Einar of Vindemiatrix by Michael E. Gonzales

As I write these lines, we are on the event horizon of the release of my latest novel, Einar of Vindemiatrix.

This story marks my first sojourn in to the genera of Fantasy and a temporary step back from Space Opera.

I found this story difficult to write because I have a logical thought process, and in Fantasy logic, and the rules of physics are overpowered by magic.

Fantastical creatures, monsters, powers that defy explanation, these combined with more comprehensible things like, envy, greed, lust, all of which merge to present an aging Knight with foes beyond his formidable skill as a warrior.

He will need help and receives it from the strangest places.

“When Good King Thurban the Great is murdered at the hand of his younger brother, very few of his loyal knights survive. Sir Einar, one of the fiercest knights of King Thurban’s realm, has lost his entire family in the carnage. Giving up on a life of his own, he chooses to travel and teach others the principles of chivalry. For those who believe in a knightly code, he will also show them the deadly way to wield a sword in battle—including Ascella, a young woman who convinces him she will make an apt student.

“Though many years have passed since Einar’s painful losses and King Thurban the Great’s murder, the knight finds a way to avenge his honorable liege—but he cannot do it alone. To return Vindemiatrix to the rightful heir and restore the holdings to their former glory, he needs magic—the most powerful magic he can find.

“With the help of a powerful witch, an army of centaurs, and beautiful Ascella, Einar is determined to find a way to make things right once more in the land he loves. But he’s never fought an enemy so prepared to hold Vindemiatrix in its powerful grip—and this is a battle to the death. Can he risk losing everything he holds dear a second time?”

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The Suspension of Disbelief. By Michael Gonzales

Okay—this might at first seem a bit rambling, but hang in there.

In science fiction and fantasy there is an expectation of the suspension of disbelief.

After all, believing a vast advanced culture resides beneath the sands of Mars, or that dragons can be harnessed and flow about…well, really. Everyone knows, you can’t saddle a dragon, please!

Even in “hard” scifi there are two (currently) impossible pieces of “science” that are forgiven: Faster Than Light speeds (FTL), and Time Travel.

In recent years another impossibility has been gaining in acceptance, the “Star Gate.” Even faster than FTL travel, you just step through the gate and…poof; you’re in another galaxy.

The concept is certainly not new, and even predates the 1994 movie staring Curt Russell and James Spader, and the follow-on TV series. These two entertainments made the words “Star Gate” nearly a household term.

Those two words used together today, evoke the visual of a vertical toilet flushing you away...to an off-world adventure.

What the Star Gate is supposed to be is a black hole brought into being by intelligent design, alien intelligent design, of course. For as we all know only aliens from an advanced civilization, eons older than our own, possess such technology.

Two twentieth century scientists, Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen proposed a solution to the Einstein Field Equations.  In short, and I mean very short, the solution is what has come to be know as an Einstein-Rosen bridge, or…a black hole.

The Einstein-Rosen Bridge is the geometrical property of a black hole; on the other end of the black hole one would find another set of dimensions at a location…well, somewhere else.

Einstein himself said that the creation of such a tunnel was theoretically possible, but it would require the energy of several suns.

Now I ask you, who but aliens have control of that kind of power?

These aliens would be at least a level III on the Kardashev Scale.

The what…scale?

The scale was originally designed in 1964 by the Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev. He was actually looking for signs of extraterrestrial life within cosmic signals.

His scale for determining just how advanced a civilization is started with 3 basic classes, each measured by the amount of energy a given civilization can harness: Types I through III.

Since then other astronomers have extended the scale to include Types IV and V.

A Type V civilization would be able to capture all the energy available in not just our universe, but in all universes and in all time-lines.

At this point I think it an interesting fact to note, that Earth does not even measure on this scale.

To surmise, a Type I civilization would have control over all the energy existent on a planet, a type II would harness the power of a star, which would resulted in them harboring enough “disposable” energy to essentially make that civilization immune to extinction.

But the Type III would be a species that had become galactic traversers with knowledge of everything having to do with energy, resulting in them becoming a master race.

Dr. Steven Hawkins warned of making contact with a spacefaring civilization, the renowned astrophysicist said it was, "perfectly rational to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere.”

But he warned that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources, then move on.

"If aliens visit us,” he said. “The outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans.” 

After considering the Kardashev Scale, perhaps one might think that Dr. Hawkins’ warning should be taken to heart.

But…after reading my next novel, Beyond a Sea of Stars, you might worry that; it’s already too late.

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Happy New Year from the author of, "The Battle of Broken Moon."

JILL seen from the lunar surface.

2016 is in the archives. Frankly, I’m happy to see it go. Not that it didn’t have its high points.

My first novel was published in March, Dark Moon Rising. My second novel, The Battle of Broken Moon, was released in December. I can’t start to describe the rush that accompanies seeing your words in print! This, of course, is followed by the deep concern that readers will like what they read.

The series, “The Unborn Galaxy,” is made up of five separate stories, all taking place within the “Unborn Galaxy.” Two are published, the publisher has the third, the fourth was edited this past summer and I just got the fifth back from my editor.

Additionally, in the wings, is a separate story, a medieval adventure filled with mythical creatures, a beauteous young damsel as quick with her sword as she is with her wit. An elder knight who bears a great burden, and a malevolence to vile for even the most hated of mythical monsters. This story I call ― “The Witch of Vindemiatrix.”

Cliona

Another point of celebration; this past December 21^st of 2016 saw the one year anniversary of my wife’s survival after her heart attack. Additionally, her cardiologist has given her a clean bill of health. Nevertheless, she will remain a heart patient for the rest of her life.

 The event took place inside the VA hospital, where my wife took me for an examination. If you’re going to have a heart attack, have it in a hospital.

As a result, my family missed its traditional Christmas celebration in 2015. We made up for it Christmas of 16, however.

I have learned a lot about heart disease in general, and in women specifically. It is often called the silent killer of women, because, unlike in men where a sudden pain in the chest, arm and or leg signals the onset, in women it is far subtler.

And women suffer a disproportional number of heart attacks.

Ladies, if you’ve not been examined I cannot encourage, cajole, or warn you enough. There is no typical target for the disease. Young, old, tall, short, smoker, non-smoker, lite, or heavy.  My dear wife was the picture of health. Where I was taking a bevy of meds supplied by the VA, my wife took none. She had regular checkups, exercised, ate right, she was the archetype of what our doctors want us to be. Yet, on 21 December 2015 she was laid low by a near microscopic tear in the interior lining of a blood vessel on her heart, smaller than a strand of spaghetti.

This past Thanksgiving, and Christmas, we certainly thanked God for his blessings, and have been doing so every day since that dark date.

So, please, see your doctors, have your risk assessed, and your ticker scrutinized.

None can cheat death, but you can increase the distance from him―and it is not difficult at all.

So, as we enter a new year, let me wish you all a happy, prosperous, and healthy New Year. A year that can be made much more adventurous within the pages of Dark Moon Rising, and The Battle of Broken Moon.

Mike Gonzales

Atomic bombing of JILL

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