Different Worlds, Different Minds- The Alien Mind VBT post

I get to do all sorts of interesting things with my characters! Last year, for The Alien Mind's e-book release book tour I was asked if it would be ok for an alien to interview my character Rivi. What an interesting request! Turns out, the alien was actually a character in Clay Gilbert's 'Annah' 

Anyhow... Stop by and see how the two girls got along!
https://portalsandpathways.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/different-worlds-different-minds/

And please don't forget- The Alien Mind (paperback) is available for pre-order! Those who order in time to get their copy for the release party July 10th and post a picture to www.facebook.com/vljennings of them holding the book (or e-book) will be entered into a drawing for a special prize!

Pre-order your copy of The Alien Mind today! 

 

Writing Science In Science Fiction-The Alien Mind VBT post

Last year, the e-book release virtual tour of The Alien Mind took me to the Amazing Stories website! As a guest, I talked about how I integrate science into my science fiction. You get a sneak peek into a scene in the book as well as the science behind it, detailing how one of Rivi's abilities work. I hope you enjoy it! You can find the post here: http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2014/10/writing-science-guest-post-mg-author-v-l-jennings/

And please don't forget- The Alien Mind (paperback) is available for pre-order! Those who order in time to get their copy for the release party July 10th and post a picture to www.facebook.com/vljennings of them holding the book (or e-book) will be entered into a drawing for a special prize!

Pre-order your copy of The Alien Mind today! 

The Alien Mind VBT Post: Rivi's First Abilities- Flash Fiction

Yesterday my virtual book tour for The Alien Mind took me to the site of author Skye Hegyes. I wrote up a flash fiction piece detailing Rivi's adventure in discovering her first abilities. This particular flash fiction takes place before the events in The Alien Mind. I hope you enjoy it! You can find Rivi's story here: http://skyehegyes.com/2015/06/26/3226/

And please don't forget- The Alien Mind (paperback) is available for pre-order! Those who order in time to get their copy for the release party July 10th and post a picture to www.facebook.com/vljennings of them holding the book (or e-book) will be entered into a drawing for a special prize!

Pre-order your copy of The Alien Mind today! 
 

V: The Vision Of A Futurity Histographer- Flash Fiction

It starts with a vision. A youngling thrashes in his bed. A nightmare encroaching on his sleep. His nightmares usually involved getting lost, falling down a hole, or being stuck in a burning building. Things every normal youngling would be afraid of. This nightmare is different.

 A species he didn’t recognize, Two legs, two arms, and pale skin, stood with other members of his kind. They had defaced their head tattoo’s, committing sacrilege, to mark themselves as outcasts. Here they stood with this pale faced boy encouraging him to burn their world. The pale faced boy raises his hands and the air around the youngling tingles. Death spreads out from the pale faced boy like a plague. Trees and plants all wither and crumble. Friends fall and turn to dust. The youngling runs. The pale one advances towards him.

 The youngling trips and falls, cringing as he knows that this faulty step may have just cost him his life. A pale skinned hand reaches down to help him up. He looks up at the young girl and is shocked to find her dressed just like his sister would. Her brown hair flutters in the breeze and her eyes glisten with sadness as she grabs his hand. She thrusts him behind her skirt and holds up her hands to push back the death the young boy is spreading.

 She’s winning! He’s backing off! She’s winning!

 In his excitement, the youngling jolted himself awake. It was all just a dream.

 Young Ankh got up from his bead and headed toward his family’s common room. He found his family sitting in chairs around a small fire floating in the center of the room.

 “Good morning my youngling,” Ruet said with a warm smile. “Sleep well?”

 Ankh shook his head no and Ruet put down the screen she was holding and opened her arms to welcome him into her lap. Ankh headed over to her and curled up in her lap, finding comfort in her embrace. Drolin peered at him over the floating fire.

 “Little one, did you have another dream?” Drolin watched his youngling carefully.

 “Yes sir, it was awful.” Ankh answered. “There were beings in it that I didn’t know. The Aruk were telling them to destroy our world.” 

“Can you tell me more about these beings you saw?” Drolin prodded.

 Young Ankh recounted the dream to his family. He described the pale skinned strangers to them, including the one dressed like his sister.

 Ruet looked up at Drolin. Drolin nodded.

 “Youngling, go get your shoes. It’s high time we take you to start your training.” Drolin said.

 “What? But I don’t haven’t taken the test yet.” Ankh argued.

 “Only a futurity histographer could dream about people they’ve never met little one,” Ruet said, pushing him from her lap and giving him a quick hug. “Now run along and do as Drolin asks. The elder futurity histographers will want to meet you right away!”

(This flash fiction is actually a precursor to The Alien Mind- me exploring some of the characters' back stories as I plan for the second book. Enjoy!)   photo credit: Brown Fern via photopin (license)

Today's post was also inspired by the letter V. V is for: Vision   as part of the Blogging from A to Z April 2015 challenge! Click on the letter to join on in the fun!

Every day (excluding sundays) I will be writing a post about something that begins with the letter for that day. Most of the time you will find a sci-fi flash fiction piece here.



For Readers: Have you ever had a dream that seemed real? Have you ever had a dream that came true (I have these all the time! It's really rather freaky)

Tell us about your most disturbing dream.

***

Find The Alien Mind on Amazon!

Did you like this post? If so you might enjoy my book!

For adults and teens alike, it is truly a science fiction adventure for the whole family!

If you'd prefer an autographed copy straight from the author you can buy one here as well!
Autographed Copy:$13.00 + Shipping

 

R: Rivi's Future- Flash Fiction

Apparently R is for Rivi today, because the young lady won't vacate my head and is BEGGING me to get to work on the second part of her story. Chill! Lets get the first one taken care of first!  

(Ps- for those of you who are in the Concord NC area and are coming to ConCarolinas at the end of May... I have been told by PDMI Publishing that The Alien Mind (the first book) is right on track for me to be able to bring copies with me. I am so excited! It looks awesome so far!)

In the meantime I'd like to give you a peek of what is going into the second book... Ps- As I am still in the rough draft stage, this scene may or may not stay, I have not decided yet.

Rivi opened her eyes and placed a hand on the edge of the patient's cot to steady herself. The world around her seemed to be spinning, with her at its center. Feeling slightly nauseated, she shook her groggy head and the world soon steadied itself. She looked up across the cot and the patient lying there to discover that there were five healers of different species looking at her in shock.

Rivi frowned and looked up at Dan who was also coming to. He watched absently as the Gront patient laying on the cot in front of him slowly awoke. The blisters and boils on his face slowly disappeared, and the Gront sat up as if nothing were wrong. 

Dan continued staring blankly at the cot.

“How do you feel?” one of the Aunantet healers asked.

“I feel fine. Thanks! The Gront replied as he jumped off the cot and ran out of the tent.

“Dan?” Rivi queried, still watching him.

Dan blinked his eyes and turned to look at her. A smile spread across his face.

“Huh? Oh, I'm fine. I'd best get back to work,” He replied with a laugh.

“Go ahead, you! Just don't scare me like that again,” Rivi exclaimed, laughing, pushing him playfully on the shoulder.

She shook her head as he laughed. Still feeling a bit dazed, she walked out of the healers’ tent and stumbled over the blackened ground of the Gront's home world. A cloudy sky cast dark shadows over everything. Rivi found a short rock wall nearby and sat down, trying to figure out what just happened. Rivi looked up and saw the comp amalgamator from the desk coming over to her.

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

“I'm feeling … confused. Your name is Etok, right,” Rivi stated, querying the Aunantet's personal computer, discovering also that Etok was only a year older than she was.

“Yeah. How did you do … Whatever you did in there?” Etok asked, looking at Rivi questioningly.

“I don't know. I'm not a healer, so I didn't think I'd be able to help much in the first place. I just thought I'd go and at least stand with him. It just seemed like to right thing for me to do, as his friend, but then—I don't know—it just happened. I was able to help him just like he was able to help me with a computer virus a few years ago.”

“Rivinaig, things like that don't ‘just happen,’” Etok protested. “Comp amalgamators can't join with healers and certainly not in the middle of a healing. Furthermore, it is very rare for a healer to be able to join with a comp amalgamator while they are working with their computer, much less enter the amalgamator's mind to help them with a computer virus.”

“Look, I can't explain it,” Rivi admitted, looking up at Etok. “I just know what happened.”

“The two of you must be pretty close friends to be able to help each other like that,” Etok said as she sat down beside Rivi.

“We've been friends for about three years. We've gone through a lot together. Something like this is nothing compared to the Aruk.”

Today's post was also inspired by the letter R. R is for: Rivi   as part of the Blogging from A to Z April 2015 challenge! Click on the letter to join on in the fun!

Every day (excluding sundays) I will be writing a post about something that begins with the letter for that day. Most of the time you will find a sci-fi flash fiction piece here.



For Readers:  I know this isn't exactly flash fiction... yesterday and today were really busy days for me so I had to find substitutes. I am hoping to have some more breathing time tomorrow. Only 8 days left to the challenge!

Would you like to give me a random S word (I'll pick one per person) to add into tomorrow's story?

***

Find The Alien Mind on Amazon!

Did you like this post? If so you might enjoy my book!

For adults and teens alike, it is truly a science fiction adventure for the whole family!

If you'd prefer an autographed copy straight from the author you can buy one here as well!
Autographed Copy:$13.00 + Shipping

 

An Alien Birthday- Flash Fiction

I've decided to take a crack at this month's 15 to 50 Flash fiction challenge. I'm still not sure if I am doing these right but, I'm writing, so it's a good thing either way!

 I wanted to throw a science fiction spin on it and write something with some brand new characters. but this month's combo just had me stuck for now. So instead I talked with some old characters. Happy reading ;)

Photo Copyright: Shailaja V

February's Word prompt: Eternal

Phrase Prompt: Circle of life

Picture Prompt: Cake->

 “Whats the point of a birthday?” Rivi levitated a lit candle above her hand, staring at the flickering flame.

“Its a circle of life thing, you made it through another year.” Dan reasoned.

“I don’t know when I was born.”

“What about the day you started life with the Aunantet?”

 Linking this to the Fiction Challenge ‘From 15 to 50′

Would you like to try your hand at writing a story or poem in 15-50 words? You can either click on The Moving Quill above and submit your link OR post your short right into the comments here. I don't mind. I'd love to read them!



***

Find The Alien Mind on Amazon!

Did you like this post? If so you might enjoy my book!

For adults and teens alike, it is truly a science fiction adventure for the whole family!

If you'd prefer an autographed copy straight from the author you can buy one here as well!
Autographed Copy:$13.00 + Shipping

 

Rounding Up 150 Children With Math

Children chart

Who's up for another fan extra?
I'm working on a sequel to The Alien Mind, but in order to do so I needed to back track some math to try to figure out how many kids are on the scene, how many are needing to be found, and which ones are available to be rounded up from other scenes. This got so complicated I needed two sheets of notes and three tally mark charts; talk about some writer problems! It was so confusing pulling this all together that I thought you all might enjoy a bit of a peek!


In The Alien Mind an alien group called the Aruk kidnap 150 children originally. During the original captivity and before the Aunantet rescue the children a girl is killed during when her and Rivi are trying to escape, leaving 149 children (including Rivi). At the beginning of the book we find that these 149 children are now being raised by the Aunantet. (You can find out more about the book as well as some fan extras here!)

When Aun is attacked the Children are sent off to safety in 10 ships each with a 20 person capacity. 50 Aunantet join them.

 Because Rivi and Ankh stay behind on Aun to make sure the children's ships get off the planet safely  that leaves 148 children to be divided among the 10 ships with two seats empty.

8 of the ships  are filled with 15 Kids and 5 Aunantet

2 of the ships are filled with 14 kids and 5 Aunantet

One of the ships of 14 kids and 5 Aunantet ends up destroyed (any more information here would be a *spoiler*) 

                           

 Which leaves 127 kids and 45 Aunantet

Later the book says the children and Aunantet decide to split up into 45 smaller groups to better evade the Aruk.

20 of those groups are found and Rivi  is put in charge of relocating 15 of those groups- 30 children of which decide to join some of Earth's new planetary colonies. Rivi then takes 15 of the youngest to the mars colony. However the book never really states how many kids (exactly) are found and how many decide to stay on Aun . (Which is important to me if they are going to be in the second book.)

It does say 75 of the kids are left to be found.

So in order to get a better picture... I ended up breaking out the old pen and paper and drew out the above chart. Separated evenly into 45 groups you get:

12 of the groups have 3 kids to 1 Aunantet
8 of the groups have 2 kids to 1 Aunantet

So working backwards... if you take the 75 kids out of the picture first and leave the 20 groups that end up found you get 52 kids. Rivi is put in charge of relocating 15 of those groups (so 42 kids out of the 52) and we are also told that 30 of her children decide to go to the other colonies. I'm assuming here that the Aunantet took charge of relocating most of the youngest ones thereby deciding to send them to Mars. So with 30 of Rivi's group gone to the other colonies that leaves 5 that were Rivi's (out of those youngest 15) that go to mars and 7 of Rivi's end up staying on Aun!

So... what trouble can I get these children into now?
If you'd like to see me finish this second book so you can find out what happens next, comment in the blog comments with #finishthatstory !

Have any questions? You can ask those in the comments too ;)

Rivi Sets Up Her First Christmas Tree- Short Story.

V.L. Jennings' Christmas Tree Angel

Well, it took some doing but I finally got Rivi all untangled from the Christmas light disaster. I rolled the lights up neatly around a piece of cardboard, thanks to the idea sent to us by Honi Drown, and went to fetch a chair from the kitchen so I could hang them.

"V.L. do you want me to put your tree together while you are climbing over that mountain of junk?" Rivi called from the living room.

I groaned inwardly, my dining room is stuffed with the contents from our old house's shed and it is begging to be emptied. I'd already missed Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws because we didn't have room for everyone, and I felt terrible! I resolved then to get the new shed cleaned out and to make room for all this stuff before Christmas.

"Sure Rivi, don't bother with connecting the lights though, I'll do that when I put the angel on top."

I made my way over the mountain of shed stuff with my folding chairs and entered the living room to find Rivi levitating the middle section of the tree very carefully over the lower section. She also managed to hold all the branches into their folded position so she could set the section pole down into the pole from the first section without the branches blocking her view. The third and final part of the tree went up just as easily.

Rivi made a few motions with her hands then held them wide and I watched in amazement as the whole tree unfolded itself and the branches reached out gracefully! She'd managed to fluff the whole tree in mere seconds!

"Ok, that was awesome! Fluffing the tree alone would have taken me a bit over an hour or so!" I exclaimed.

"That's what its called! Fluffing!" Rivi laughed. "Now what do we do?"

"I'll climb up there and connect the angel and all the light strands together. Now where's that angel box?" I said.

"Here you go," Rivi answered passing the angel box over to me.

For those of you who haven't heard about my angel, she was passed down to me from my parents. For years she sat neglected on the mantel (I say neglected, but only because I really wanted to see her on the tree). When they sent her to me she was in need of a good washing and my grandmother recommended vinegar which did the trick in no time! She looks white and new once more! Now, every year I wrap her inside a plastic trash bag and then place her carefully in her own box to keep the moths from infesting her and the dust from yellowing her again. Pulling her out of her plastic bag is always a bitter sweet moment for me. I sat there for a moment remembering Christmases gone past before I reached up to put the angel on the tree.

Rivi noticed the reminiscing vibe and quietly set to work finding space on the shelf across my living room for the various snowmen I seem to have accumulated somehow. I had just found the last light connection in the tree and caused the whole tree to light up when my three year old squealed in delight over the sight. I laughed.

"Just wait till you see what it looks like decorated!" I said to my son before looking over to see what Rivi was doing over at my bookshelf.

"Wow, there's more? I thought the tree looks nice as it is." Rivi said moving to block my view of what she was working on.

"Just wait! You'll see!" I answered.

Just then we heard a knock at the door. My cats hurried over to entangle themselves around my feet as I tried to let our new visitor in. 

"Daddy's home?" My youngest called out.

"No, shouldn't be." I answered.

Feeling suddenly shy he hid behind Rivi's skirt. Rivi picked him up and tickled him instead.

I laughed at their antics but gasped as I opened the door to find none other than Laurie Kingston on my doorstep!

***

Question for you all... should Laurie be afraid of cats or would she like cats? (The thought goes through my mind every time I have a new visitor at the door simply because I have had some visitors freak out pretty badly.) Answer in blog comments section please :)

Also... if you would be interested in reading a sequel to The Alien Mind , please comment write #finishthatstory in the blog comments... I'm trying to decide whether I should give this up and try something new or continue writing the second book ;) 

***

Find The Alien Mind on Amazon!

Did you like this post? If so you might enjoy my book!

For adults and teens alike, it is truly a science fiction adventure for the whole family!

If you'd prefer an autographed copy straight from the author you can buy one here as well!
Autographed Copy:$13.00 + Shipping

 

Rivi- Tangled in Christmas Lights- Short Story

photo credit: bloomgal via photopin cc

A Christmas Mini Story
Featuring the characters from The Alien Mind

Every year I set up our family Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. I had just climbed into my attic to drag down the Christmas boxes when I heard the familiar chime of our door alarm. My heart stopped. The door was supposed to be locked, I'd checked it just moments ago!

Thoughts raced through my mind of my three yr old playing Tron on the Wii in his room. I looked around for something in the attic I could snatch up to use as a weapon.

Plastic driveway candy cane? Eh, seems decently hard enough.

"V.L.? Why are you in your ceiling?"
Ugh, I'm still not quite used to the name change! But wait! What's SHE doing here?! She's not even supposed to exist!
"Um- Rivi, is that you? How did you get in here?" I ask, hanging my head through the open attic door.
"I can manipulate matter remember? I just flipped the inside of the lock. I did try ringing your doorbell first." Rivi answered quickly.
By this point I had recovered sufficiently enough from the shock that I was ready to play along with whatever delusion was playing out in my head.
"Oh yeah, I forgot- we still don't have that fixed yet." I grabbed one of the smaller boxes from the top of the decoration boxes stack and dropped it through the attic door, "Catch!"
Rivi caught the box by levitating it mid air and lowered it carefully to the ground.
"Weren't you afraid of breaking the ornaments in there?" Rivi asked. "I mean, I caught them, but what if I hadn't?"
I shrugged before I realized she couldn't see me from down there.
"That one is just a bunch of tangled Christmas lights." I answered.
"Christmas lights?"
"You've never seen Christmas lights? Hold on! You'll love this!" I answered while crawling back over to the attic ladder.
Once I made it down I pulled out the wad of Christmas lights and stuck the outlet end into the wall.

"Oh WOW neat!" Rivi exclaimed as the wad of wire and tiny bulbs lit up in multiple colors. "Want me to untangle them for you?"
"You can try if you'd like. I'll go get the rest of the boxes."
Rivi held her hands over the tangled ball of lights and levitated them off the floor. Back and forth she waved her hands around the ball loosening it little by little. I climbed down the ladder with the second box and looked around for Rivi... she wasn't in the hallway any longer.

Now, my house isn't very big so I didn't have to look far to see her standing in the middle of the living room with a ginormous moving web of lights over her head. She'd loosened the ball, that's for sure but now it was just an even larger unmanageable mess!

"Rivi- Wait!"
"I've got this," She said, "Um, wait, no, Oh NO!"
Rivi lost control of just a few pieces of the unwieldy web and suddenly it came crashing down all around her entangling her in the middle. Lights were everywhere, both of my cats freaked out. One cat darted off down the hallway and the other arched its back and hissed like Rivi was something that now needed to be pounced on.

I couldn't help it, I laughed and laughed and laughed.

"Not funny," Rivi said glumly blowing her hair out of her face from under the tangled web of lights.

"Next time it might help to unplug the strand before trying to unravel them!" I said still laughing.

"I'm sure your system of storing lights could use some improvement too!" Rivi said with a motion toward the box the lights had been unceremoniously shoved into the year before.

She has a point...

***

Hope you enjoyed this little holiday scene- I plan on inviting more of my other characters over for my holiday party this year so don't be afraid to come on over and join the fun!

While we are at it- what is your favorite way of storing those strands of Christmas lights... does your method keep them from getting tangled?

***

Find The Alien Mind on Amazon!

Did you like this post? If so you might enjoy my book!

For adults and teens alike, it is truly a science fiction adventure for the whole family!

If you'd prefer an autographed copy straight from the author you can buy one here as well!
Autographed Copy:$13.00 + Shipping

 

Life Finds A Way- Five Sentence Fiction

Green Plant On The Iron Fence by George Hodan

 I'm getting back to doing some more 5 Sentence Fiction. Originally started by Lillie McFerrin, occasionally I find my own picture and am hit with inspiration to make it into a post on my own.

This is an older post from before my old website bit the dust. The challenge word for this one is Visitors. Use the word and the picture as inspiration and write your own 5 sentence fiction. If you write it on your own blog I would LOVE to see it- or you could share it in the comments if you don't blog. I’d LOVE to see yours! Leave me the link to your 5 Sentence Fiction blog post in the comments!

It had been a while since she’d been back to the place she once called home. Solemnly she stared at the deserted town where the herboviromenters could no longer coax plant life to grow; her people had all moved on. The Aruk had destroyed the very fabric of life on this planet; without plants, the Aunantet could no longer draw their energy from the life growing around them. Thinking about the lives, the traditions, and the way of life now lost brought tears to her eyes, and all because the Aruk couldn’t be satisfied. 

Pausing at the gate of what was once her Eni’s garden she was given a reason to smile again, hope had feebly woven its way up through the gate into the sunlight.

(Brought to you out of the future of The Alien Mind’s story line- this sequel has not yet been completed. Does that make me a Futurity Histographer? Ankh would be proud lol.)

Find The Alien Mind on Amazon!

Did you like this post? If so you might enjoy my book!

For adults and teens alike, it is truly a science fiction adventure for the whole family!

If you'd prefer an autographed copy straight from the author you can buy one here as well!
Autographed Copy:$13.00 + Shipping

 

Rivi's Cosplay Outfit Update 3

Rivi's outfit in the making

Its finally finished! The outer coat is finally finished- Rivi says its called an Akruv. All I know is that the trim was a beast to put on straight! It needs to be ironed, but I'll do all that once the whole project is done.

Next up is the inner piece that looks essentially like a dress, long sleeves on a one piece long dress. Nope, Rivi's shaking her head at me.

"It's actually called an Akrut."

"So the boy's clothes are the same?"

"Yep, except they are light and dark green."

Here's what I have so far on the 'Akrut'...




I've finished the back and shoulder seams... the side seams are pinned and ready for sewing. There's no sleeves and the collar isn't finished, but check back later if you'd like and I'll keep you posted. ;)

Rivi's Pain- Five Sentence Fiction

Image by Coconino National Forest on Flickr

   I'm getting back to doing some more 5 Sentence Fiction. Originally started by Lillie McFerrin, occasionally I find my own picture and am hit with inspiration.

This week I found this picture on Flickr and am challenging you with the word Fog. Use the word and the picture as inspiration and write your own 5 sentence fiction. If you write it on your own blog I would LOVE to see it- or you could share it in the comments if you don't blog.

Rivi's breath caught in her throat, a scream being stifled by the overwhelming horror she saw all around her. As the Aunantet fled their planet, every living plant and being that was touched by the fog shriveled and died. 

"I don't know what the Aruk did to your friend, Rivi, but he is no longer his old self, we have to leave him!"

"I can't," Rivi replied, "I know he's still in there, I can feel that much."

Rivi put up her electrostatic shield and centered her sights on the one her heart called to.

I hope you enjoyed this- this piece is a work in progress from the sequel to The Alien Mind. It may not make it into the second book, but my muse finds it helpful to get these scraps of scenes written down until I get to that point in the story.

*In my last post I told you that the overcoat that I am making for Rivi's outfit was ready for trim. Well, It's done now and I'm beginning work on the main piece of the outfit. The overcoat was quite a bit of work all by itself! Whew! Check back later and I will post some pictures here on my blog!

In more news- the brand new edition of The Alien Mind is soon to be re-released by PDMI Publishing LLC. and their imprint Rara Avis. It is freshly edited, brand new formatting, as well as illustrations by Matt Ostrum and myself.

The book tour for both the second edition of Visionary From The Stars as well as The Alien Mind begins on the 13th. If you would like to help me spread the word please click on the book tour page and let me know!

Find The Alien Mind on Amazon!

Did you like this post? If so you might enjoy my book!

For adults and teens alike, it is truly a science fiction adventure for the whole family!

If you'd prefer an autographed copy straight from the author you can buy one here as well!
Autographed Copy:$13.00 + Shipping