Bitroux: High Country
Bitroux: High Country
Jordan Harcourt-Hughes
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GENRE: Science Fiction
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BLURB:
If Merouac ever thought his life’s work would culminate in leading the metal workshops of the Transcontinental Railroad Project, he was sorely mistaken.
Now, his true challenge lies in navigating the other-worldly abilities he’s only beginning to understand—abilities that allow him to tune metal to interdimensional frequencies.
While trying to be a guardian to his niece, Evra, he’s realising she may have more to teach him than he ever expected. At the same time, his decision to help an interdimensional race find refuge underground puts him at the centre of an even deeper mystery.
As reality reshapes itself around him, Merouac faces a growing realisation: the world of Ahm is on the brink of a profound transformation, and everything he thought he knew may soon be shattered.
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EXCERPT
There was something about that zone of quiet concentration. It was always somewhere in the middle of those quiet moments where the blue light of the Top Hats had started to appear at the edge of his gaze. It had always been hard to see the things directly in his sight; they shifted and moved and always seemed hazy and insubstantial. He wondered if, in those moments, he had drifted into the Maolfi state without realising it.
He kept working. The surges of static came and went, heating his body, and then leaving, giving him a sense that his whole body was buzzing, vibrating. He kept moving, concentrating only on the wood. And things started to shift, but not in the way he had anticipated.
Soon, two piles had been moved and Merouac was starting to feel a welcome feeling of tiredness. He contemplated leaving the last pile of wood for the morning but kept moving instead. Then, something sounded.
He looked up. Nothing. Had anything made a noise at all? He felt sure he had heard something. All was still. What was it that he thought he had heard? Like someone or something was crashing through the trees, perhaps. He shook his head. Nothing unusual stirred, the flickering lights continued and below he could see hummers and their fluorescent markings shimmering in the trees.
Then he realised. He hadn’t heard it. He’d felt it.
He closed his eyes, tried to make his way to the place the Faurin called the Maolfi state. Kii had wanted him to find a place of deep listening. And perhaps what he was just starting to understand was, that you could listen with all your body, and feel sound in other ways than just noise.
After a time, he opened his eyes again and saw spheres hovering in the air, full of something he couldn’t quite comprehend.
Reaching out to touch them, they felt full and weighty and yet his hand could partially pass through them. They were not solid, and yet they were full. Like bubbles being blown by some invisible child, they formed and hung in the atmosphere.
They grew larger, then fuzzier, then collapsed from their own weight, dripping a strange sentience that dispersed back into the atmosphere. Often, they formed again straight away, the same spheres, the same size and colour, the same weight, only to burst and disperse once again.
Some of the smaller ones were only as large as his hand. Others, twice the size. And then hovering at greater height, larger spheres his whole body could have walked through. They shifted and mutated, formed and faded, pulsed and glowed. They were magical.
‘This is different,’ he said out loud, and grinned.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Jordan Harcourt-Hughes is an abstract painter, writer and communications professional. She’s passionate about all aspects of creativity, life-long learning and personal wellbeing. Over the last fifteen years she’s led, coached and developed creative professionals across the Asia-Pacific region.
Jordan’s books, studio workshops, courses, coaching and resources are an invitation to explore the rich landscape of creative experiences open to all.
High Country is Jordan’s second novel set in the world of Bitroux.
Website: https://jordanharcourthughes.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordaninthestudio/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordaninthestudio/
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INTERVIEW With …
How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I was a kid. I remember winning a class competition for the best story back in my first year or two at school. I was called Strawberry Land. It was the first experience I remember where I was going about the business of creating another world!
What did you do on your last birthday?
Like a lot of creative folk, I’m an introvert – so I really enjoy doing small things, with small amounts of people. For my last birthday, I celebrated with a lovely lunch.
This year, for my 49th birthday, we do have something special planned – we are travelling on the Ghan from Adelaide to the Northern Territory. The Ghan is one of Australia’s most well-known outback adventure journeys – and if you believe their marketing material, it’s also regarded as one of the world’s best tail journeys. We’re hoping that’s true! We’ll be traveling right through the heart of the country.
I actually started writing Bitroux: High Country on another world-renowned train trip –the Rocky Mountaineer, which took us through the Canadian Rocky Mountains. For me, writing on the train is such a nod to the old school way of doing things. I always love scribbling my first drafts with pen and paper. So, I’m looking forward to those moments of dreaming, looking out of the train windows and thinking up ideas for future books!
The Australian desert landscapes also have spectacular colours. There is something really interesting about some of those reds that you find here – rust, dust, earth, heat, vibrancy – it’s all pretty magical.
What part of the writing process do you dread?
I don’t dread any part of the process, as I try and get better with each new piece of writing that I create. There are so many different skills to learn and hone. So, I like that challenge. But for me, the hardest part comes as you get towards the end.
There is a lot of information you have to hold in your head as you bring the book home. You’re asking yourself so many questions – is it interesting? Does it make sense, will it be satisfying from a reader perspective? Have I answered this question? Have I resolved that tension?
And when you’re a busy creative person, it’s just one project amidst others that you’re also trying to hold together – so my brain does get pretty overloaded at times!
But writing a book is such a satisfying project that it’s worth it in the end – you just have to know that the challenging stages will pass and you just have to muscle your way through it.
Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?
I do suffer from writer’s block. That’s why I paint! It’s my magic trick. I’m an intuitive artist who’s spent many years just splashing around happily with paint, making a mess, having fun and occasionally making an artwork. It seems to always unlock me at a deep level and sooner or later, what wasn’t coming through in the writing ends up coming through in the art. It took me a while to realise this, of course.
But, that’s how the illustrated printed editions of the Bitroux books came about. The artworks were all created as a by-product of writers block, but they also talk to the essence of the story in a way that the words don’t. So, I think it’s a win-win situation!
Tell us about your latest release.
Bitroux: High Country focuses on the story of Merouac, a metalsmith who has recently discovered his ability to tune metal to other-world frequencies. The story is about his journey to accept his gifts and use them in a way that makes sense in his world. So, I think for me this is the story that many of us are exploring in our own lives as well.
How do we accept the gifts that we have come into the world with, even when they are strange, quite possibly inconvenient and also make us look at the world around us in a whole new way?
Merouac has a railroad to build and a niece to take care of, but he is on a journey where the more he discovers, the less he knows – and again, I think this can be our experience as humans.
As we go through our own personal experiences of inner development, or ascension – whatever you call it, we start to realise that our world isn’t what we thought it was. We have to spend time unlearning old ideas and old habits, and we have to take responsibility for owning our life path, rather than just being passively swept along with the crowds.
That takes work, and often we’d probably rather not have the knowledge that comes to us, because that knowledge comes with responsibility. But it also means that the universe is talking to us – helping us grow and have experiences that enrich us and allow us to evolve. So, in the story we see Merouac go through these experiences – and I think at some point when I was writing I realized that he wanted to be on the journey and that he could take responsibility for owning it. So, read the book and see what this means for him!
