Tabitha Darling's Blog, page 4

Telepathy a deeper look

An area of communication which I mentioned in a previous post is telepathy. What IS it? First off, it's fake, just a trope in fiction whether movies or books etc, but it's long been used. One thing I tried to do was steer clear of ''assumed' or disconnected paths or methods, like a hand on the face, the use of magic or technology. I wanted this purely biological in nature. What methods are out there to transmit data, signals or other ways of communicating? Smell, chemicals that get picked up and transferred into electro-chemical signal the brain interprets, sound/vibration transfererd/read the same way via the ear, sight is light transferred/read again much the same. The organs are different, the signal input is different. So are the regions of the brain that take in and send off the data. BUT when you take into account what constitutes the self, awareness, memory, sensory input (sensation or physical memory of something) and naturally, that is pretty much the entire brain, well how do you send that off to someone, or even an individual thought? I explored the idea of a different brain structure and a special area of the brain just for sending and receiving. And WHAT is to be sent? Electrical or chemical, or electro-chemical? What medium is best suited to send and receive that signal, water, air what? What shape, dish, tendrils, bulbous melon (like the dolphin) frizzy antennae? What is the range, the reach, the maximum distance? What happens if there is direct physical contact between two parties (presumably a stronger delivery) And if there is contact with a non telepath and a telepath, will the signal transfer work at all, be understood, scrambled, and or the non telepath's brain affected, changed or harmed? These are all things I explored beginning from Trust (Children of Chiron Vol 1) on through the entire series. No magic, no tech, just straight up biology. It was fun and fascinating to look at. Mind you we humans tend to think IN sound, in language, in words... how would that be received if experience is imparted in raw form along side interpretation of the events in one's life?I am giving FREE copies of Trust (Children of Chiron Series Vol 1) until launch day August 31 2017.Book blurb When centaurs return to Earth, they are dying. In the hopes that humanity can help, war breaks out instead. The last infant must be saved! As one centaur, Ieang struggles to keep the infant girl alive, he finds himself not only trapped on this planet but on the run. Both are caught in the middle. Desperate, he and his companion capture one of the enemy humans, but will she will care for the infant?! Every day the baby lives is precious!Amazon book page https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074JLRNPG Author website tabithasbooks.com

Beliefs taken seriously

One thing I enjoyed looking at was religion/beliefs/way of life, however you describe it. Again, I took inspiration from numerous existing and extinct human cultures (not just one). I played around with it but tried to stay true and add a few long suffering twists and unanswered questions until towards the almost finished series (Have 1-3 books to write and it's done) 1-6 ARE wrote and done, so yeah I'll be adding 1 or 3 more...!) A pseudo caste system, a gender divide, a pantheon and something SO sacred and real, it is undeniable. What IS real? This becomes more obvious from Book 2 The Gods Speak onward. I explored how one might pray, given they are telepaths, (with a different brain structure and upbringing as well as cultural lens) How would children be raised, learn the ways of their culture, and as an adult how do they resolve typical issues or unusual ones? What about conflict, even on a larger scale between differing cultures? It was fun, fascinating and something I took seriously. Having at least been exposed to non western cultures and beyond, I have some understanding, some benefit to imbue into this and I did that, not totally completely. I actually wanted to take it further, but let the plot take me where it chose to. But I did take this entire concept seriously, very. I looked into their minds, their eyes and stood with them, HOW would they see humans? How would humans from roughly our time frame/culture (near future) see the centaur belief system/gender divide? I tried in essence to not just throw the idea out there and run, I tried to lay it out directly. There is the odd direct show of ritual as best as could be portrayed and even then I made sure to not have it be shocking (Many many human cultures that are non western can easily be offensive... that was not my intent, goal and neither did I write it BUT I did try to show something NOT us). Yes I did my research, and opted out of a whole host of displays of beliefs, culture, taboos and show of allegiance, or initiation. I did really enjoy exploring to the best of my ability in book 6 a full initiation. I had the chance and took it. Showing gratitude for life, the opportunity to eat, a nod to the creator/s and hope for the future, were fun and intriguing to explore for me. I hope it's a trip for my readers to explore also! In a nutshell I deeply respect all the indigenous, first peoples out there from whichever continent. And I tried to get that across, even if it is fiction.I am giving FREE copies of Trust (Children of Chiron Series Vol 1) until launch day August 31 2017.Book blurb When centaurs return to Earth, they are dying. In the hopes that humanity can help, war breaks out instead. The last infant must be saved! As one centaur, Ieang struggles to keep the infant girl alive, he finds himself not only trapped on this planet but on the run. Both are caught in the middle. Desperate, he and his companion capture one of the enemy humans, but will she will care for the infant?! Every day the baby lives is precious!Amazon book page https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074JLRNPG Author website tabithasbooks.com

Centaurs on another world

One thing I never got enough of, or exhausted and was extremely fun to write was creating different lifeforms on the centaur home world. None of this shows up until Book 2 The Gods Speak but here's a sneak peek. I'm a huge astronomy buff, and science geek, i pay attention I read and I wonder. Naturally, I toss this into my mythology fantasy. A planet slightly bigger than Earth, for all intents and purposes a rocky planet living comfortably within the 'goldilocks zone' (which can be expanded to small moons with enough constant friction from neighboring giants etc). Perhaps its trip around a single star, or the size of the planet, the continents all create a different weather pattern, but otherwise it is like Earth (same density even with a larger planet due to its composition, gravity etc.) BUT again the weather, the seasons would be different, how does that alter the local life forms, or challenge them? (Are these creatures engineered? Hint!) I started out with a few simple examples of alien life, although perhaps recognizable as life, the ugly twin version to Earth models. Take a critter that during the single rain season locally, does not move, but soaks up water underground. Others naturally exploit its water stores during the dry season, or eat it etc. There are small wrigglies that fall with the rain in the lower atmosphere. Don't go out in a rainstorm! And there are rain eaters that make use OF those wrigglies during the rain. I also enjoyed LOVED exploring a little alien animal training (SO much fun) How might they behave?! How smart, what would their response be to efforts to train? There are creatures that scour the algae etc off rocks near the ocean, and critters that eat those. I looked at changing landscapes, incorporating that, showing different, unseen animals depending on whether they were in a ''forested' region, ocean, or desert. Remember this isn't Earth, so there ARE no trees! Talk about a challenge! I am looking for reviews for my book.Giving FREE copies of Trust (Children of Chiron Series Vol 1) until launch day August 31 2017.Book blurb When centaurs return to Earth, they are dying. In the hopes that humanity can help, war breaks out instead. The last infant must be saved! As one centaur, Ieang struggles to keep the infant girl alive, he finds himself not only trapped on this planet but on the run. Both are caught in the middle. Desperate, he and his companion capture one of the enemy humans, but will she will care for the infant?! Every day the baby lives is precious!Amazon book page https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074JLRNPG Author website tabithasbooks.com

Best books of 2017 SO far (Not done yet!)

As a book reviewer here are some of the best books so far I've read in 2017Nikki Moyes' If I Wake https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Wake-Nikk... D Tran's Moon River http://www.amberdtran.com/Tom Starita's Growth and Change are Highly Overrated https://www.amazon.com/Growth-Change-... AM also looking for reviews for my book. Giving FREE copies of Trust (Children of Chiron Series Vol 1) until launch day August 31 2017.Book blurb When centaurs return to Earth, they are dying. In the hopes that humanity can help, war breaks out instead. The last infant must be saved! As one centaur, Ieang struggles to keep the infant girl alive, he finds himself not only trapped on this planet but on the run. Both are caught in the middle. Desperate, he and his companion capture one of the enemy humans, but will she will care for the infant?! Every day the baby lives is precious!Amazon book page https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074JLRNPG Author website tabithasbooks.com

What is a centaur?

I knew I didn't like the idea of redundancy organs, or even skeletal structures for starters. In my research which covered everything from equine, human anatomies, even marine life and insect or invertebrate biology, forums, blogs etc, it only bolstered my original idea.That was step one, next was what do they eat? How do they digest? Well, given that they have human intelligence, the ol' brain uses up most of the energy they eat, therefore their food needed to be high content and quality, and so too did their digestive tract need to accommodate it.Since obviously they could not evolve naturally, they had to somehow be created. I am a horse trainer by trade, so I had a step up on how horses operate. It drives me nuts to see every whinnying, galloping or rearing horse on TV!And, I am a farrier (horse shoer/trimmer) which lends itself perfectly to HOW does a centaur care for it's hooves? Did I want the human back able to bend well that they could reach at least their front hooves? Or so rigid and deformed that they literally need to cooperate as a group to stay healthy? Basic decisions like this I went through.​These were just some of the things I considered, down to their culture, their beliefs, the environment they lived in, their creators, and the idea of various ''species'' of centaur.​How would they react seeing a human or a horse? What is their technology level? How does their society reflect on our understanding of time and history? These are all things gradually addressed in the series itself, book by book. And, while the main centaur race are not true centaur (there is one species that is only centaur human/horse hybrid)​Language. I looked high and low for a language, and point in time to draw from. The language is real, the words are real, the translation (as best as can be to remain true and accurate) are real. Years worth of research went into this series, and years of effort to write, edit and finish it. Years of passion, fascination and what's funny is at the start the enter concept was kicked off by a different series (still in progress) and at the time I didn't even like or care about centaurs! Boy did my perception change on that!​Next up, good versus evil, civilized man versus wild beast theme, which was represented in antiquity by the centaur itself. It is still used to this day, although in a perverted form! I hate that so many books, seem to focus on the vulgar attraction between some female and a horde of centaur males, it's utterly ridiculous. One thing I was not about to back down on was crafting an entirely realistic and deep society. Sure you'll have the odd young hot headed male, but most people in any society by the nature of being social, should cooperate, to avoid tension, not just run around looking for something to... well you get the idea. I wanted these centaurs to not be human so much as plausible, full of depth, meaning, and history, nuance etc. ​Finally, culture itself, I drew from indigenous cultures as a whole, not any particular one, I drew from their equine anatomy as an inspiration for how their culture and beliefs would be shaped as well as the environment they lived in (which should vary depending on where they are!) And I will say this, I grew up in Alaska, I spent time with the native peoples up there. Though I am not one of them, I have some sense, some insight into the simple reality that the two cultures do not see the same thing in the same way. That I strove viciously to portray this with the centaurs, in my books. That these were not just carbon copy western people stuck in horse form,. Nope! I wanted there to be distinct differences in thought, feeling, perception and behavior. Hope you guys like Trust! Leave a review here and tell me your thoughts! Remember, once a week until launch day (August 31) I'm giving one free copy out to those who sign up to the newsletter. FREE! Signup at Tabithasbooks.com Thanks!

A thought

One thing I tackled in the writing of Trust, was how would two biologically different and separated species communicate? They would share some similarities physically, and mentally, but then what? Add into the mix speech vs telepathy. HOW would that first meeting go?! Again I looked to real world dynamics and nature. I looked beyond mammals as a source of communication methods. Insects, marine life, even plants communicate in a variety of ways. So I did my research and thought it through.  And then you have to consider the medium a signal is transferred in, the physics of it, what living biological systems might be remotely similar to what I was cooking up in the book. I kept it simple, relate-able but hopefully to the reader plausible since I had no intention of using magic whatsoever. My books may have mythology creatures in them, but absolutely zero magic.Again don't forget that Trust is free (one giveaway per week until launch day August 31 2017 Signup to the newsletter to get your free copy at tabithasbooks.com and leave a review for Trusthere. 

The Gods Speak (Children of Chiron Vol 2)

With Trust out, I am now doing final editing for The Gods Speak Vol 2 in the series. At this point, I am nearly half through, and need to get the cover work done in the latter half of the document editing. This book will be a little shorter but I am happy with that. Books 1-6 ARE all wrote, but they need a final edit, covers, and of course the ol' ISBN. Hope you guys like Trust! Leave a review right here and tell me your thoughts! Remember, once a week until launch day (August 31) I'm giving one free copy out to those who sign up to the newsletter. FREE! Signup at Tabithasbooks.com Thanks!

Pre-order for Trust is live on Amazon!

So happy to see it up!  Woohoo!https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074JLRNPG

Author page is live!

Live from Amazon it's.... My Author page! Next is the page for Trust (Children of Chiron series Vol 1), keep an eye out for updates! Share, share, and share some more folks, spread the word! And thank you! https://www.amazon.com/Tabitha-Darlin...

An interview with Jen Selinsky

Go read the fun interview!