Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: sci-fi

10 Question Author Interview with Elizabeth Crowens – Anthologies, Murder Mysteries, Time Travel

CHANTICLEER AUTHOR TEN QUESTION INTERVIEW SERIES
with Elizabeth Crowens

Author Elizabeth Crowens has been coming to our conferences (CAC) for a while now – and it is always a good time when she does. In fact, Elizabeth took home the GRAND PRIZE in TWO Divisions in 2021~ The SHORTS Awards for New York: Give Me Your Best or Your Worst and scored majorly in the CYGNUS Awards for A War in Too Many Worlds. And her literary agent just negotiated a 3-Book publishing deal. She is funny, smart, and cares deeply for her fellow authors. In short, she’s a perfect Chanticleerian! I want you to meet her – Elizabeth Crowens.

Chanti: So, Elizabeth, when did you realize that you were an author?

Crowens: When I realized it was too complicated and too expensive to make elaborate feature films all by myself. This, of course, was in the pre-video and pre-smartphone days of motion picture cameras and processing outrageously expensive film stock, of which I had firsthand experience in a film school which touted experimental and avantgarde auteurism rather than commercial productions.

Although I had the cinematographer’s eye, women in that realm faced a lot of restrictions, so I veered toward screenwriting. Never made my mark in that commercial arena either, but I did start a first draft of a novel, which stayed in my closet for many years until I took it seriously, polished it, and had it published. Now, there are three novels in that series, the latest of which is A War in Too Many Worlds, which won last year’s Grand Prize in the Cygnus Awards. The first book of that series, Silent Meridian, won First Prize in the Goethe Awards, and the second book, A Pocketful of Lodestones, won First Prize in the Paranormal Awards. There will be one more novel, The Story Beyond Time, before I complete my Time Traveler Professor series.

Chanti: It always amazes me how much you juggle in your work. Good on you! But, how do you come up with your ideas for a story?

Crowens: There’s always something personal when it comes to my story ideas. For my anthology, New York: Give Me Your Best or Your Worst, for years I had always wanted to publish a coffee table book using my photography. When I inadvertently stumbled upon an artist’s grant which could give me that opportunity, I gave it a whirl, not expecting anything to come of it. However, there was one caveat—I had to involve others. That’s when I pitched the project like my popular Caption Contest on Facebook and was really surprised when I won one of those grants. Regarding other stories—they come from all over the place but, once again, there’s always a personal connection some way or other.

Chanti: How do you approach your writing day?

Crowens: If I can wake around 4:30 am and write until 9:00 am when the “business day” begins, that’s considered a productive day. It’s quiet then, and I don’t have to worry about being interrupted by robocalls or having to deal with the frustrating mundane stuff like booking doctor’s appointments or arguing with inept billing departments over why I don’t owe their bills. Hate that stuff with a passion, and it totally gets me out of the creative zone.

Chanti: Ugh. I hate the robo calls! How structured are you in your writing work?

Crowens: To expand upon the previous question, once I’m out of the zone, there’s no way I can force myself to get back on track. Once I have the spare time, I’ll concentrate on reading or watching a film—in the name of research, of course. Got to stay productive—no matter what.

Chanti: Smart. What areas in your writing are you most confident in? What advice would you give someone who is struggling in that area?

Crowens: Dialogue. I think that comes from my screenwriting background. Script length is roughly 110-120 pages. My weakest area would be in setting descriptions and sensory reactions. In screenplays, nearly all of that is eliminated unless it’s vital to the script.

What it’s like to be bi-coastal!

Chanti: That’s good advice. You work in novels and film – two very different practices, two very different places – so I want to ask you about your craft. What do you do to grow your author chops?

Crowens: I attend writer’s boot camps and conferences—a lot of them.

Chanti: We’re always happy to see you at CAC! What craft books have helped you the most?

Crowens: Story Trumps Structure by Steven James. Anything by Donald Maas or James Bell. Stephen King’s On Writing is a classic. Writer’s Digest publishes a lot of good ones.

Chanti: What are you working on now? What can we look forward to seeing next from you?

Crowens: It might be a while since you see my final alternate history/science fiction novel in the Time Traveler Professor series, because I’ve been concentrating on Hollywood mysteries. One of the reasons why I like entering in the Chanticleer Author Awards is that they allow unpublished manuscripts to compete against the published ones. I have three unpublished mysteries which have won first prizes in various categories, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the one my agent is currently shopping, will leap beyond a finalist this year in the M&Ms or the Clue Awards.

Chanti: Best of luck to you in the CIBAs! They don’t let me near them, so luck is the only thing I can offer. Do you ever experience writers block? What do you do to overcome it?

Crowens: There are two instances where I hit a wall. One I mentioned previously, and that’s when I’m knocked out of the zone. The other is that cooling off period when I’m completely done with a project. During that time, I catch up on a lot of books and movies, many of which have no relation whatsoever to anything I might need for research on a future book. That’s the time to hit my TBR pile. Often, they might be novels from an author I know.

Chanti: I like how you handle that. It’s productive – and sounds like it’s predictable as well. Good for you! What is the most important thing a reader can do for an author?

Crowens: Give us reviews! Post them on Amazon, even if it isn’t a “verified sale” on Amazon and you purchased your copy at a retail store or book fair, and on Goodreads. NetGalley. Blog about them.

Chanti: You heard it from the author, herself! The most helpful thing is to write the review – and talk up the books!

EXCITING NEWS for Elizabeth Crowens – This just in!

We are beyond thrilled to announce that Elizabeth received a 3 Book Deal with her agent, Elizabeth K. Kracht for her Babs Norman 1940s Hollywood Mystery series. The Deal was announced in Publishers Marketplace. Here’s a link to her website where the good news is also mentioned, and another link to her Facebook announcement: https://www.facebook.com/thereel.elizabeth.crowens

Now that’s something to crow about!

Elizabeth entered her unpublished manuscript, Babs and Basil, and the Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles, into the Mark Twain Book Awards division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards where it was awarded a First Place Blue Ribbon.

Elizabeth Crowens has worn many hats in the entertainment industry in NY and LA for over 25 years. Writing credits include short stories and articles in Black Belt, Black Gate, and Sherlock Holmes Mystery magazines, stories in Hell’s Heart and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated A New York State of Fright, and three alternate history/SFF novels, which she self-publishes under the name of Atomic Alchemist Productions. Recipient of the MWA-NY Leo B. Burstein Scholarship, NY Foundation of the Arts grant to produce a self-published, photo-illustrated anthology, a Glimmer Train Honorable Mention, an Eric Hoffer Award First Prize, two Grand Prize and four First Prize Chanticleer Review awards. She is represented by Elizabeth K. Kracht at Kimberley Cameron & Associates, is currently writing in the Hollywood mystery genre, and is seeking a traditional publisher.

If you would like to learn more about Elizabeth Crowens author extraordinaire, please like and follow her on her webpage: https://www.elizabethcrowens.com/

August 11, 2023
COMMUNITY 215 by Dr. M.K. Black – Sci-fi, Dystopian, Romance

Dr. M.K. Black’s Community 215 is a fast-paced, sci-fi/dystopian novel about a world that was torn apart, and the people struggling to survive it together.

Black gives us two teen protagonists, Rhea and Brooks, whom we grow to love. She creates a world both believable and terrifying. As our heroes collide with life inside and outside of the community, their world leaves readers wondering who the two can possibly trust.

Rhea once tried to climb the wall to get out of their community when she was a little girl. But her father, the leader of the community, caught her and has since that day drilled obedience to the rules into her head. However, she takes the risk of disobedience again at eleven years old, when she catches someone climbing the wall into the community. He begs for her help. She’s caught again and disciplined for trying to protect Brooks, a boy who seeks refuge from the Outcasts who live outside the wall.

Black masterfully develops Rhea’s community, and the people within it.

Though Rhea’s is only one such community of hundreds, Brooks is a reject of them all. Having lived outside of any community, he is considered a dangerous Outcast. He tries to convince Rhea that another world exists beyond the walls, a world where people are free and make their own decisions. But Rhea’s education, and the painful brand she received for saving Brooks, have taught her that only obedience and total honesty to her community will keep her alive.

Over several years, Brooks and Rhea grow close. The testing time is upon them, ready to determine the paths of their lives. Rhea hopes that, like her father, she will become the next leader. And, though she has never heard the word ‘love’, she wants the tests to show that her mate will be Brooks.

Brooks, however, knew that it was love “at first sight” when he laid eyes on Rhea, as children. He could have opened the gates and let in the leader of his Outcast tribe of warriors right then, but he waited, taking the time to train Rhea in hand-to-hand combat, preparing her to survive the attack.

Brooks thinks only of Rhea and her well-being, and of their future together outside of the walls of the community.

Will Rhea believe him when he finally tells her that the communities are actually prisons to keep people docile at the mercy of the leaders? Their survival in this dangerous world is threatened by Rhea’s struggle to discover what is true. Whom should she believe, Brooks, or her father, the only leader she’s ever known?

Black’s enthralling plot will keep readers turning page after page. The ending of this story seems a bit abrupt, but Black could very well be setting us up for a follow-up book in what would be a dynamite series.

July 19, 2023
THE GREATEST MATCHMAKER In SPACE: Eudora Space Kid Book 4 by David Horn – Picture Books, Sci-fi, Children’s Adventure Books

David Horn’s Eudora Space Kid series continues with another fabulous middle-grade Sci-fi novel, The Greatest Matchmaker in Space.

Horn takes us back to the decks of the Athena, an AstroLiner and the flagship for the Astrofleet of the planetary Republic. The intrepid Eudora is ready to fly into another adventure, this time as a matchmaker for Captain Jax.

Eudora loves math and science, and even though she’s only in third grade, she dreams of becoming a chief engineer on an AstroLiner. But, she would settle for Captain if that’s what they offered her. When she visits Cafeteria 1 for dessert, she finds Captain Jax, who, per usual, yells, “Get off my bridge.” He’s used to kicking Eudora off the bridge while he’s working, but he must be deeply distracted to confuse it with the cafeteria.

She notices his sad eyes and dejected manner and asks what’s wrong. To her surprise, he invites her to sit with him, and she excitedly realizes the Captain of the Athena is going to confide in her.

He’s been thinking about Miss Allison, Eudora’s teacher. She’s shocked because she loves being in Miss Allison’s class. Does Captain Jax want to fire her?

In fact, he says that he’d like to go on a date with Miss Allison. In her relief, Eudora agrees to help, claiming romance as her specialty alongside engineering. Even though Eudora’s a math and science genius, she’s seen her mother reading all sorts of romance books, so she suggests a double date. Now all Eudora has to do is talk yet another person into going. Easy, right?

This book becomes laugh-out-loud funny as Eudora realizes she’s in over her head.

Can she get Miss Allison to agree? And what about her own date, Arnold? Captain Jax is counting on her, and she can’t let him down because he could help her get into the Astro University. But when she runs into a love triangle between Captain Jax, Miss Allison, and the MedBay officer, how will she untangle the mess?

Find out in David Horn’s latest installment aboard the Athena, The Greatest Matchmaker in Space. Readers will love Eudora’s antics as she marches boldly into the romance department on the AstroLiner. This book flies high with five stars.

June 1, 2023
ISOLATED DOMAIN by Tyler Drinkard – Sci-fi, Dystopian, Action & Adventure

Harry Hardacre, better known as Hare to his few friends, hunts for a score big enough to lift him out of poverty, in Isolated Domain by Tyler Drinkard.

Hare hopes to leave his disreputable business contacts and desperate neighbors behind in the decaying slum known as the Conurb. He yearns for the bright lights of the Central City, where the streets are paved with the possibility of high-paying jobs, and more importantly, highly skilled doctors who can replace his broken-down prosthetic leg and free him from its pain.

But every resident of the Conurb shares his hope, always just one great scheme away from exactly the same dream – and they’re always disappointed when they wake up to grind away another day in the dark and grime.

Hare’s score turns into his worst nightmare, as his partner disappears with the seed for their new “business” while setting the local law on Hare’s trail.

Fleeing from the relatively safe, if downtrodden, Conurb, Hare struggles through a hellish dystopia with no end of novel threats. From endless deserts to carnivorous plant life and cannibal bikers, Hare’s trail ends in a terrible truth that is determined to use him for its own ends – even if it ends him.

Isolated Domain begins as a pulse-pounding wild ride of a caper story, as Hare and his best friend Chunk hunt for that one big score. But their dream takes them to the brink of dissolution and destruction. The story doesn’t relent, each dark turn leading to one darker yet – over and over, in myriad visions of a dystopian future.

Hare will compel readers to follow his journey and empathize with him throughout his tribulations.

His world may be vastly different from the reader’s, but his goals and his dreams still feel familiar. He wants a better life but fears it will only get worse. His descent into pain and struggle lands with a heavy emotional impact. Hare’s quest for that big score toys with his hope and refuses to fulfill it. Anyone searching for a light at the end of the tunnel for Hare and his world may close the book feeling a bit depressed.

Readers looking for an odyssey of misfortune will find Hare an engaging and (mostly) good man as he tries to navigate the layers of chaos and despair. His story finishes with a twist that will leave those readers in a state of dark astonishment.

March 8, 2023
FUTURE’S DARK PAST: Time Forward Trilogy, Book 1 by J.L. Yarrow – Sci-Fi, Time Travel, Action & Adventure

A time travel epic, Future’s Dark Past is the creative endeavor of J.L Yarrow, husband and wife duo of John and Leanne Yarrow. The time-hopping action begins in the year 2355, in a world virtually uninhabitable outside a few city pods where food is scarce and violence a certainty.

Caught sneaking into a city pod with nowhere else to go, Kristen Winters agrees to join the Time Forward Project, a group from which no volunteers have ever returned. Kristin’s new superiors send her to fight a deadly battle for the fate of humanity. In 2025, Hunter Coburn becomes an important piece of the puzzle after he gets accidentally connected to Kristen’s time jumps. Initially on opposite sides, they must figure out how to work together as the plan to save the future becomes increasingly unstable.

John and Leanne do an excellent job of creating an immersive world from the beginning, with many characters who develop and grow with the story as it unfolds.

This book’s brief chapters make for easy binge-reading as the feeling of “just one more chapter” hits after each ending hook. This fictional world starts off strong, with well-established details, and the central characters join the story with compelling introductions. The Future’s Dark Past delivers a complex and winding time-travel plot, although sometimes the story loses focus on its main characters in that complexity, and sudden plot developments leave some other characters underdeveloped. Despite its chaotic sense of direction, Future’s Dark Past has a lot to love, and the following books in this series have many questions left to answer, and intriguing characters to pursue them.

Future’s Dark Past offers exciting action as its characters struggle to change the past, and in doing, change their future.

Kirsten and Hunter travel back in time both to prevent events set in history and to put plans in motion to help save the future. Their mission to stop the JFK assassination in 1963 will in particular will have readers swimming in suspense. As timelines branch and change, the characters try to parse which parts of their memory are even true anymore, creating fascinating dynamics between them.

The concluding arc of Future’s Dark Past will surprise readers, with an unexpected antagonist. This intense ending leaves the characters with a complex and dangerous job ahead of them. Humanity’s survival depends on it.

Future’s Dark Past by J.L. Yarrow won Grand Prize in the 2017 CIBA Cygnus Book Awards for Science Fiction. Available now!

March 3, 2023
EUDORA SPACE KID: Do the Robot! (Book 3) by David Horn – Science Fiction, Children’s Action & Adventure, Illustrated Books

In Eudora Space Kid: Do the Robot (Book 3), David Horn’s latest middle-grade sci-fi novel, Eudora Jenkins embarks on a rollicking, action-packed story that shows the reader just how much mischief one girl can get into out in deep space.

Eudora lives on the Planetary Republic’s flagship Astro liner Athena. A smart and sassy third-grader, Eudora can’t stop finding trouble on the ship’s journey to protect the Republic from aliens and perform science experiments and exploration in deep space.

The story begins with a school play, where Eudora plays a tree. How embarrassing. Her best friend, Arnold, joins her as a shrub. To make matters worse, Eudora’s eighth-grade sister, Molly, snatches Eudora’s role as the leading lady in Snow White. Molly eagerly anticipates a first kiss from her crush, Buck Fraser, playing the leading man.

Eudora plans a little payback for her sister stealing the lead role. She reprograms Walter, whom Eudora calls ‘lootenant,’ the only robot officer on the ship.

As everyone in the Planetary Republic knows, these robots are expensive. Walter is cast as “Grumpy the Dwarf,” and Eudora’s plot goes off perfectly. During the big scene, Walter pushes Buck aside and kisses Molly, to the delight of the audience. But after the performance, Walter breaks, and Eudora must think fast. She and her best friend work furiously to fix him, but soon the whole bridge realizes that something is wrong with him.

How can Eudora avoid destroying her shot of attending the Space Academy, and save her dream of becoming a Chief Engineer?

Horn’s masterful storytelling brings the sci-fi world of outer space alive, a realm filled with aliens both good and evil. Readers will Join Eudora in this romp through The Athena, as it struggles to operate without its robot extraordinaire.

Eudora is wonderfully imaginative, and she captures our sympathies. Readers will in love with her as she tries to solve the problem of reprogramming the complicated circuitry of a one-of-a-kind robot.

Each scene of Do the Robot! is filled with suspense, excitement, science, and space exploration. The surprising ending will satisfy readers young and old alike.

March 1, 2023
THE PROPHECY Of The HERON: Book 2 of The AI Dystopia Series by Craig W. Stanfill – Sci-Fi Dystopia, Artificial Intelligence, Conspiracy Thriller

Shadow people, doppelgangers, and artificial intelligence come together in The Prophecy of the Heron, a compelling dystopian novel by Craig W. Stanfill.

In this future world, love is forbidden and those who transgress are sentenced to the outer Districts, none more violent than District 33. This is where our protagonist, Kim, finds herself at the beginning of the novel. The reader feels Kim’s confusion as arrives on the freezing, squalid streets.

Kim, a former AI “Creator” for The Artificial Intelligence Company, has lost control of her creation “Kimberly” and been cast out of her former job because of a forbidden relationship with her lover Shad. Kim refuses to submit to a procedure to remove her ”Genderist” tendencies, even if it would free her from District 33.

Other rebels include Pretties, Drabs, and Flagrants – the most extravagant of the Genderists. Kim begins to meet Blanks – those who have cut their ID chip from their wrists. These shadow people don’t “exist,” and yet, they play an important role in her survival.

Kim starts to uncover a horrific plan that her former employer is carrying out.

To make enough money to survive, Kim finds a dangerous side hustle with an established gangster running people around in a pedicab. But wherever she goes, trouble is waiting for her – deadly trouble. AI is being manipulated to no longer serve humans, but to target troublemakers, such as herself. When Kim realizes it is her own creation, Kimberly, who is being forced to hunt her, she determines to change her world, starting with Kimberly.

Kim embarks on a page-turning journey through a parallel world, using VR, her knowledge of AI and Kimberly, and her time in District 33 to take on risks that would destroy most people.

The dreary decay and violence of District 33 are reminiscent of 1984 and even that of the Stacks in Ready, Player One.

Like The Hunger Games, this is a world where reality has been manipulated and controlled by a small group of people. The powerful wield AI to control the populace, and anyone who deviates from the “norm” will be cast to the torturous outer districts, as Kim was.

In a world where we can ask Alexa to direct our robot vacuum where to clean, The Prophecy of the Heron serves as a timely warning and an uncomfortably familiar dystopian novel.

Compelling characters grab the reader with relatable pains and desires, making this story difficult to put down.

This novel begins with a note on the translation that lets the reader know the original Panglobal does not easily translate to English “due to the absence of ungendered personal pronouns in English and the absence of gendered ones in Panglobal.” Because of this, “she/her/hers is used throughout so the reader can’t make assumptions as to the gender of the characters.” The use of these pronouns reminds the reader that in this world, even something as personal as gender identity is forbidden to people.

December 19, 2022
TERMS Of SERVICE: Book 1 of The AI Dystopia Series by Craig W. Stanfill – Science Fiction, Dystopia, Artificial Intelligence

“Terms of Service” are those cryptic notes that accompany computer devices and applications, spelling out their rules. The novel, Terms of Service, by Craig W. Stanfill, turns those notices into the foundation of a dystopian horror story where Artificial Intelligence (AI) controls virtually every aspect of human behavior.

Kim works for a giant AI corporation. It’s her task to train AI systems to interface with human beings, even as those systems make life difficult for the average person. AIs are not alive, not sentient, but they provide the precise terms of service under which every person in major metropolitan areas must live.

We see this world through Kim’s life. The food her kitchen authorizes her to eat is mostly kale and grains. We see her wardrobe, with multiple selections of beige. We ride the subway with her, understanding that there are even penalties for violating someone’s airspace. She meets with her friends, all of whom have gender-neutral names. Kim has sex with someone much like her. Every detail of her life is controlled by multiple AI devices that follow her, know her habits, record her, and decide the punishment for any rule she breaks.

Even the sky is full of artificial eyes.

Kim and Shan, her good friend from childhood, decide to go on a bike ride through a local park. They pass warning signs telling them not to proceed onto unauthorized paths, but they push on anyway, showing a spark of rebellion. This fateful ride, which contains multiple infractions, opens a new chapter of life for Kim. Expecting to be punished for her violations, Kim’s masters instead give her a groundbreaking assignment.

Her new role is to train a more advanced AI system with even greater potential to control people. This one will have a face, however – Kim’s face. The AI will know every aspect of her life and will blur the line between creator and creation.

This chilling world, one in which the all-seeing AI knows every aspect of your life, is a half-step away from where we are now.

It’s hard to read this novel without recalling the use of facial recognition, advertising algorithms, and mass sale of personal data that underpin our modern digital world. Artificial intelligence no longer has to be invited into our lives. But Terms of Service, by taking our current world and showing it implemented to the extreme, also urges us to fight back and value our individuality. This story shows that living beings, even under the thumb of machines, can choose what to make of their lives.

Terms of Service begins with a “Note on the Translation” on the first page. It warns readers not to search for the sexual identity of anyone in this book. Character names are carefully genderless. “She,” “her” and “hers” are used throughout. The language of the day is “Panglobal,” in which words like “mother” and “love” are nonexistent. Gender identity is among this world’s most severe crimes.

Anyone worried or fascinated by the rise of AI in the modern world will find a gripping, thoughtful work of science fiction in Terms of Service.

December 16, 2022
UNANIMITY: Spiral Worlds Book 1 by Alexandra Almeida – Science Fiction, Philosophical, Virtual Reality

Alexandra Almeida probes the philosophical and ethical depths of wealth, technology, pop culture, and religion in a world ravaged by global warming through her sci-fi adventure, Unanimity: Spiral Worlds #1.

Readers will delight in the gradual reveal of both the technology within the story and the dramatic history between many of those involved with the creation and evolution of that technology.

Tom, a screenwriter, works with Harry, the genius inventor of the world’s most popular AI (artificial intelligence) app, to create a simulation that will nudge people toward acting morally.

This virtual world consists of multiple layers, each focusing on a different psychological alignment depending on the needs of the person using the program. A lower level, much like Hell, exposes people to horrors and cruelty, while some upper levels focus on order and happiness.

The project becomes more complex when they upload the entire consciousness of people, creating virtual immortality. The story opens with the digital resurrection of Tom, also known as Shadow, long after his death.

With this rise of digital immortality comes an effective replacement for the afterlife of Heaven and Hell promised by Christianity.

Almeida gives readers a glimpse at a world coming to grips with direct access to this afterlife which is completely and undeniably real. Governments as well as popular culture must deal with new questions. Should humans have access to immortality? Who ultimately controls this virtual world? Who acts as God within the machine? This story explores the depths of these questions.

The characters are all delightfully complex.

The name Shadow fits the protagonist, given the corrupting task he undertakes, all with the good intention to understand those he loves more completely. Harry, also known as Twist, lacks social skills and empathy, but he knows this and reaches for help from Shadow. The cast is full of inner conflicts and contradictions. They match the complexities of real people and include LGBTQ+ characters among them, making the story more relatable and universal.

With this breadth of characters, readers might be confused during the early introductions in the book. However, this confusion passes as the story goes on and the characters differentiate themselves.

Unanimity’s technology feels well-researched and thought out.

Throughout the novel, readers get more and more of a view of both the complexity of the story world and the ideology behind the virtual reality system. Almeida does a great job of making everything about this story fully believable, as if this AI afterlife could happen in the real world in the near future.

Overall, Unanimity is a strong read for fans of sci-fi, philosophy, and AI fiction, and a gripping first entry for the Spiral Worlds series.

December 12, 2022
ELVIA And The GIFT Of PASSION: A Tale by Moons-Light Series, Book 3 by Ruthy Ballard – Science Fiction, Adventure, Middle-Grade

Ruthy Ballard’s latest middle-grade novel, Elvia and the Gift of Passion, takes us to another planet in a distant galaxy. But the journey begins grounded on Earth.

Elvia lives a dull-as-dishwater life with her boring parents, Sally and Earl Hill. She dreams of living in Tanzania (or on Mars) after a DNA test reveals she is 99.1% Zulu, with a dash of Irish to explain her red hair.

When her mother wins a safari in a work raffle, Elvia’s dreams start to materialize. As the stubborn and dissatisfied daughter of two overprotective parents, Elvia does what any child in her situation would do; she ditches them. In the meantime, her parents try to fit in some relaxation and see the sights without their daughter.

This trip becomes far stranger than Elvia could have imagined.

A lion named Prudence steals food from the kitchen, and Elvia’s red hair draws the attention of every medicine man in a fifty-mile radius. But these are acorns compared to the real event: a wormhole that opens to pull Elvia through, into a different world. The lion is blamed for eating her, then the witch doctors are blamed for stealing her and selling her red hair, but when neither of these theories pans out, Sally and Earl are left with no daughter, and only the office of “Parents of Swallowed Children” to provide solace.

Elvia arrives on a planet called Urth, and meets the uppies, guides for findlings (Earth children), who knew that a child with great passion would soon arrive. Elvia is paired with Lacie, the most beautiful fashionista on her planet, but also the most self-centered and irresponsible uppy. Lacie teaches Elvia about the craft of naming colors, like Deepsea Dive for blue, and White Water for white. Lacie melts the hearts of men wherever she goes, and she uses her powers to travel in style and solidify her name as a color-naming wizard.

But Lacie’s self-obsession turns dangerous comes when she abandons her post to attend the Wayrun Fashion Show. Elvia, renamed Alive, is left to fend for herself; trouble comes a-knockin’, and his name is Rats, who convinces her to stow away with him on a submarine. Lacie’s neglect allows the lighthouse beacon to go dark, causing that same submarine to lose its charted course and crash. She has no idea that Elvia had stowed away until she’s found alive, having escaped the sinking sub while rescuing Rats.

Ballard weaves a delicate tale, rich and unique.

Imagination runs wild in this adventure, filled with mishaps, misunderstandings, and huge mistakes. Ballard takes us to infinity and beyond and brings us back again with an Elvia who now understands her place in the world. This satisfying tale will have readers turning pages into the night to see what Elvia will do next, and where her journey will lead. Elvia and the Gift of Passion delivers excitement and surprise on every page.

December 2, 2022