Coral Atoll

One of the Here Be Magic themes this month is BEACHES. My first thought was that I didn't have any books with beach scenes on them. The whole lying in the sun, playing beach volleyball, surfing, making sandcastles and sipping fruity cocktails isn't really part of my experience. I've only waded in the ocean three times in my life. I live in Alberta where the only kind of beaches are on lakefronts, and the lakes are often cold. (Anyway, that's my excuse.) However, I did eventually remember that I set part of the plot of my YA novel Golden Eyes on a newly-formed and not-very-sandy coral atoll.

Here are some cool things I learned during my research:
1/ Coral atolls aren't always circular. Some are definitely more triangular in shape.

2/ The center of the coral atoll is a shallow lagoon. It is a lighter shade of blue than the surrounding ocean.

3/ The prevailing theory on how coral atolls are made originated with Charles Darwin. The theory has gone in and out of favour over the years, but is mostly accepted now. Basically, he proposed that a volcanic island grew a 'fringing coral' which over time became a full 'barrier reef'. Then, due to subsidence,  the island sank into the sea, while the reef continued to grow upward and formed an atoll.

4/ Sadly, coral atolls are in danger from climate change. Warmer waters encourage the growth of algae that kills the coral and since atolls are seldom more than a few meters above sea level rising waters may soon submerge many atolls.

5/ A cool virtual tour of an atoll. 

6/ Atolls can have their own fresh water, but only if they are large enough and old enough to have accumulated a 'sandbar' type island between the actual reef and the rest of the lagoon. Here's a diagram.

EXCERPT:

Then something on the left caught Devon's eye. Not driftwood, but a line, a feature in the otherwise endless ocean. Her heart soared: land! She flapped more air into the pants-balloon, angled toward the line and started kicking. Her slow progress frustrated her—she had to stop periodically to rouse Pietr—but at least the line didn’t vanish or recede like a mirage. It was real.

It came into focus by slow degrees. At a distance of fifty feet, the line resolved into white surf. But where was the land? The people? She couldn’t see even a single palm tree. The line of surf stretched out to both sides for at least half a kilometer. 

At thirty feet, she knew. It was just a reef. Despair crushed her and she blinked back moisture she could ill afford to lose. She shored up her dissolving hopes. A reef was still something in the immensity of the ocean. Something to cling to. They could rest. 

Twenty feet. Ten feet.

“Hang on, Pietr. We’re almost there.”

He didn’t reply, and she turned her head in time to see him slip into unconsciousness and lose his grip on the pants-balloon. 

She lunged forward, caught his collar, and swam the last bit of distance. The reef crest proved to be smoothed by its battering from the waves and not sharp as she’d feared. Best of all, just beyond the crest was a flat area about two meters wide no more than a few inches deep. Land, or close to it.

With what felt like the last of her strength, Devon boosted Pietr over the lip of the crest. The tide had dropped enough that the wave tops no longer rolled over the reef.

He flopped on his back, still unconscious, but breathing.

She started to climb up herself, but the reef flat wasn’t worn smooth. What wasn’t muddy sand was sharp, branching coral covered in spots with pink algae. Colourful and pretty but rough. With bare legs she’d soon be scraped and bleeding. She needed her pants back.

All the air had escaped her pants-balloon, and they were sinking. 

She was tempted—oh, how she was tempted!—to just let them sink, but she needed the protection of cloth. Blood in the water could call sharks. Taking a deep breath, she dived after the pants. 

Fortunately, the ocean floor on the seaward side of the reef formed a brief shelf before dropping off to crushing depths. In the clear water she saw her pants caught on a piece of elkhorn coral, being investigated by a tropical fish. It darted away when she dived and tugged the material free.

She rested a moment before unknotting the pants legs and pulling them back on. Three sidestrokes brought her back to the reef. Then she heaved herself up out of the water on noodle-arms and collapsed beside Pietr.

Exhaustion dragged at her, overruling her raging thirst. She knew she needed to protect herself and Pietr from sunstroke, but she couldn’t move right now. She closed her eyes. Just for a moment.

Read a sample chapter or buy Golden Eyes.

Cavern of Gargoyles

Dear Reader:

I have a terrible cold just now. My head feels ten feet thick and thus I am not up to the task of creating a clever blog post. So instead here is an excerpt from my latest novel YA fantasy novel:

Dorotea took a step forward and gasped when a single light snapped on, casting a halo of illumination. How—? Why—? Her heart thudded, and she flinched away from the figures that loomed out of the darkness. She tensed to run, then noticed they were all still. Silent stone statues.

Gargoyles.

Rebels. Traitors.

Limbs trembling, she forced herself to step onto the stone plinth where the gargoyles stood.

The first light winked off, but a second, nearer one blazed to life as if the lights were chasing her. It made her skin creep, but she forced herself to keep breathing, keep going.

The nearest stone figure was pale yellow, shading into beige, speckled with black. It held a large stone knife, upraised, as if the spell had caught it mid-attack. It stood seven feet tall, with a neck so thick, she doubted her father’s collar would even fit around it.

How could she possibly control something so large and elemental?

After the rebellion, the gargoyles were deemed too dangerous to be controlled with the collars. The Elect and Stone Heart Clans working together had devised the spell that now held them here, frozen in stasis.

And now Dorotea meant to wake one. Uneasiness crawled through her, making her shiver. But she’d do anything to save her sister.

Dorotea approached a white marble gargoyle. A mining pick was embedded in its marble side. She studied the wound dubiously. An injury might weaken the gargoyle and make it easier to control, but it might also die on her as soon as it came out of stasis.

The next one was a female gargoyle. All the gargoyles were roughly humanoid in form, with bald heads, beast-like pointed ears, fangs, and sharp talons, but somehow, the fact that this one had jade breasts along with fangs and claws made it look even scarier than the others. Dorotea hurried past.

Another light switched on and illuminated a gargoyle who stood off in the corner. He appeared to be smaller.

Well—she swallowed—smaller in comparison, at least. The red jasper gargoyle might have stood only six feet tall, but he still towered over her. Black stripes on his red face gave him a menacing aspect.

But, unlike the others, he didn’t seem to be armed. And his rough-hewn expression was one of stoicism instead of mindless rage.

Dorotea circled the male gargoyle. He seemed younger, less ancient, than the others. Was that good? Would it mean he was less evil? Or more volatile? Gargoyles were reputed to have raging tempers.

She’d intended to wake a female gargoyle, in the hopes that a female would be less aggressive. But they all repelled her. The red jasper youth attracted her. No, not attracted—she shied away from the word—but he seemed less vicious.

Her belly rumbled, reminding her that she’d been too upset to eat breakfast. She had to make a decision. There were no good choices, just as there were no good gargoyles, so she might as well follow her instincts and wake the red jasper boy.

BOOK TWO OF OTHERSELVES
 
Behind the mirror lies your otherself…

There is one True World, and then there are the four Mirror Worlds: Fire, Water, Air, and Stone.

Audrey and Dorotea are “otherselves”—twin copies of each other who live on different Mirror Worlds.

On Air, Audrey has the ability to communicate with wind spirits. As war looms, she’s torn between loyalty to her country and her feelings for a roguish phantom who may be a dangerous spy.

Blackouts and earthquakes threaten the few remaining humans on Stone, who have been forced to live underground. To save her injured sister, Dorotea breaks taboo and releases an imprisoned gargoyle. Brooding, sensitive Jasper makes her wonder if gargoyles are truly traitors, as she’s always been told.

Unbeknownst to them, they both face the same enemy—an evil sorceress bent on shattering all the Mirror Worlds.

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Book one: Through Fire & Sea

 

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New Releases

“Mike, I need your help.” When Mike receives a call from Betty Vallant--the vain, selfish woman who once acted the part of his mother--he knows it’s a trap. However, Angel sees an opportunity to double-cross their enemies. Soon the genetically-enhanced teens find themselves enmeshed in a scheme to steal a jewelled key from Zinnia and Dahlia, heirs to Iris Cartwright’s legacy.

So. Awkward. Devon and Gabe reluctantly agree to provide alibis for their clones, Mike and Angel. Devon is apprehensive, but betraying her new-found romantic feelings for Gabe is the least of her troubles. Their Caribbean ‘vacation’ turns disastrous when they’re forced to bail into the ocean near a mysterious island.


Book four in the Violet Eyes series




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The True World and the Four Mirror Worlds

Once upon a time, before there was a world, any world, there existed two gods.  

The first, Aesok, delighted in making things: he crushed stars together and then spun them out again like wool, he constructed mountains and waterfalls and forests, and when he finished he unmade them and began anew every morning.  

Until one day he created something so beautiful he wanted to preserve it. Over the days that followed, he added to it, making it ever-more complex.  This was the first world, the True World.

One day Aesok's younger brother, Besok, wandered by. In the past Aesok had made many wonderful toys for Besok, and he wanted to play with the True World. But Aesok couldn't bear to see his creation harmed so he wove magical protections around it.

Angry, Besok decided to make a world of his own. Lacking the spark of creativity, Besok copied Aesok's world. But he was lazy and did not take the time and care with it that Aesok had. 

The first world he made, he used too much heat. This became Fire World.

On his second attempt, he tried to remedy his first mistake and used too much liquid, submerging much of the surface. This became Water.

The third time he used mud, and this hardened into Stone. The fourth time he used his breath and this became the Air World.

None of his worlds were as good as the True World and soon Besok grew bored. He wandered off and forgot to destroy his pitiful creations, and so the Mirror Worlds came to be.

I had a lot of fun creating the mythos for my otherselves series and making each world different yet linked.

Fire World is a medieval fantasy world where only the hot-blooded nobility can check the Volcano Lords in check. It's magical creature is a dragon.

Water World is our world with some paranormal elements thrown in. It's magical creature is a siren/merman with a persuasive silver-tongue.

Stone World is more of a dystopia. After a terrible disaster, the remnants of human civilization were forced to abandon most of their technoogy and live below the earth in caverns. Its magical creature is a gargoyle.

Air World has a Victorian steampunk feel. The long-winded nobility control the winds and fly dirigibles in the Grand Current. Its magical creature is a Phantom, who can fly and is invisible.

The True World is futuristic, a place of both magic and technology. It's magical creature is a demi-god.

Book one, Through Fire & Sea, is set on Fire World and Water World. Book two, Amid Wind & Stone, is set on Stone World and Air World (forthcoming March 2016). Book three, In Truth & Ashes, features the True World plus a return to Fire World.

Intrigued? Read a sample chapter here. Or add it on Goodreads. 

Sci-Fi Week -- Stealth Sci-Fi & Laziness

Many of us at Here Be Magic are also long-time fans of Sci-Fi and have written SF books (usually with at least a sprinkle of romance). If you are, too, please join us for a week of dishing about Sci-Fi!

 
I never know quite how to describe my SF series. YA SF? Dystopia? Neither quite fit. If you read the first chapter of Violet Eyes, you might not even realize it was science fiction. Angel appears at first to be a mostly-normal if rather outrageous high school student, though it soon becomes clear that Angel has many secrets.

You might also notice that the novel is set in 1987. And yet Violet Eyes' direct sequel Silver Eyes is set in 2098 --and no, there's no time travel. Angel is seventeen in both books. So how did I pull that off?



To explain that I first need to tell you why Violet Eyes is set in 1987 instead of present day. You see, I wrote the first draft of the book in 1987 when I was a teenager. The book moldered in a drawer for a long time, but I never forgot it. I always loved the character of Angel--she's smart, athletic and reckless--but the thought of rewriting the book a decade later daunted me. I'd have to update all that teen slang and pop culture references. Was there any way I could justify setting the story in 1987, I wondered? And then the perfect solution hit me, an idea that galvanized the whole book and spawned the sequels. I already knew that Angel and her nemesis/love interest Mike were genetically-enhanced: what if the scientists watching them had placed them in an artificial setting, a Historical Immersion Project, where everybody else were people on vacation, paying to experience a recreation of the past?

Jackpot. (And all due to my laziness.)

Simon & Schuster published Violet Eyes and its sequel Silver Eyes in 2001. They are still available in ebook and sell well enough that I've recently published book three in the series, Angel Eyes. Book four, Golden Eyes, will be released January 2016.

Add Violet Eyes to your Goodreads list.
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