Doret Galess, the mutant dwarf initiate “Dream Guesser” of a unique religious school.

For a little set-up, the following scene takes place after Tribe Renbourn has suffered a series of painful trials. After the catastrophe in Bergarten, the Balnakin government openly encouraged its citizens to seek out and kill the alien from Alpha-Earth. They extorted the rights to all of Malcolm Renbourn’s books as partial compensation for the horrible pit that destroyed much of Bergarten. As a result of all this, Dr. Malcolm Renbourn suffered a near fatal heart attack. Tormented for the role she feared she played in all that, Bar Tine Renbourn left the tribe.

So the extremely talkative Helprim Annijol Hod, Malcolm’s heart doctor, thought it wise to bring a spiritual healer to the tribe. Here’s that first encounter where you’ll not only meet Doret but read many insights into Tribe Renbourn as a whole.

Defining a few terms: “Hearthstone” is the name of the Renbourn home and estate. “Sojoa-sheets” are solar panels. “Togs” are clothes and “pravines” are wine-like alcoholic drinks.

While I’m thinking about it, remember The Blind Alien is currently on sale for 99 cents at Amazon. I have no idea how long that will last—

Most of this introduction is in Doret’s voice with a few observations from Alnenia and Lorei Renbourn along the way:

Doret: I met the Renbourns one wet and humid day when I accompanied Annijol Hod on one of her trips to Hearthstone. She had told me much about their situation in her usual style, trying to prepare me for the experience. "You've been seeing them on the news for years," she said, "but films are flimsy Sojoa-sheets into their tribal soul. You have been reading up on their trials? Good. I knew you would. I predict you are in for the challenge of your young career. But I know you, young as you feel, are better equipped than any senior Hollow-Bone at Appool. You are limber enough still to be creative, intuitive, adaptable. This is no test for dry skols and formulaic lists, I promise. Did I tell you, yes, I'm sure I did. Here we are. Open your six senses, Initiate Galess.
You will sense much before you see a face. This will be a true test of your dream-Guessing skills."
Annijol spoke true. But one step out of her trans, I felt the aura-cloud hovering over this place. I looked to the sky and shivered. Before that moment, All I knew of evil was what I had studied — evil comes in currents, vibrations, in parasitic funguses and pollutions that scurry like crabs in sea mud.
I had heard this and read this. But I was young. I had touched or sensed it not in my life. But there it was, unmistakable. Walking to the guest-arch of this gray house, I thought The untrained might have sensed the cloud as an invasion of resentful or angry spirits trapped in this world of matter. But even I knew this was an aura of dead ones not. It was a cloud of psychic despair.
Annijol was in full stride when we reached the door arch and a young woman answered her ring. "Ah Sari, how are things this day? You look not good. Is your face what all in the house wear? I thought so. Come Doret, you are here not a day too soon." I followed Annijol down a short hall and paused in the doorway as she went forward to a dining-table where most of the family sat. I scanned the room, focusing my aura-eye on a thin woman to my left. She was bending over very small children being herded into a room I saw not. She turned in our direction and smiled at me behind a veil of dry tears. I recognized her from the news films. This was Elsbeth. Yes, she was wife and mother and nurturer by birth.
I then looked at the table and scanned the seated group. First was Joline, the sad beauty whose spirit-womb ached. She was with child, but the child was her affliction not. Next to her sat the tight-lipped and determined Alnenia. Yes, she was solid, brash, an anchor. I could see the Husband not through Annijol blocking my vision as she stood by the other woman whose back was to me. From the long brown hair, I presumed she was Lorei. I keenly awaited sensing her presence. One was missing, the Balnakin slave. So I listened and heard Annijol talk, a strange, clear voice in the atmosphere of grief.
"What mean you, gone?" Annijol sat heavily by Lorei and I finally saw the side of the unsighted's face as she turned to speak to Annijol. Oh yes, I sensed her gifts even from this distance. Raw, untrained, unschooled, but unmistakable. A priestess by birth and inclination. I moved forward and stood by Annijol, noticing Elsbeth coming to join her clan. I heard, or rather, heard not, one remarkable occurrence. Annijol was silent.
After a long pause, Annijol collected herself and said, "I sorry. I have no words." Then, she remembered. "Perhaps the friend I told you about arrives on the very day she is most needed." She turned to me and offered me the chair next to her. "This is Doret Galess, a Hollow-Bone from the Appool Ordinum. She is not only trained in spiritual and mental understandings, she was raised in that Seminary from birth. Introduce yourself, Doret. Give these Renbourns something to hear that will distract them from their bad news. I presume you heard. One of their Sisterhood has departed. A spoke of their family wheel is broken."
I looked over the faces and saw Malcolm for the first time. I had to hold back my surprise. His aura was incredibly intense, filled with vibrating colors from the entire spectrum. But there was more. A separate unseen aura was beside him but not in him. His Alpha god? Alien chemistries? It was as if all the auras I had ever sensed had been painted by one artist. A different creator had blended the alien's colors. I sensed that, like Lorei, there was a presence inside him of unique power. But his face told me he was unaware of such presences. Rather, he looked like a man too familiar with cages. He was a mind who had to calculate every thought, each action processed through layers of questions. He was a creature who had lost all instincts. I saw Alnenia
reach over and whisper in his ear. His eyebrows rose. I laughed.
"Alnenia Renbourn," I said, you need not whisper. Immediately I will tell our unsighted company that, yes, I am remarkably short. I expect Joline's legs are taller than I stand. Against most, I stand to the breasts. Still, I am twenty-six years of age. I am short because I was birthed from two parents who participated in an unsanctioned experiment to see if certain chemicals wetted to a fertilized egg might make male offspring more certain. I was the result. A perfect female in all ways. But one who will always wear children's togs. I know not who my parents were. I was a strange creation brought by one Icealt to the school, a little thing apparently no larger than a hand."
I smiled. "Like you, Doctor Renbourn, I am product of strange science. This is one reason Annijol felt I might be of special use here. I am, like you, familiar with being unique."

Alnenia: Looking at Doret that first day, I saw the quiet, certain compassion in her. I drew her story out while the others listened, I know, with only half minds. I intrigued to meet a woman abandoned by her parents at birth to a religious school where she grew up without other children around her. To grow up in prayer-cells and pravine-yards and libraries seemed a sad beginning in life. But I saw no sadness in the short one. She looked complete in herself, a soul with quiet waters in her womb.

Lorei: I gratefulled when Annijol rose and told Malcolm it be time for him to sit in the large-chair so she could examine his chest. As they walked to the other side of the room, Annijol still offering quiet consolations, I turned to Doret and asked, "So what be the help you believe you can offer us?"

Doret: In some moments, I can feel Lorei's strength and it almost drops me to my knees. Perhaps I am too attuned to such waves. Perhaps, no, I certain, that in some moments her Olos-force is beyond anyone I have known. On that first day, I knew the source of her terrible grief and how this shaped her aura. This was a family of extraordinary shared power, tightly inter-woven auras, survivors of incredible adversity. When Annijol had promised me a challenge, she spoke half-truth. This tribe was self-aware, knowledgeable, and so unique I could share not simple consolations. I looked at the man and one list leaped to my mind — "If you can find bearings not, make no short-cuts through the trees. Any explorer knows — return to your starting place instead." But I felt unprepared, unable to reach into my toolbag of skols and phrases and techniques to grab ahold of a starting point. After all, this alien, well, his starting place was another planet. And his starting place on my world had become as cursed a site as any in history. And many placed the curse on his brow.

Beta-Earth website:

https://drwesleybritton.com/

Author contact:

spywise@verizon.net

Strange as it might sound, I can point To very few specific literary influences on anything in the Beta-Earth Chronicles. However, in The Blood of Balnakin, I had one author very much in mind when I crafted one scene. That author was Anne Rice.

In particular, in Rice’s better books, and I can’t claim to have read much more than her Vampire Chronicles, her descriptive gifts are on full display. She does an amazing job of presenting the sweep of history with such a haunting, powerful, romantic, sensuous tone. If I were to point out my favorite scene showcasing these abilities, I’d choose the chapter in Servant of the Bones where we enter a cave of jewels that’s both beautiful and richly detailed.

Now, in no way do I claim the scene below imitates or emulates Rice’s style or depth. I’m not in her league. I don’t sound like her and am not trying to do so. Instead, while writing it, I thought it was, in a sense, a tribute to Rice. That’s because I wanted to encapsulate several millennia of history in a few pages with a Rice-like sweep with a large dose of mysticism.

To set the stage, the Mother-Icealt of Beta-Earth, who is housed in the Great-Ring-of-All-Domes in the island sanctuary of Nilexdra, offers an audience to Tribe Renbourn. For most of the Renbourn wives, this summons to meet the supreme priestess and oracle of their world is the opportunity of a lifetime. They realize her purpose is most likely to give her the chance to meet and assess their husband, the Alpha-Man, Dr. Malcolm Renbourn.

The women are correct. The Mother is keenly interested in checking out the one man on the planet whose auras are veiled from her mystical powers due to his other-world origins. As an alien, Malcolm isn’t connected to any of the flows of Olos, the name for both the planet and the goddess who protects it. The Mother determines Malcolm is flawed because of his fears and uncertainties, has important roles in celestial plans for the future whether he likes it or not, and is far, far from dangerous to her people.

The Mother then offers “full oracle” to the Renbourn wives—Elsbeth, Lorei, Joline, Alnenia, and Doret. Most of them meet privately with the Mother in her oracle cell and are given surprising visions into their futures.

But when Doret walks through the curtain for her blessing, the Mother asks her to share her time with her bond-sister, Lorei. That’s because both Doret and Lorei have their own powerful spiritual gifts and the Mother knows the three of them together can open paths never possible before.

To define a few terms: “Sojoa” is the Betan term for the sun which supposedly oversees masculine attributes. The “Sea-of-the-Lost-Moon” is a giant body of water filling what would be much of lower Europe and Asia on our planet. As far as anyone knows, it was indeed a lost moon that crashed there and created the sea before there was any recorded history.

“The Plague-With-No-Name” is the most important influence on Betan culture. Killing three out of four infant boys their first year, it’s the reason for the planet’s polygamy. No one knows its origins. Until now.

In Doret’s words:

As I closed my body-eyes, I felt the flow of interconnection in my mind. I lowered my head. At first, random thoughts floated uncontrolled in my consciousness. Then a flower with the face of Olos began to form, at first vague and detailed not, then a clear image of the goddess studying her child. I knew each of us saw the same image. Then, the flower-Olos stretched out two branches like human arms, and the astounding revelations began.

In a growing flood, images filled me, not of the future, but of distant pasts. I saw, heard, smelled, and touched the guttural-sounds of many, many men in the garb of mere unworked animal-skins. I saw them in paddle-boats on rivers which were true images of times before the plague. So many men, men stronger than women. Men in seated circles around log fires. Men and women roasting the meat of giant birds on the stone cooking platforms. Men and women stuffing simple boots with dry grass as insulation in the cold of ice and snow.

Then, I felt the shaking of the ground, the wail of wounded Olos, the gray cloud in the sky that blocked out Sojoa for so, so long. I, too, felt the shaking earth and ran into the caves and tunnels and spit up waters from my womb and peered into the gray and endless cloud of the angry god that circled Olos, Olos crawling in pain, her hand clutching the rip in her side. She gasped and choked and panted for her missing consort in the sky. Looking down from above, I saw the fissures and veins of splitting land sprouting in all directions cracking the skin of Our Mother. I saw the waves and waves of hot liquid rock and dirt pouring and falling from the mountains. I saw the corpses of the winged creatures that were never to fly again. I heard the howls and growls and cries of animals as they fled into lands new and frightening. I saw water harden and humans walking across seas without need of ships and boats.

As if time moved as fast as a waver picture, I saw the cloud loose its thickness as it became part of all-breathing. Then it faded into the soil and humans returned to the soaking rays and waves of Sojoa. I saw the ice melt, and old connections between tribes were lost to a wandering humanity who continued to search for game and food.

Then, I saw the first wailings as infants died in surprising numbers. I saw the burnings of women whose seed was determined rotten. I saw wives cast out who bore only daughters and were forced inland away from tribal ports. I saw infant girls buried in the sands. I saw the fleeings from the Old Continent when all-skins felt the disasters within their own colors. I saw old worships change when even Olos was branded the demon of our earth. I, too, crouched in my hut fearing the night visits of the imagined Red-Scarfed Plague-Maiden choosing which infants to spare. I saw the beginnings of skol writings and I saw the burnings of skols which told fearful stories. I saw time pass and a gentleness of regret fill migrating tribes who moved from sorrow to resignation to living as if no plague had ever been. Such histories, I knew, were lost in the fearing times when the Plague lost its name and became the mystery with no beginning. Nor end.

I saw how the jealousies and envies of many wives gave way to hope of inclusion and child-birth in tribal alliances. I saw how cultures began to shape themselves as if disconnected from all others. I saw the growth of the Domes and the reverence for Olos return as female nurture spread from home-cribs to all aspects of life. I saw the rises and falls of Lieges on all continents. Through all, I felt the flow of Olos in the fields and skies and waters.

The most puzzling image was of Olos herself standing by a red-brook, a red-sword in her hand. It was a stone-sword she had pulled from the ground but had nowhere to place it. I read her thoughts — the sword is drawn but where is the scabbard to put it to rest?

Then the images cleared and I was again kneeling in the small room with the Mother-Of-All. Lorei was on her knees beside me in deep tears. As was I.

"Plague with no name?" the Mother wailed, her hands gripping her throne. "No, now I see it! It was no Lost Moon who fell into Olos as if in need of her warmth! No, it was a moon of angry rock from far from Olos! A moon jealous of the life on Olos it could spawn not itself! An angry moon, a jealous moon that gave us the Sea we named after a lost moon! Cursed Moon that cursed Olos! And the waters that bear this plague and spread it lap against the shores of this holy island!"

We three said nothing for a time. We now knew of the pollution that infected the wombs and milk of the children of Olos. We knew the ways of prophecy and science had new work to begin.

---
Find out more in The Blood of Balnakin—The Beta-Earth Chronicles: Book 2
https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Balnakin...

The Blind Alien is still on sale for 99 cents!
https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Alien-Be...

Coming This Fall!

The Third Earth—The Beta-Earth Chronicles: Book 5
http://bmfiction.com/science-fiction/...

It’s been a while since I gave y’all a free sample from a Beta book. So here’s a passage from The Blood of Balnakin I’m rather proud of.

That’s because this section not only introduces you to a major character in the series, but, in that character’s own words, introduces you to some of the major themes of the book. In particular, the role of race in the country of Balnakin.

For a little set-up: “Sojoa-sheets” are essentially solar panels. “Stadsems” are colleges. In the country of Balnakin, the dominant race is brown-skins. Blues are their slaves. “Tribal sewings” are markings worn on tunics to indicate strong tribal alliances.

In the final third of The Blind Alien, the book that preceded Blood, a terrible catastrophe occurred when an explosion destroyed much of the city of Bergarten. Many Balnakins mistakenly believed the blind alien, Dr. Malcolm Renbourn, could have averted the disaster if he’d have sacrificed himself in the laboratory that had brought him over from Alpha earth. As a result, the Renbourns and all light-skins are blamed for the deaths of thousands. So Kalma is about to discuss various reactions to the event from her family’s various points of view.

Kalma: I am daughter of the great city of Bergarten, a city I have known with pride, shame, and aching womb all my days. In the twenty-five years of my growing near the three rivers, I thrived in the knowledge my home city was a center of the world. All around me were the wide, clean walkways leading past gleaming buildings unlike any in any other city on Olos earth. I knew these flowing streets well, I knew I was one fleshly part of the best of humanity. My Bergarten was where the future shaped, where discipline and energy superseded the ways of others tangled in their tired pasts.
But I also was shaped by a family deeply troubled by the slavery of fellow Balnakins sharing not our deep, earth-soil colors. I knew well our Sojoa sheets shone because of the polishings of blues dangled from rooftops or belted to mechanical ladders. Riding in our trans from one site to another, my Mother often circled her breasts with single finger loops, signaling gratitude to be blessed each time she glanced at a sullen blue woman tuning tools, unloading tracs, crawling down into pipes below ground. Many such women would know spears, children, family not.
Futures not. We whispered our regret. But only whispers, silences, prayers. After all, without the blues, our greatness possibled not.
Then, my soul ached and more as I was in Bergarten the day the soundless explosion robbed my city of its heart. I was one of those shoved onto an evacuation bus at stadsem that cursed day, cramped with students and sweating teachers on the road north when the catastrophe took away the rooms we sat in but minutes before. I can name names of many who exist no more. My belly tightens still to think of them.
Had not my Tribe fast boats on the Gell River, two of my Sisters and their children would also exist no more.
To say more, for years, my family has been a deep part of what I loved most about Bergarten. For one matter, unlike many, my father, Lius Salk, built his empire of
connections relying not on what he considered a dishonest means of business. That is, as he rose in the ranks of the shipping company of Mhelapras, he chose not his wives based on tunic sewings. Instead, each of his five bondings were daughters from the New Dome Church of No-Stratas founded by the eminent Devlin Joco Llyam. Llyam's congregation agreed on various principles including the possibility, but rarity of, true prophecy. We believed Olos was indeed the Mother of All, and that all included all skins. This meant Olos abhorred slavery. No member of the New Domes associated with Devlin Llyam could own or deal with the selling of humans. This meant we had few prosperous, powerful tribes to share worship with. My father looked for wives with these beliefs knowing they would come from families with these values. He wanted wives focused on their children. So, each of us grew in a home devoted to our betterment while my father grew his company in countries stained not by human bondage. He worked with makers of goods with sellers all over the globe interested in unique wares from cultures across land and sea. As Father rose to the top of Mhelapras, we rose with him.
True said, in each family, seeds bear different fruits. My brother Mool became as interested as my father in the ways of connecting makers with distributors. So, he established his own healthy branch to the family's growth into the countries south of the Psam Peninsula, mostly on the continent of Verashush. But my brother Kinn could find his way not. He became an angry student at the Lipran Stadsem, graduating just before the news came out that an alien was in the Halls of the great Bergarten Institute of the Species. Kinn stood in the audience the day Doctor Malcolm Renbourn reached out to two globes. Later, Kinn raged in father's house the day the alien snuck across the border into Rhasvi. My father dismayed when Kinn denounced loud the Lipran authorities for having allowed this escape to happen. Why had any fool put a Shaprim robe on a blue, why was a creature so obviously defective contained not here in Bergarten where all the world should come and beg access to our knowledge? "Olos put her stamp on every Brown," Kin preached, "when she marked us with her own color, the color of her most fertile land! What is blue but an empty shade between day and night? Unnatural. Name one other creature sharing this strange pigment!" He laughed. "And these are creatures to envy, pity not! How relaxing to have no decisions to make, no will to exercise! We shelter, feed, guide these off-colors!" My father had known not my brother had changed at the Stadsem. Into this nest of anti-slavery philosophies, a racist had emerged.
And Kinn became more than that when one-fourth of our city became a dome in
the earth, a gaping hole where once friends and companions lived. One horrible day, my father's office view overlooked a wound that now defined a culture. Devlin Llyam's home was but two-lanes away. During the first years after that damnable rip in Olos appeared, such men and their women grieved in silent wonder. During the same years, men and women like my brother Kinn spoke often and loud. "I stood there, right there at the very center of that wound in the Mother! By miracle alone three of my Sisters survived! But a minute, a moment, our Tribe, too, would have had souls with bodies not for holy burning!" All Balnakin homes knew the debates. Yes, drain and bleed Rhasvin coffers for compensation. But compensate who? How can lost knowledge be re-claimed? Who owned the lost land? They were gone, too. Rebuild? Build a memorial? Answers were slow. But those like Kin looked for answers not.
Vengeance. Slashing, burning, crushing of all creatures whose skin was brown not. Consuming, unyielding rage. So, father sent my brother to Alma in the hopes the distance might calm his angry spear. To live among blues who were slaves not, Balnakin, Rhasvi not. For a time, we knew not of success in father's dreams. We more concerned with our world turned upside down.
For the record, I have seven sisters, as well, but my purpose here is not to fully flesh out my blood-tree. To say simple, my tribe, like most, was a story of contrasts. I, well, I was my father's favorite star. From early years, I was the quickest of my brood to show promise in my studies, especially seeing the patterns of numbers. As I grew in
health, comfort, dignity, and belief in the values of our New Dome association, it was obvious to all I should have the brightest possibilities of my generation. Young men
eyed my tall frame and wide birth-hips with considerable interest. Even when I was young, boys loved to stare into my yellow-iris eyes, a trait passed down from my
Mother. Along with my well-recognized tunic-colors I designed myself, I was praised
for my song-voice which I shaped in praise for Olos. But I was ready for bonding not.
Unlike my mother, I planned to establish myself as a woman with a scope far larger
than our mansion near River Lod. In my womb, I imagined myself wife to a Tribal-Centel if not one myself. Where I to bond with such a man, he'd have to be one
expecting considerable guidance from his first wife. For I would settle not for less.

Learn what happens next, and what happened before, in:

The Blood of Balnakin—The Beta-Earth Chronicles: Book Two
https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Balnakin...

The Secret King: First Contact
Dawn Chapman
Jaime Bengzon (Illustrator)
Publisher: TSK Productions LTD; 1 edition (December 20, 2016)
Publication Date: December 20, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B01NBCKEWX
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-King-Fi...


“Kendro, king of the Aonise, watched as his nemesis, Dalamaar, and his second, Trax, stormed away down the ship's corridor. The encounter
left the breath thin in his lungs, and a sour taste rose in his mouth. This had been much more than a personal attack. If only he'd not been left
alone, but circumstances with Chace and Taliri had not allowed his usual guard to be there.

“Dalamaar's words echoed in his mind, I thought it was time you met the next King. And what really injured the most—if your wife weren't pregnant, I
would crush you now. But, Dalamaar needed Kendro to do all the negotiating work on Earth.”

The above first paragraphs from Dawn Chapman’s First Contact, volume two of her Secret King series, drops readers immediately into the action with no preliminaries and economically tells us about a central conflict to follow. From that point on, we’re on a roller-coaster ride that doesn’t let up until the appendices.

For roughly two-thirds of the book, we’re given two main parallel story lines. One deals with the Aonise, an alien race on a spaceship carrying 2 million survivors from their doomed home world. Kendro, King of the Aonise, hopes our earth will offer his people a peaceful place to settle. At the same time, earth’s leaders worry about what a race of aliens will bring us. So we witness a spaceship full of aliens divided over what to do on earth and humans divided over what sort of reception to give them.

The parallel plots are shown in character interactions mirrored in both settings. For example, we see aliens and humans in hospital rooms in dire circumstances both in the spaceship and in England, the main earth setting where the Prime Minister is eager to find a way for peaceful co-existence. In both settings, romances are sparked, blossom, and face bumpy roads. Aliens and humans clearly have much in common.

Chapman is especially good at crafting a large cast of sympathetic, three-dimensional characters resulting in a number of plots and subplots. It’s often pointless trying to determine just who is a main and who is a supporting player as so many storylines are woven together in an epic going back-and-forth between people and aliens. Chapman is vividly descriptive with her aliens who look very human except for their colorful “birthmarks” that illustrate their bodies. Each of them has a “Croex” with varying degrees of energy and power. These “croexes” bind the aliens together spiritually and provide metaphysical threads that can cure or protect.

First Contact can’t be considered “hard science fiction” as the emphasis is on the characters and situations, not plausible scientific explanations for anything. There’s considerable metaphysical use of the “Croexes” as well as prophetic dreams that can reach over time and space. These powers worry Kendro who wants these abilities used as little as possible so not to enflame the passions of earthers already fearful of sharing their land with all these strange new immigrants.

Chapman has been dwelling in the realm of The Secret King at least since 2005 when she wrote scripts for a proposed 13 episode series on British TV. In September 2015, volume one, The Secret King, Lethao, was published. In July 2016, two novellas appeared as audiobooks, The Truth Hurts and Bree’s Results. At the end of First Contact, Chapman makes it clear a sequel is in the pipeline as well as a Secret King anthology.

So if you’re captivated by the tapestry of Chapman’s characters, there are previous works to enjoy and delights to anticipate. I can’t remember aliens I’ve liked as much as the Aonise. I’d welcome many of them as neighbors.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com at:
goo.gl/j3pkDu

Here’s an oddity for Father’s Day.

A bit ago, my wife called me from the rehab center where she’s a patient. A few days ago, I left her a copy of my The Blind Alien, hot off the press.

She told me a number of the nurses can’t get near the book and are complaining as they claim the cover is “evil.” Evil how? “They’re Jamaican,” was her only thought. Superstition in a U.S. medical facility?

Judge for yourself after visiting my website. An evil book cover? I can’t figure that at all. Let me know what you think.

https://drwesleybritton.com/


Write me at--
spywise@verizon.net

Today is the last day of the BearManor Media 20% off any paperback sale—and, that, of course, includes The Blind Alien! It lists at $14.95 in print, and we hope sales are good enough to make putting the remaining Beta-Earth books into print as well. So, today, skip Amazon and order directly from BearManor Media—

http://www.bearmanormedia.com/

It’s been some time since I used my blog to plug my Beta-Earth Chronicles. To be fair, the first half of 2017 hasn’t been filled with much news other than the publication of the paperback edition of The Blind Alien.

In the coming months, I hope we will have a series of very cool announcements for you. For one thing, an artist is presently working on replacement covers for the Chronicles to upgrade the current rather weak reverse globe images. In addition, book 6, Return to Alpha, is at the publishers waiting for the editors to do their thing.

This week, I thought I’d share with you a detailed overview of the main cast of characters of all 6 books. Sometime, my webmaster will post the whole list at my website; until then, I’ve broken up the list for shorter, more blog-friendly content.

So below is a look at the main characters introduced in book 1, The Blind Alien:


Dr. Malcolm Eric Renbourn. Birthed: March 29, 1985, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Alpha-Earth. Beta birth year: 1690? Correlation to Beta moon and day: unknown. Doctorate in American History, Shippensburg State College, 2000. Captured and blinded in Bergarten Institute of the Science of the Species, 1720.

Thirty-five year old Dr. Malcolm Renbourn is an underemployed, impoverished history professor who considers himself a failure when he is captured in a cross-dimensional device that drags him from Alpha to Beta earth. Blinded in the capture, Malcolm is the subject of torturous experiments for months before he escapes to the country of Rhasvi.

In Rhasvi, Malcolm comes to understand the polygamous customs of Beta-Earth as he becomes the center of an increasingly important tribe. Because of his unique genetics, scientists of the powerful Collective wonder if his DNA might contain the cure to the ancient Plague-With-No-Name that kills three out of four male babies their first year.

Wanting to protect his family, Malcolm hopes his sharing of Alphan knowledge and products might keep the Collective from imprisoning the Renbourn tribe. For twenty years, this conflict will determine many of the Renbourn’s movements and actions.

Bar Tine Renbourn Sofig. Birthed: 1696.3.33, Archal, Balnakin. Property of the Country of Balnakin. Graduated: Wostra Stadsem for Literate Assistants, 1720. Freed and bonded to Renbourn tribe in Wellneee, Rhasvi, 1722. Mother: Becky (daughter) 1723 (birthed at Hearthstone, Rhasvi.) Divorced: Dellmire, Alma, 1727. Murdered: Dellmire, Alma, 1730 in book 2.

Blonde-haired, blue-skinned, gentle-hearted Bar Tine was a Balnakin slave assigned to become Malcolm Renbourn’s first teacher of the Betan language of Alma. Ultimately, she sacrifices herself to help Malcolm escape to the free country of Rhasvi.

Imprisoned in an underground Balnakin Rehabilitation Center for many months, Bar is finally freed in exchange for a collection of Malcolm’s tissues containing his DNA. Joining the small Renbourn tribe in Rhasvi, Bar puts her artistic eye to good use as she helps put Malcolm’s Alphan stories into understandable form on Beta.

Then came the disaster in Bergarten, the largest city in Balnakin. Thousands of Balnakins died in an epic explosion that started in the laboratory that brought Malcolm from Alpha. Blaming herself and her fellow Renbourns for the catastrophe, Bar left the family, divorced Malcolm, and remarried a fellow artist named Wend Sofig.

A short time later, Bar was assassinated by an enraged Balnakin. after her murder, she became a disembodied spirit watching over the Renbourn tribe until her transformation in book five.

Lorei Caul Renbourn. Birthed: Near Rofvig, Rhasvi, 1690.13.2. Bonded to Renbourn tribe: Home of Centel Loes Teaub near Rofvig, Rhasvi, 1721. Mother: Loes (son) 1722; Morei (daughter) 1724 (both born at Hearthstone, Rhasvi); Denos (son) 1731 (Island Bilan).

Blind from birth, Lorei is blessed with gift of foreknowledge and a special connection with the goddess, Olos. Throughout her years as a Renbourn, the graceful, dignified farmgirl is an important leader in her family, her prophecies often determining decisions the tribe rarely likes as their circumstances become more and more complex and dangerous. Many prophecies are allegedly due to the will of Olos, who is often a very harsh deity.

Elsbeth Caul Renbourn. Birthed: near Rofvig, Rhasvi, 1692.5.65. Bonded to Renbourn tribe: (Same as her birth-sister, Lorei Caul). Mother: Bethmal (daughter) 1722; Malbet (son) 1724 (both birthed in Hearthstone); Holjo (daughter, born Samlon Blan, 1730); Dona (Island Bilan, 1732).

Curvaceous, plain-faced Elsbeth is an expert botanist who supervises the family’s large gardens at all their estates.

Joline Sonam Renbourn. Birthed: Icatah, Aufrei, 1699.11.43. Bonded to Renbourn tribe: Wellneee, Rhasvi, 1721. Mother: Jolcolm (son) 1723; Moline (son) 1725 (both born at Hearthstone); Qere (son) 1730 (Samlon Blan, near Maron, Kirip).

Raised among the cliff-dwellers in the ice country of Aufrei, like all her people, Joline is a head taller than most other Betans. Because of her physique and beauty, she becomes a displayer of Al-Beta garb, one of Malcolm’s businesses that help raises funds for the family. A noted poet, she ultimately becomes a valuable assistant to Malcolm when he becomes Duce of Alma.

Alnenia Ricipa Renbourn. Birthed: Deff, Rhasvi, 1698.2.33. Bonded to Renbourn tribe: Hearthstone, Rhasvi, 1723. Graduate: School Himmini, 1722. Mother: Sikas (son) 1727, Malnenia (daughter) 1730) (both born at Samlon Blan); Epidon (daughter, Island Bilan, 1733).

Unlike the rest of the Renbourn tribe at that time, the husky and thick-skinned Alnenia came from a prosperous and privileged family. She quickly became the manager of family accounts. Alnenia’s wealthy father, Sikas Ricipa, became an important advisor to Tribe Renbourn throughout the series.

Doret Galess Renbourn. Birthed: place unknown, probably near Atok, Rhasvi, 1699? Raised from birth at Abbool Hollow-Bone Ordinem. Bonded to Renbourn tribe: Samlon Blan, Maron, Kirip, 1726. Mother: Malet (daughter) 1730 (born at sea on "Barbara Blue") Colmet (daughter) 1732 (Island Bilan); Alean (daughter) 1736 (Four Corners, Hitelec).

The result of an unsanctioned scientific experiment, Doret is a dwarf who was abandoned by her parents and left in the care of a monastery, the Abbool Ordimem of Hollow-Bones. Raised to live her life centered on spiritual activities, Doret is surprised when Malcolm draws her into the Renbourn tribe.

Once she joins the family, Doret quickly becomes a partner with Lorei and the two constantly work on keeping the tribe centered on the divine mission they believe was ordained by the goddess, Olos.

Purchase The Blind Alien either as an e-book or in paperback at:
https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Alien-Be...

Below is an annotated list that continues the introductions of the main characters in the Beta-Earth Chronicles, this time going over the characters introduced in books 2-4.

I must say, these are the books in the most need of your support. The Blind Alien remains the flagship book of the series, and the three ebooks described below have earned some very nice reviews at Amazon and Goodreads. Still, the readership isn’t nearly what I hoped for. At least, so far.

So, with any luck, these short ditties will whet your appetite to continue with the adventures of the Renbourn Tribe of Beta-Earth:

Introduced in book 2, The Blood of Balnakin:

Kalma Salk Renbourn. Birthed: 1695.34.3, Bergarten, Balnakin. Bonded to Renbourn tribe: Bergarten, Balnakin, 1730. Mother: Lius (son) 1733 (Island Bilan); Kalmeg (Four Corners, 1740).

Brown-skinned, gold-eyed Kalma was raised in a rich family that disapproved of blue-skin slavery in Balnakin. However, she was brought into the Renbourn tribe very much against her will. Her stubbornness melted when she accepted the reality she was prophesized to be the means for the healing between the Renbourns and the dark-skinned Balnakin people after the wrath following the Bergarten disaster. Her father, Lius Salk, became an important ally to her bond family. Trained in global commerce, she became the overseer of all Renbourn international accounts.

Oja Yenned Bolvair Renbourn (formerly the Dotesr Bolvair). Birthed: uncertain. Her personal history is very much a mystery and the subject of much speculation and investigation throughout the series.

While introduced in book 1 as marketing advisor to Joline Renbourn, Oja is bonded to Malcolm Renbourn legally in 1730 after the family is exiled to Kiript. As Oja is lesbian, she does not share a physical or loving relationship with Malcolm. At the time of their bonding, Oja thinks she is dying from the Body-That-Eats-Itself and wants to ensure her artificially-injected son, Pere, (born 1726) gains his true paternity and that her fortune will go to the family Oja has served so diligently. Her love remains with her longtime consort, the very timid Bli Swellard.

In book 3, Oja becomes one of the most notorious monsters in history when she deliberately infects the Prince of Alma with a fatal, sexually-transmitted disease before she drowns herself.

Introduced in book 3, When War Returns

Sasperia Thorwaife Renbourn, Ducai of Bercumel. Birth: 1715, Dellmire, Alma. Bonded to Renbourn Tribe in 1732 in an arranged marriage to give Malcolm a legitimate title, the Duce of Bilan, in the Alman Mentala. Mother: twin sons Gunmar and Malcolm Renbourn II, 1736, in captivity, Dellmire, Alma); Vlandrax (son, Dellmire, 1740)

Born to a mother with enhanced genetics, Sasperia’s metabolism gives her tremendous physical strength, superior memory, an overheated personality, and, at first, a resentment of mere mortals like the Renbourns. For much of book 3, Sasperia is an active enemy of the Renbourns, constantly inventing schemes to diminish their reputations and place herself in control over the family. By the final chapters of book 3, Sasperia has come to her senses and allies herself with the family as a bloody civil war erupts in Alma.

Introduced in book 4, A Throne for an Alien

Elena Richelo Renbourn, Liege of the United States of America. Born: 1719, Hitelec, the second daughter of Queen Moy of Hitalec. Bonded to Renbourn tribe: 1739. Mother: Tusgin Richelo Renbourn (son, born at Four Corners, USA, 1739); Moycolm (daughter, born Four Corners, 1741)

Destined to serve her older sister Bet when she ascended to the throne of Hitelec, the long-haired, long-limbed Elena was unexpectedly forced to make Bet abdicate as a result of the Queen’s attempt to kidnap Renbourn children in a scheme to force the Renbourns to support her irrational power grabs in the Gravsean region of Beta.
As a result, Bet Richelo is sent into exile and Malcolm Renbourn became the Consort-Liege to the Queen of a country Elena renamed the United States of America.

Jona Solem Renbourn, Born in jungles of Verashesh, 1715. Helprim introduced in book 3 but bonded to tribe in book 4 to give her artificially-injected children legitimacy: Yilmud (son, Island Bilan, 1732; Vera (daughter, Four Corners, 1741).

Jona is a highly skilled medical doctor schooled in genetic studies who came to the Renbourn family to supervise studies of the bi-planetary bloodlines of the Renbourn children. Known to have the most minimal of personalities, Jona bonds to Malcolm not in a love match, but rather as a way to bring her children into the Renbourn tribe.

Supporting Players in books 1-4:

Trustee-Hands

Mari and Sari Denoshih (allied to tribe, 1723, Hearthstone)

These twins joined the very young Renbourn tribe and stayed with them throughout all their travels and adventures.

Yil Rimudas and wives (Dona, Larikey, Hin), six children.

In 1725, the Rimudas family became help hands to the Renbourns at Hearthstone. Property managers in their home country of Kirip, the family expanded on these duties at the various Renbourn estates for the next 15 years.

Captain Kaj Ovideal and the crew of the "Barbara Blue" (1728)

When Malcolm Renbourn bought the “Barbara Blue” yacht, its longtime captain Kaj Ovideal and his crew (including three of his wives) signed on to stay with the ship’s new owners.

Noriah of the Willing-Horse (Samlon Blan, 1729), a Shadow-Kin from Rigel, Noriah joined the family as security chief before her murder in battle in book 4.

For the links to order any or all of these ebooks, check out—
https://drwesleybritton.com/books/

The Third Earth, Book 5 of the Beta-Earth Chronicles, remains the most neglected volume in the series. To date, not a single review of the book has been posted since its publication last November.

That’s a serious shame as The Third Earth is such a different book from the previous four volumes. At the end of book 4, A Throne for an Alien, Malcolm Renbourn and five of his wives were forced to cross the multi-verse together to take on new missions on Cerapin-Earth. In The Third Earth, the six Renbourns must split up into pairs to follow different quests for most of the story. For the first time, the narrative isn’t revealed by alternating perspectives but rather a more traditional third person voice.

Of course, the most important changes, other than an entirely new setting with very different versions of humanity on this earth, are the transformations the Renbourns go through as described below. Cerapin is a planet dominated by pairs, and their characteristics are also described below. Any single-bodied humans, like four of the Renbourns, are considered defective mono-minds called “nams.” Championing Nams is but one of the quests the deities impose on the Renbourns.

So while most of the names below will be familiar from descriptions from the first four books, they need to be re-introduced here to showcase their changes.

Dr. Malcolm Eric Renbourn. In the transfer to Cerapin-Earth, Malcolm’s sight is restored and his biological clock is reset to make him 20 years younger, at least physically.

Elsbeth Caul Renbourn. Elsbeth is the only member of her family not to be transformed in the transfer other than to gain twenty-years of her biological clock reset. On Cerapin, Elsbeth births her daughter Olrei three years after the transfer, date unknown in Alphan or Betan calendars.

Lorei Caul Renbourn: In the transfer, Lorei splits her consciousness with Doret who remains on Beta-Earth. As a result, both Lorei and Doret are able to share their experiences across the multi-verse. Lorei finds a priestess of the single-bodied “Nams” in a pyramid hive where the two join forces to help end Nam indignities on Cerapin.

Jolbar Renbourn: In the transfer, the consciousness of Joline and the spirit-entity of Bar fuse into a new being, their shared body divided between their two Beta-selves. One half has the buttery locks of Joline and her finely shaped features; the other half has Bar’s pudgier features and one blue eye.

As all the Renbourns are forced to split up and travel different paths on Cerapin, Jolbar is the only Renbourn wife to stay with Malcolm throughout all their adventures.

Kalnenia El and Le: In the transfer, Kalma and Alnenia become an identical pair looking much like normal Cerapin pairs. In their new bodies, each wife has the puffy forehead-lobes that cover the organs that permit them to not only share their thoughts, but also their physical sensations together simultaneously. They have the usual long, wolfish teeth of Cerapins and, most obviously of all, share the huge, protruding, squared jaws and wide feet. Their bodies have natural markings on their otherwise grey skins, multi-colored splotches, streaks, and uneven stripes illustrating their limbs and torsos.

Because of their transformation, the Kalnenias plead for Malcolm’s permission to end their marriage to bond with a male Cerapin pair, the Onab brothers. Malcolm does so and each ex-wife bears pairs of sons for the Onabs.

Pidghe El and Le: At first, the Pidghe pair are house servants assigned to Malcolm and Jolbar before they seduce Malcolm partially to fulfill their secret duties as spies but also to gain acceptance in the only household on their planet where a man appreciates their especially bright minds and mental possibilities, as well as their, on Cerapin, unusual facial features. Unlike most Cerapin pairs, the Pidghe girls don’t have puffy foreheads, long teeth, huge chins, or large feet. As a result, they are considered extremely ugly and deformed by their own kind but, in Malcolm’s opinion, considered rather cute.


To order your copy of The Third Earth, check out:
https://www.amazon.com/Third-Earth-Be...

By the time of Return to Alpha, Book 6 of the Beta-Earth Chronicles, the time has come for a new generation of Renbourns to take over the saga.

After all, it’s now 40 years after Malcolm Renbourn was drug from his home planet to Beta-Earth, and it’s also 20 years after Malcolm and five of his wives crossed the multi-verse again to come to Cerapin-Earth.

So the return to Alpha is by four of Malcolm Renbourn’s children, two from Beta-Earth, two from Cerapin. It’s 40 years in our earth’s future which means the second generation of Renbourns come to a planet very different from the one their father knew.

This adventure is still in the works at BearManor Media where the editors are doing their magic with the text. Stay tuned for announcements about when Return to Alpha will become available as an eBook—

Return to Alpha Cast of Characters

Malcolm Renbourn II – The Betan son of his namesake and his mother, Sasperia Thorwaif Renbourn, the Ducei of Bercumel, a member of the ruling Mentala of the country of Alma.

His birth had come about under special circumstances. His mother was from a bloodline manipulated by the scientists of the Collective that had given her mutant enhancements that are both physical and mental in the hopes of defeating the genetic Plague-With-No-Name. Sasperia Thorwaif was able to throw huge boulders long distances and leap into trees. Mentally, she could remember everything she had ever heard.

When the Alman War erupted, Sasperia, now pregnant with her twins, Malcolm II and Gunnar, was imprisoned which is where her sons were born. The father’s plague-free Alpha genes, combined with Sasperia’s enhanced metabolism could “jump over” the diseased genes in Betans, resulting in a genetic ladder that could be given to all Beta mothers whose children would be free of the curse that had defined their world for as long as history had memory.

While an infant when it happened, Malcolm Renbourn II had long been praised as being one-half of the salvation of Beta-Earth. As his father had been taken to Cerapin-Earth when he was very young, Malcolm II had no personal memories of his father beyond the international legacy the Alpha-Man had left behind. Malcolm II too had the legacy of his mother’s mutant genetics and the more than likely destiny that he would one day take her seat in the Alman Mentala, a future responsibility he had dreaded since childhood.

Kalmeg Renbourn – Kalmeg is almost an exact duplicate of her mother, Kalma Salk Renbourn, a richly chocolate brown-skinned woman from the country of Balnakin on Beta-Earth. Kalmeg is equally dark, and shares her mother’s entrancing and distinctive golden-yellow eyes. Like her mother, and most all Balnakin women for that matter, Kalmeg is an intense personality who does not suffer fools gladly and despises anything she considers wasting time.

Unlike her half-brother, Malcolm Renbourn II, Kalmeg had lost both her birth-parents when she was but an infant. Kalma Renbourn had unhappily joined with her husband and four of her bond-sisters to go to Cerapin earth. So Kalmeg had been raised by the mothers who remained on Beta—Sasperia, Elena, Doret, and Jona—as well as some of her older half-sisters not to mention considerable affection and interest from her grand-parents and many of her mother’s family who were never strangers in her life.

A woman of many abilities, Kalmeg had always found it difficult to find a distinguishing role for herself in a tribe so large, so spread in its international reach, with such a powerful history on three continents. By going to Alpha-Earth on the spaceship “Merivurn,” she could show the same bravery as both her birth-parents. She could represent the dark-skinned bloodline of not only Tribe Renbourn, but Beta-Earth as a whole.

Olrei Renbourn – While born on Serapin-Earth, Olrei’s mother, Elsbeth Cawl Renbourn, had been one of the five Betan wives who had accompanied their husband on the second cross-versal jump from Beta to Serapin. Back on Beta, Elsbeth and her prophetess sister, Lorei, had been the first wives of Malcolm Renbourn, “The Alpha Man.” In the years to come, Elsbeth had born four Alpha-Beta heirs, children that tore at her heart when she and the other members of her family had to leave their rich and full lives behind to do the bidding of the often harsh deities.

Olrei was Elsbeth’s first child on Cerapin, and her origins were more than special. For while Olrei was still in her mother’s womb, Elsbeth sat at the bedside of her dying birth sister who was being transfigured into a spiritual entity in her final moments. Before her passing, Lorei touched Elsbeth and sent into her offspring Lorei’s powerful gift of prophecy. From her birth, her father always said Olrei’s face was that of an “old soul,” looking much wiser than her years.

Still, Olrei Renbourn was much like her warm, gentle, nurturing mother. While Elsbeth had always thought of herself as a simple, plain-faced farm girl, no one would call Olrei plain. She has a girlish, feminine, welcoming face that has a reddish hue. Her eyelashes are so long and thick, she can’t blink without seeming to be flirtatious even when flirting is the last thing on her mind. Her face matches her rounded, curvaceous figure that is another gift from her mother.

Malcolm Renbourn III – Born on Cerapin-Earth, the sixteen-year-old Malcolm Renbourn III is the first son of Malcolm Renbourn and Pidghe El, one half of the identical Cerapin sisters who became the last of Malcolm Renbourn’s wives. As his mother didn’t have the typical Cerapin characteristics of large lobes or protruding chins, Malcolm III also only bears subtle signs of his Cerapin bloodline. He has a comparatively flat forehead and a more Alphan-like chin than most of his species, but his skin is unusually gray-tinged with the Cerapin markings of colors all across his body. His face is filled with the confidence of youth, his lower lip pushed out as if he is challenging and daring the world to take him on.

Hamed El and Le – An identical pair of brothers from Cerapin-Earth, the Hameds are the pilots for the “Marivurn” spaceship, a craft especially designed to cross the multi-verse on the day when a window between the three universes open to such travel.

Each brother has the puffy forehead-lobes that cover the organs that permit them to not only share their thoughts, but also their physical sensations together at exactly the same times. The Hameds have the usual long, wolfish teeth of Cerapins and, most obviously of all, share the huge, protruding, squared jaws that would have made them look simian if they had any facial hair. Like most of their kind, they have hair only on the tops of their heads, but it is cropped so short, they look nearly bald.

Their bodies have natural markings on their otherwise grey skins, multi-colored splotches, streaks, and uneven stripes illustrating their limbs and torsos. Like all their kind, they have extremely large feet.

Without question, the Hameds are among the most courageous Cerapin pairs in their planet’s history. Because of the specialized operating systems of the “Merivurn,” only a pair could do all the coordinated steps necessary in the seconds it took to go from launch to ascent to the barrier-jump—the most painstaking and precise of all their calibrations—to descent to landing. On two planets—first, landing on Beta to collect two Renbourns, then on to Alpha. Only a pair with interconnected minds could move quickly enough. And volunteering to pilot the “Marivurn” meant the Hameds were going on a one-way voyage with no return home possible.

Two Important Alphans

Major Mary Carpenter – A former infiltrator in the Western Alliance on Alpha-Earth, Mary was transferred to the battleship Clinton of the Southern Union where she was tasked with interrogating the aliens from Beta and Serapin. When they are taken to the elaborate prison called The Citadel, Mary becomes their principal watcher.

Doubtful of most of the aliens’ claims, Mary finds her religious beliefs preclude her accepting the cosmic missions described by the Renbourns. Beautiful, intelligent, and trained in many military skills, Mary quickly catches the eye of Malcolm Renbourn II.

Akito Kawahara – A Japanese-American confined to The Citadel after his parents are convicted of spying for the Japanese. An electronics expert, Akito is enamored with Olrei Renbourn with whom he shares a blossoming romance.