Time Traveling in Circles
by Pippa Jay
Once upon a time I
believed in fairies and elves. Stone circles were a place of magic
and power that could transport you to another dimension. I devoured
books by fantasy authors like Stephen Lawhead where his characters
travelled to magical kingdoms, or TV series like Children of the
Stones and Moonstallion. I dreamt of doing the same.
Then one Christmas a
film changed everything. I saw Star Wars: A New Hope.
No magic, but the Jedi had amazing telekinetic and telepathic powers,
and lightsabres instead of swords. I was hooked!
But the circle power
thing - the idea that you could cross time and space through one -
stayed with me. So when I began my debut novel Keir, I knew
how my characters were going to travel round, using an odd blend of
psychic powers and a technological gateway...in the shape of a
circle. My heroine Quin can open a pathway through time and space
with a wave of her hand from that circle, using the vast psionic
power source that lies beneath it. She hops around the universe using
these temporal gateways a bit like Doctor Who in his TARDIS, or the
Stargate teams. But her control is somewhat erratic. Arriving at an
exact point in time and space requires focus - a very definite vision
of when and where she needs to be. Sometimes it may not take her to
where she intended, but sometimes it takes her to where and when it
really matters. In this excerpt, she’s taking Keir back through a
gateway, and showing him some of the complexities involved in their
creation.
Excerpt from Keir:
Quin stretched out a
hand to the wall and opened her fist, palm outward. The vast psychic
force she was using to create and open the gateway echoed through
him. He felt a surge as though caught in a sudden tempest as she
twisted the dimensions in order to forge a pathway through time and
space. The hand gesture seemed so simple, yet it was only a pale
symbolism of the powers she manipulated. Energy poured through her
from an unknown source and, for a moment, he thought he glimpsed a
spark of bright-blue flame in her eyes, before dismissing it as
illusion.
She turned to smile
at him, aware of his presence in her thoughts. “Do you feel that?”
He nodded, sharing
the trace of euphoria. Her smile broadened and she opened her mind
further, letting him feel the gateway through her, like gentle flames
on his skin. He shivered as the sense of pressure built. Strands of
fire shot across the surface of the wall in front of them and the
gateway unlocked, easing the lines of tension that had bound him.
***
In Gethyon,
my young hero starts off with the same problem of focus. He uses his
abilities - powers he didn't even know he had - only when scared or
angry. At one point in the story it takes him twenty years back in
the past on another world where he meets a girl...only to be returned
to his own time with the bitter knowledge she’d now be in her
forties and possibly married. Unlike Quin, he doesn’t need the
circle of power to travel, being half human and half something else –
a human possessed by a powerful psychic. But it still requires the
focus. And he soon learns the danger of flitting through time and
space when a bounty hunter called Jinx with the same abilities is on
his tail!
To find out more,
you can check out both my books at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and most
online retailers.
Excerpt from Gethyon:
Abandoned
by his mother after his father’s death, Gethyon Rees feels at odds
with his world and longs to travel the stars. But discovering he has
the power to do so leaves him scarred for life. Worse, it alerts the
Siah-dhu—a dark entity that seeks his kind for their special
abilities—to his existence, and sets a bounty hunter on his trail.
When
those same alien powers lead Gethyon to commit a terrible act, they
also aid his escape. Marooned on the sea-world of Ulto Marinos,
Gethyon and his twin sister must work off their debt to the
Seagrafter captain who rescued them while Gethyon puzzles over their
transportation. How has he done this? And what more is he capable of?
Before
he can learn any answers, the Wardens arrive to arrest him for his
crime. Can his powers save him now? And where will he end up next?
Available
from:
Keir
- a scifi romance novel.
All
digital formats and the print format are available from:
A 2012 Readers Favorite Award Finalist, a 2013 Aspen Gold (RWA) finalist, and 2012 SFR Galaxy Award Winner.
Outcast.
Cursed. Dying. Is Keir beyond redemption?
For Keirlan de
Corizi--the legendary ‘Blue Demon’ of Adalucien--death seems
the only escape from a world where his discolored skin marks him
as an oddity and condemns him to life as a pariah. But salvation
comes in an unexpected guise: Tarquin Secker, a young woman who
can travel the stars with a wave of her hand.
But Quin has
secrets of her own. She’s spent eternity searching through
space and time with a strange band of companions at her back.
Defying her friends’ counsel, Quin risks her apparent
immortality to save Keir. She offers him sanctuary and a new life
on her home world, Lyagnius.
When Keir mistakenly unleashes his dormant
alien powers and earns instant exile from Quin’s home world,
will she risk everything to stand by him again?
|
About Pippa Jay:
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A stay-at-home mum
of three who spent twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a
Metals and Minerals laboratory, Pippa Jay bases her stories on a
lifetime addiction to science-fiction books and films. Somewhere
along the line a touch of romance crept into her work and refused to
leave. In between torturing her plethora of characters, she spends
the odd free moments trying to learn guitar, indulging in freestyle
street dance and drinking high-caffeine coffee. Although happily
settled in historical Colchester in the UK with her husband of 20
years, she continues to roam the rest of the Universe in her head.
Pippa Jay is a
dedicated member of the SFR Brigade, a community of science fiction
romance authors and publishing professionals committed to writing and
promoting the very best in the genre.
Website –
http://www.pippajay.co.uk
Twitter
- https://twitter.com/pippajaygreen
SFR Brigade -
http://www.sfrcontests.blogspot.co.uk/
Thanks for having me, Marva!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interesting article, Pippa. With your SF books, I was delighted you talked about melding the SF with ancient ideas like fairy circles.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Marva. I love to mix a bit of fantasy with my scifi.
DeletePippa, your Keir and Gethyon sound like a fabulous adventure. I especially like the idea of Quin arriving where she's needed rather than where she planned to go. Best wishes to you and your writing!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pat. :)
Delete