Please note: Today I kick-off the Coda to Murder Virtual Book Tour at Janie Franz Anasazi Dreams blog. When you have enjoyed reading Margaret's post here, please click on over to Janie's to visit me there. Thank you!
In this the final edition of February's I Love Books Event, please welcome our guest author, Margaret Fieland. Relocated is an exciting read for tweens and young adults (and adults) who love science fiction. Read an excerpt from the book below. Be sure to leave a comment for the random drawing to win a copy of Relocated.
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| Tween/Young Adult Sci-Fi |
Thanks so much for being my guest today, Margaret. Please tell us about your book
When fourteen-year-old Keth's dad is transferred to planet Aleyne, he doesn't know what to expect. Certainly not to discover Dad grew up here, and studied with Ardaval, a noted Aleyni scholar. On Aleyne, Keth’s psi ability develops. However, psi is illegal in the Terran Federation. After a dangerous encounter with two Terran teenagers conflict erupts between Keth and his father. Keth seeks sanctuary with Ardaval. Studying with the Aleyne scholar Keth learns the truth about his own heritage. After Keth's friend's father, Mazos, is kidnapped, Keth ignores the risks and attempts to free him. Little does he realize who will pay the cost as he becomes involved with terrorists.
Buy links for Relocated
Excerpt:
By
the time I woke the next morning the sun shone low in the sky and warm, spicy
air blew through the open window. I decided not to fight over what to wear,
since standing out wasn't on my to-do list. Dad and Ardaval sat in the
courtyard sipping kaff. Ardaval nodded at me and turned to Dad. “You should let
him wear Aleyni tunics, pants, and sandals. He’s going to be much too hot in those
clothes.” He spoke Aleyni.
Dad pushed his lips together and checked me over. “I’d rather he dressed in Terran standard trousers and shirts. I don't want him to look like an alien…” He answered in Common.
Ardaval flushed at Dad's choice of language. “Gavin, those clothes are much too heavy for this climate. The boy will melt.”
Too bad Dad wouldn't listen. Sweat already dripped down my back. I frowned, staring at him. “Why can’t I wear the Aleyni stuff?” Dad would never say yes, and a big piece of me was glad he'd saved me from making the choice. The Aleyni clothing appealed to me, but I wasn't ready to look weird, especially on my first day.
Dad shook his head. “You might attract trouble, and I need to keep you safe.” Ardaval sighed. Oh well, at least I asked.
Dad pushed me toward the door. “Come on, we don’t want to be late.”
“We don’t?” I mumbled. Dad shook his head and followed me out the door and down to the trans stop. I would have enjoyed the bright blue sky and warm sun more, but the heavy Terran clothing left me sweating. “Dad, are Aleyni human?”
“They’re a separate species. Or so goes the official line. Nobody in the Federation has studied Aleyni genetics, and the Aleyni themselves aren't interested.”
"Why not?"
"It's considered an inappropriate area for study." He glanced at me, noting the frown on my face. "Kind of like a sacrilege."
“How come they look like us?”
He sighed. “Many origin theories exist, but the bottom line is nobody understands.”
I scraped my shoe in the sand collected in the street, admiring the pale pinks and blues as they appeared and disappeared. “It still doesn’t explain anything.”
He smiled. “No, it doesn’t, but I’m afraid since it’s politically incorrect to believe humans and Aleyni are closely related species, no one wants to hunt for answers.”
By the time we reached the trans stop, sweat dripped down my face and my shirt clung to my back. The only other people waiting, a group of Aleynis, stared at us for a moment before moving away. I flushed and wanted to say something, but Dad’s face turned cold and he moved away, too. I wondered what would have happened if we'd been speaking Aleyni.
Back on the base we walked over to Dad’s office. A long counter of the gray synglass wrapped around one wall and part of another. File cabinets covered the third wall and a shelf for books hung over part of the counter. A comp and a printer rested on the other part of the counter. A chair with a padded seat stood in front of the comp.
Brad walked in, took a data cube from Dad, scanned it quickly and locked it in the file cabinet. “Gavin, we'll discuss these recommendations later. You stay here and read this, and I’ll walk the boy to class.”
He handed Dad another data cube, opened the door, and ushered me out. We walked over to the port school, which met in yet another of the gray buildings.
The room he led me to held six kids my age or a few years older. The beige walls and thin beige carpet appeared dingy and worn. The desks and chairs, made of the same gray synglass as everything else, formed a half circle.
I walked into the room and stopped short, unsure of what to do next. The teacher, a man Dad’s age with fair, sun-burned skin and blue eyes, wrote on a large comp at the front of the room. It linked to those of the students, like the ones back home.
Brad took my arm and propelled me toward the teacher as he turned away from the comp. “John, this is Gavin Frey’s son, Raketh. His father is here for an indefinite stay. Try to get him integrated as quickly as possible.” Brad gazed over the room before turning to leave.
John held out his hand and I shook it. “Nice to meet you, Raketh.”
“Keth, please call me Keth.”
John nodded and turned to the other kids. “Class, this is Keth, the son of Major Reynolds’ new assistant, Gavin. He’ll join us from now on.”
“Jork,” one of the boys with brown curly hair said, but he grinned at me.
“Welcome to the class,” piped up one of the girls. She smiled at me. I blushed. I found her kind of pretty, actually. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and smirked at a boy with fair skin and straight blond hair who looked the same age. The kid glared at me instead of at her.
John tapped the desk with the stylus he’d been using to write on the comp. “Enough. Keth, you can take a seat.” He pointed and I sat.
John made them go around the room and introduce themselves. The kid next to me with the curly brown hair answered to Martin, and the girl with the red hair said her name was Henrietta. The blond boy was Tom.
John said, “We’re going over some Aleyni vocabulary. I can help you later on. For now, try to follow along.”
“I honor the request, and bend myself to your will,” I said in Aleyni. Clearly nobody bothered to tell him I already spoke the language.
Martin poked me. “What did you say?”
“I said yes.”
“How come you speak Aleyni? You just got here.”
I shrugged. Just another thing to make me a freaker. “My dad made me learn it.”
Martin stared at me for a moment. “It’s weird.”
"We used to have Aleyni exchange students hanging out at our apartment back on Earth. I guess he wanted to make them feel comfortable or something." Like I believed that. I never told anyone back home about speaking Aleyni, not even Mark, my best friend.
John clapped his hands “Since you already understand the language and don’t need to pay attention to the lesson, why don't you and Henrietta move to the corner there,” he pointed across the room, “and go over this vocabulary.” He stared at me for a moment and handed me a data cube. “Come get me if you get stuck.”
Red crept up my neck. Maybe I should have resisted the urge to show off my Aleyni. After dragging my chair over to the corner, we both sat. “Go on, ask me to translate any of those words from Common into Aleyni. You can correct my pronunciation. John says it’s bad enough so no Aleyni would ever understand me.”
I managed to pay attention even though I needed to pry my eyes away from Henrietta's chest. Every time my eyes strayed she'd grin and toss her hair. Luckily, Tom sat with his back to us.
After the language lesson came a history lesson. The history lesson covered the first encounters between the Terran Federation and the Aleyni. John projected a star map on the comp at the front of the room and pointed to a spot. "This is where we first met the Aleyni. As you can see, it's within a light-year of our home solar system."
I asked, “How long ago did we first meet the Aleyni?” Yeah, I should have remembered.
John said, “A hundred years ago, although according to the Aleyni they have been watching us for at least five thousand of our years.”
Martin mumbled, “Like we believe them.”
I would have asked more questions, but the buzzer went off for break, and we trooped down the hall to the cafeteria. A counter at one end dispensed the food and more of the gray tables and chairs covered the floor. The food choices consisted of soups of dried beans and vegetables and hand meals made with soy protein. I grimaced and selected some soup and one of the hand meals.
Martin poked me. "If you want any meat, you have to buy it on the black market. Vegetables and fruit, too, but Major Reynolds looks the other way on those."
John led us to a round table. I ended up next to Martin again. Henrietta sat on my other side. The blond kid, Tom, sat opposite me. He glared at me.
Henrietta smiled at me. “You helped me a lot this morning. Maybe you can come over to my house and go over my homework some time.”
Fat chance. I’ll bet if I ever went over there, Tom would kill me. He continued to glare at me. I choked on my bite of hand meal, and Martin needed to pound me on the back.
Dad pushed his lips together and checked me over. “I’d rather he dressed in Terran standard trousers and shirts. I don't want him to look like an alien…” He answered in Common.
Ardaval flushed at Dad's choice of language. “Gavin, those clothes are much too heavy for this climate. The boy will melt.”
Too bad Dad wouldn't listen. Sweat already dripped down my back. I frowned, staring at him. “Why can’t I wear the Aleyni stuff?” Dad would never say yes, and a big piece of me was glad he'd saved me from making the choice. The Aleyni clothing appealed to me, but I wasn't ready to look weird, especially on my first day.
Dad shook his head. “You might attract trouble, and I need to keep you safe.” Ardaval sighed. Oh well, at least I asked.
Dad pushed me toward the door. “Come on, we don’t want to be late.”
“We don’t?” I mumbled. Dad shook his head and followed me out the door and down to the trans stop. I would have enjoyed the bright blue sky and warm sun more, but the heavy Terran clothing left me sweating. “Dad, are Aleyni human?”
“They’re a separate species. Or so goes the official line. Nobody in the Federation has studied Aleyni genetics, and the Aleyni themselves aren't interested.”
"Why not?"
"It's considered an inappropriate area for study." He glanced at me, noting the frown on my face. "Kind of like a sacrilege."
“How come they look like us?”
He sighed. “Many origin theories exist, but the bottom line is nobody understands.”
I scraped my shoe in the sand collected in the street, admiring the pale pinks and blues as they appeared and disappeared. “It still doesn’t explain anything.”
He smiled. “No, it doesn’t, but I’m afraid since it’s politically incorrect to believe humans and Aleyni are closely related species, no one wants to hunt for answers.”
By the time we reached the trans stop, sweat dripped down my face and my shirt clung to my back. The only other people waiting, a group of Aleynis, stared at us for a moment before moving away. I flushed and wanted to say something, but Dad’s face turned cold and he moved away, too. I wondered what would have happened if we'd been speaking Aleyni.
Back on the base we walked over to Dad’s office. A long counter of the gray synglass wrapped around one wall and part of another. File cabinets covered the third wall and a shelf for books hung over part of the counter. A comp and a printer rested on the other part of the counter. A chair with a padded seat stood in front of the comp.
Brad walked in, took a data cube from Dad, scanned it quickly and locked it in the file cabinet. “Gavin, we'll discuss these recommendations later. You stay here and read this, and I’ll walk the boy to class.”
He handed Dad another data cube, opened the door, and ushered me out. We walked over to the port school, which met in yet another of the gray buildings.
The room he led me to held six kids my age or a few years older. The beige walls and thin beige carpet appeared dingy and worn. The desks and chairs, made of the same gray synglass as everything else, formed a half circle.
I walked into the room and stopped short, unsure of what to do next. The teacher, a man Dad’s age with fair, sun-burned skin and blue eyes, wrote on a large comp at the front of the room. It linked to those of the students, like the ones back home.
Brad took my arm and propelled me toward the teacher as he turned away from the comp. “John, this is Gavin Frey’s son, Raketh. His father is here for an indefinite stay. Try to get him integrated as quickly as possible.” Brad gazed over the room before turning to leave.
John held out his hand and I shook it. “Nice to meet you, Raketh.”
“Keth, please call me Keth.”
John nodded and turned to the other kids. “Class, this is Keth, the son of Major Reynolds’ new assistant, Gavin. He’ll join us from now on.”
“Jork,” one of the boys with brown curly hair said, but he grinned at me.
“Welcome to the class,” piped up one of the girls. She smiled at me. I blushed. I found her kind of pretty, actually. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and smirked at a boy with fair skin and straight blond hair who looked the same age. The kid glared at me instead of at her.
John tapped the desk with the stylus he’d been using to write on the comp. “Enough. Keth, you can take a seat.” He pointed and I sat.
John made them go around the room and introduce themselves. The kid next to me with the curly brown hair answered to Martin, and the girl with the red hair said her name was Henrietta. The blond boy was Tom.
John said, “We’re going over some Aleyni vocabulary. I can help you later on. For now, try to follow along.”
“I honor the request, and bend myself to your will,” I said in Aleyni. Clearly nobody bothered to tell him I already spoke the language.
Martin poked me. “What did you say?”
“I said yes.”
“How come you speak Aleyni? You just got here.”
I shrugged. Just another thing to make me a freaker. “My dad made me learn it.”
Martin stared at me for a moment. “It’s weird.”
"We used to have Aleyni exchange students hanging out at our apartment back on Earth. I guess he wanted to make them feel comfortable or something." Like I believed that. I never told anyone back home about speaking Aleyni, not even Mark, my best friend.
John clapped his hands “Since you already understand the language and don’t need to pay attention to the lesson, why don't you and Henrietta move to the corner there,” he pointed across the room, “and go over this vocabulary.” He stared at me for a moment and handed me a data cube. “Come get me if you get stuck.”
Red crept up my neck. Maybe I should have resisted the urge to show off my Aleyni. After dragging my chair over to the corner, we both sat. “Go on, ask me to translate any of those words from Common into Aleyni. You can correct my pronunciation. John says it’s bad enough so no Aleyni would ever understand me.”
I managed to pay attention even though I needed to pry my eyes away from Henrietta's chest. Every time my eyes strayed she'd grin and toss her hair. Luckily, Tom sat with his back to us.
After the language lesson came a history lesson. The history lesson covered the first encounters between the Terran Federation and the Aleyni. John projected a star map on the comp at the front of the room and pointed to a spot. "This is where we first met the Aleyni. As you can see, it's within a light-year of our home solar system."
I asked, “How long ago did we first meet the Aleyni?” Yeah, I should have remembered.
John said, “A hundred years ago, although according to the Aleyni they have been watching us for at least five thousand of our years.”
Martin mumbled, “Like we believe them.”
I would have asked more questions, but the buzzer went off for break, and we trooped down the hall to the cafeteria. A counter at one end dispensed the food and more of the gray tables and chairs covered the floor. The food choices consisted of soups of dried beans and vegetables and hand meals made with soy protein. I grimaced and selected some soup and one of the hand meals.
Martin poked me. "If you want any meat, you have to buy it on the black market. Vegetables and fruit, too, but Major Reynolds looks the other way on those."
John led us to a round table. I ended up next to Martin again. Henrietta sat on my other side. The blond kid, Tom, sat opposite me. He glared at me.
Henrietta smiled at me. “You helped me a lot this morning. Maybe you can come over to my house and go over my homework some time.”
Fat chance. I’ll bet if I ever went over there, Tom would kill me. He continued to glare at me. I choked on my bite of hand meal, and Martin needed to pound me on the back.
Born and raised in New York City, Margaret Fieland has been around art and music all her life. She is an avid science fiction fan, and selected Robert A. Heinlein's “Farmer in the Sky” for her tenth birthday, now long past. In spite of making her living as a computer software engineer, she turned to one of her sons to format the initial version of her website, a clear illustration of the computer generation gap. Her poems have appeared in journals such as Melusine, Front Range Review, and All Rights Reserved. Her book, "The Angry Little Boy," will be published by 4RV Publishing, LLC, in early 2013.
7 comments:
JQ, thanks for hosting me on your blog.
Hi Margaret,
Interesting premise. This looks like a winner for you for all ages.
Good luck with the sales.
So happy to have you as a guest today, Margaret. I'll pick a winner on Thursday, so we can let the world know about your book AND a chance to win it this week!!
Wishing you great success Margaret. I see you are on Smash Words. I am thinking of using them also for my next book. I hope you sell a million!
Hi Susan, Thanks for stopping in. I hope she sells a million too!!!
Sounds like a good read. The story premise has a lot of appeal. Hope you sell tons of copies, Margaret! Hi Janet!
Congratulations to Susan. She's the winner of a copy of Relocated!
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