Introduction

Welcome back. This post will deal with the setting of Palingenesis, namely life in Azure Plains, Michigan.

Michigan

Like many midwestern states, Michigan leans conservative and is a perennial swing state. However, large cities like Detroit and Ann Arbor are more liberal, and in the case of Ferndale, it’s very LGBTQ+ friendly.

But race relations have a long history of problems, be it cities that are highly segregated to this day, white flight from the inner city to the suburbs and country, and white supremacist activity in the state. As a general rule the farther from the metro-Detroit area you get, the less diverse and more conservative people get.

Weather

Given our proximity to Canada and the Great Lakes, Michigan is prone to wild weather swings; you can experience winter-link snowstorms in the morning, Spring showers in the afternoon, and sweltering Summer heat in the evening. Weather is often localized to the point that you drive through storms. And certain parts of the upper peninsula can get snow year-round. Tornados are also common, and every Michigander knows to go into their basement/lowest level of their house when a tornado watch is issued. We also know to prepare for prolonged power outages during the summer and winter months.

 All of which has prompted the saying, “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.  

Traditions

Michigan is home to several annual traditions, such as going to cider mills every fall for hayrides, cider, and doughnuts; Traverse City’s cherry festival every July; and Motor City Pride every June. Detroit and Windsor also put on a joint firework display for the International Freedom Festival, an annual multi-day festival celebrating Canada Day and the Fourth of July. There’s also the annual jazz and techno festivals, and the Detroit Hoedown for country music fans. And every August classic cars parade along Woodward Avenue for the Woodward Dream Cruise.    

Food

Michigan is home to several immigrant populations, so we have a variety of foods to choose from. Hit up Hamtramck for Polish food. Craving middle eastern cuisine, then pop over to Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, home the country’s largest population of Middle Eastern folks.

Being majority black, Detroit is great for soul food and traditional American dishes like burgers, and you have to try our deep-dish pizza. You’ll also find Greek, Italian, Chinese, and Indian restaurants scattered across the Metro-Detroit areas. Uou’ll also find poutine and New York style delis.  

Overall, Travis Likes his home state, but not so much his city.

Azure Plains

Azure Plains, Michigan is a fictional Detroit suburb, and is an amalgamation of several such suburbs I’ve visited over the years. Like many Michigan suburbs, it’s segregated, with the well-to-do living on the east side of town in gated communities, while the working-poor and middle class live on the west side of town. Much as Eight Mile Road is the physical and psychological border separating Detroit from the northern suburbs, Woodward Avenue bisects Azure Plains into the haves and the have-nots. Travis’s neighborhood is on the edge of this border and Woodward Avenue runs right behind his two-story house.

The mayor of Azure Plains, Jasonda Pride, has been in office for two decades, largely from the wealthy side of town supporting her financially, allow her to crush anyone foolish enough to challenge her. All decisions about the town are made by a committee of concerned citizens, which is code for rich, bored housewives.

The city has a business district downtown, and the stores are a mix of boutiques, cafes, artisanal sandwich shops, and bars. And every year they have an art festival/ food festival called the Hardy Arty Party in the days leading up to The Woodward Dream Cruise. And for every major holiday they allow local children to decorate the shop fronts.

Every Christmas the local shops donate money to buy needy children toys, and every Halloween they pass out candy to kids as the business district turns into the Scream District, a massive, haunted house.   

Travis and others without cars get around via the SMART bus system and DDOT system, which connects Azure Plains to Flint to the northernmost, and downtown Detroit to the southernmost.  

Children in Azure Plains have few options for schools. The working class send their kids to Don Barton Elementary, Thurgood Marshall Middle School, and MLK Highschool. The rich send their children to Azure Plains Preparatory Academy, a K-12 charter school.

AP Prep

AP Prep, or APPA as the cool kids call it, is a multi-wing school sat on three acres of land. It has its own stadium for football, field hockey, lacrosse, and soccer matches, along with a regulation gym for basketball, wrestling, volleyball, and other indoor sports. While academics are preached about daily, Travis sees how the teachers fawn over athletes, and is infuriated when they get to set the curve.

The uniform at AP Prep is simple: A school blazer, dress shirt with optional tie, dress pants or khakis, with dress shoes. The uniforms alone often price out most people on Travis’s side of town. And even those who can afford them can’t pay the fees AP Prep charges for every little thing. And as such, Travis is one of twenty BIPOC students at the school.

The courses at AP Prep are on par with those taught at private schools, and the teachers are the best of the bunch, recruited in much the same way prospects for college sports are. As such, AP Prep’s graduation rate is 98% and their students have a college graduation rate of 85%

The teachers are hard on the students, save those on sports teams, and expect only the best from them. Of course, Travis thinks this is a load of crap, since he’s witnessed teachers “bump up” grades after said student’s parents donate to the school’s many extracurricular activities. The hypocrisy of it all is vomit inducing.  

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this post. Check out Palingenesis when it releases September 1, 2021. For more updates on this and other WIPs signup to receive my newsletter.

Welcome back!

Today’s post is a special one. After over a decade working off and on Palingenesis, I am proud to present the cover for it.

I’ve poured my heart and soul into this book and can’t wait for y’all to read it when it releases in September.

For the unaware, Palingenesis is the first in a YA dark fantasy/sci-fi series about a bullied Black boy who learns he’s evil’s chosen one and must fight the devil to protect the boy and world he loves.

Without further ado here’s the cover.

Here’s the blurb:

Hell has no fury like a seventh-grader scorned.

Twelve-year-old Travis Turner fought the devil and won . . . barely. But evil never dies, and now he must master his supernatural abilities before Oblivion grows strong enough to defeat him and jumpstart the apocalypse.

However, Travis’s powers cause genome instability, leaving him only months to live if it’s not reversed.

He’s resigned to dying, until JJ Giovanni, the cocky redhead who’s bullies him for years, befriends him.

As their relationship intensifies, so do Travis’s powers, until he’s called to a cave, where he learns truths that forever change him.

To save the people he loves, the world and himself, Travis must let go of all he knows and embrace the hero within.

For fans of Buffy, The X-Men, and Shonen anime/manga.

Introduction

Welcome to part two of the post on the science used in The Phoenix Diaries. Without further ado, let’s begin.

The Science

Astrobiology

Astrobiology deals with whether life on other planets exist, and if so, how it may have evolved and how humans can detect it. It makes use of several different sciences such as molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, and exoplanetology to determine where life may be present. I use astrobiology to theorize how alien lifeforms might evolve and how their environments affect their biology.

For example, the Nekoshin home world has heavy gravity, so they tend to be muscular, squat, stronger, and faster than humans. Conversely, The Hebin from planet Drac’con tend to be very tall relative to humans, owing to Drac’con’s lower gravity.

Xeno-linguistics

Xeno-linguistics is the theoretical study of alien languages using standard linguistic techniques and concepts. I employ this in the series through the creation of alien languages such as Na’iva and Na’el, which Travis and Prometheus learn in Palingenesis. In later books more alien languages are introduced such as Omnivox, a lingua franca used among the various alien cultures.

Xeno-technology

Likewise, xeno-technology is the study of alien technology, which is a major plot point later in the series as Travis hatches a plan to reverse-engineer all the alien technology he encounters on his adventures and introduce them to Earth. Such technology includes fusion generators, molecular printers, and teleportation pads.

Telepathy

Telepathy is usually considered in the realm of fantasy, but there’s a scientific explanation for how it could work. The theory goes something like this: brain waves being a collection of electrical impulses, these impulses can be transmitted to another’s brain, assuming you’re on the right “frequency.” The technology to do this would require precise knowledge of the human nervous system and brain, so we don’t fry the receiver’s and sender’s mind in the process.

Travis and Prometheus, being part energy creature, are able to modulate their brain waves to tune to others’ minds, and receive others’ thoughts, much as one dialing in a radio station.    

Telekinesis

Similar to telepathy, telekinesis would work by harnessing the power of our brain waves. This would require equipping the objects we want to move with receivers that trigger motors in the objects. Scientists have been experimenting with such technology to help quadriplegics control tablets via their thoughts, and others have used brain implants to allow people to move a robotic arm via their thoughts.

   In this case of Travis and Prometheus, they use the electromagnetic field generated by their brain waves to affect the atmospheric pressure around them and use that to push objects.

Elemental Control

Matter and energy are basically the same thing, per Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, thus if you control one, you control the other. Furthermore, by controlling matter at a subatomic, one can create, water, fire, and the other elements and manipulate them with various forces.

 Therefore, Travis and Prometheus can control the elements due to their control of energy. And fire being a chemical reaction that produces energy in the form of heat, is the element they have greatest control over.  

Rapid Healing

 The rate at which a person heals from an injury depends on age, general health, rest, and nutrition. Generally speaking, the older and sicker you are, the longer it takes you to heal. The healing process is governing by a set of biological processes which all require energy and the right about of organic chemistry to work.

 The way rapid healing works in Palingenesis is Travis is able to speed up this process by focusing his energy onto the task of healing himself. However, doing this requires a ton of energy and Travis’s powers are nerfed afterward, rendering him vulnerable during this recharge period.  

Molecular Printers

Molecular printers are a take on 3-d printers, only they print items molecule by molecule. How such a device would work is by using fusion generators as their power source, then you could either put raw materials in them and have the machine transform the atomic structure into the item you want, or in more advanced models the molecular printer would create the item whole cloth from pure energy a la the replicators from Star Trek.

You can do this because per superstring theory, all matter and energy are just strings vibrating at different frequencies.  

The molecular printer Travis first encounters is of the former type.

Gravity Amplifiers

Similarly, gravity can be amplified using the same technology to vibrate strings at the frequencies to create gravitons and produce localized gravitational fields, like the one Travis and Prometheus use to train with.

Currently, the only way to simulate the effects of gravity is via rotation of large objects, and such a method is used on the International Space Station.  

Hologram-Trainer

 Holograms are creations of light, specifically they are created when two beams of light of the same wavelength intersect with a two- or three-dimensional picture.

Because light is just another form of energy, the hologram-trainer is able to create holograms of any object you could conceive of, with the benefit of making them solid. So, for all intents and purposes, the holograms it produces are real and can kill you.

Travis and Prometheus make uses of this machine during their training in the Magova (|mah| |goh| |vah| cave) and afterward to keep their skills sharp.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve enjoyed this deep dive into the science behind the fiction. For more information about astronomy and astrophysics check out Neil deGrass Tyson and Derrick Pitts.

Next week’s blog will be my cover reveal.

Introduction

Welcome back!

 This week and next week’s blogpost will cover the science used in the series. Science fiction and science fact have always influenced each other. Things we take for granted today, like smartphones, tablets, and the internet were once only in the realm of fiction. In fact, science fiction and science often push each other to new limits.

Case in point, the concept of geostationary satellites, which scientists use to collect data on the earth’s atmosphere and telecoms use to transfer data, were popularized by sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke in his 1945 paper, Extra-Terrestrial Relays – Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?

 Moreover, sci-fi author Jules Verne predicted humans would land on the moon decades before the Apollo Program succeeded in doing so. He also predicted submarines, the juke box and hologram, and the existence of giant squids. George Orwell also predicted facial recognition software, speech-to-text devices, and AI technology that could create books and music. In each case, what started as science fiction became reality.

In a similar way, I’ve tried to take existing science and technology and extrapolate how they could be used.  

The Science of Palingenesis

Superstring and M-Theory

Superstring theory and M-Theory posit that instead of the four dimensions we learned in school (length, width, depth, and time) there are other dimensions parallel to ours. Specifically, superstring theory says that the smallest units of energy and matter are strings, one-dimensional objects, whose vibrations give rise to the graviton and other elementary particles. There were five theories of superstring theory, each with a different set of mathematical equations governing them, until 1995 when physicist Edward Witten unified them in M-theory. However, M-theory requires the existence of eleven dimensions.

How this applies to my series is M-theory leads to the existence of infinite dimensions, not just the eleven it predicts. This in turn leads to the existence of a multiverse in Palingenesis, one such dimension being Pandemonium, which Travis travels to at the end of the book.  

Quantum Entanglement

Quantum Entanglement in simplest terms is the phenomenon wherein two particles on the quantum level, separated by a distance X influence each other. For example, if you change the position of momentum of one, it changes those of the other. How this applies to The Phoenix Diaries is that Travis and Prometheus can change into beings of pure energy, and thus the laws of quantum mechanics apply, and they are quantum entangled, allowing one to find the other no matter where in the universe they are.

Einstein’s Theories of Special and General Relativity

Most of us are familiar with E=mc² and know it as Einstein’s theory of relativity. But this is in accurate. Einstein had two theories of relativity. His special theory of relativity is the one that uses his famous equation and deals with the behavior of physics in different reference frames, relativistic (traveling near the speed of light), and nonrelativistic (everyday speeds much less than the speed of light).

As a consequence of this theory time isn’t constant and you get time dilation where events appear to happen differently based on the reference frame you’re in.

The example Einstein gave was two bolts of lightning striking the ends of a train car. Do they strike at the same time? The answer depends on where in the train (your reference frame) you are. If you’re closer to one end you observe that end being struck first, followed by the other end being struck.

How this plays into The Phoenix Diaries is that time in other dimensions is different (time dilation) such that a day in one dimension could be a month or longer in another dimension. Something Travis must account for when dimension hopping.

Now Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity deals with space and time, uniting them in the famous space-time continuum. According to this theory space and time are like a fabric and it’s the warping of this fabric by mass that causes gravity and given a dense enough mass this fabric can be puncture. Such a puncture is called a black hole, which Einstein also predicted.  

However, it’s the equation E=mc² that we’re concerned with right now. Per this equation, half of all the food Travis and Prometheus eat gets converted directly to energy; it’s this energy which fuels all their abilities.

They are essentially walking nuclear fusion reactors, a plot point which comes up in later books.

Black Holes and Wormholes

As a mentioned above, black holes are created when a superdense mass rips a hole in the space-time continuum. This most often happens when stars exhaust their fuel and go supernova, or as a natural part of galaxy formation.

 Scientists have found proof that a supermassive black hole is at the center of every large galaxy, including our own Milky Way.

The gravity created by black holes is so strong that even light can’t escape them, and anything that falls into a black hole will be crushed to a singularity (infinitely tiny particles) and the laws of time and space cease to exist.

However, all is not lost as some black holes have an exit.

These are called wormholes and their existence has been hypothesized due to a special solution of the Einstein field equation. Worm holes are basically tunnels linking one point in space-time with another, similar to the technology used in the movie Stargate. Travis and Prometheus use wormholes to teleport and dimension hop.     

Teleportation

The science behind teleportation involves quantum mechanics. On the quantum level if you give a particle inside a box enough energy, it is able to “tunnel” through the box. This is known as quantum tunneling and scientists have used it to teleport information between photons, electrons, atoms, and superconductors. However, teleportation of larger objects like humans remains science fiction.

Teleportation in The Phoenix Diaries comes in three varieties: (1) through wormholes as I described above, (2) through advanced alien technology that coverts the user into pure energy that is then sent through an internet of teleportation pads, and (3) via magic. The second and third methods will be explored in the second book in the series.  

Information Theory

Information theory studies the transmission, processing, extraction, and utilization of information. Abstractly, information can be thought of as the resolution of uncertainty. One of the issues with information theory is where it concerns black holes.

Mathematically, all data that enters a block hole should be lost, compressed to a singularity. This results in the Black Hole Information Paradox. One proposed solution to this paradox is that the information is retained on the outside of the black hole.  It’s such a solution I take advantage of in my series. When Travis and Prometheus teleport, all their information remains on the outside of the wormhole, then travels along it, where it is then reassembled. And as nod to this, they gain the memories of the other whenever they merged.  

Conclusion

Thanks for reading, and if you liked it, please tell your friends and share it on social media. For more information on the topics covered today, check out nasa.gov, popularmechanics.com, and mkaku.org (the homepage of theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku).

Introduction

Welcome back, this blogpost will cover sacred geometry, its history and uses, and how I incorporate it in magic system of the Phoenix Diaries.  

What is scared geometry?

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Introduction

Welcome back. This week I’ll be tackling the elements that went into the world building of Palingenesis.

As kid I was a loner, and the library was my refuge; In seventh grade I got big into mythology, starting with the Greek myths, then moved on to Norse and Egyptian mythology.

During this time I was also big into video games, anime, comics, and sci-fi/fantasy shows like Buffy, Charmed, and  Star Trek: The Next Generation. All of this shaped the worldbuilding of Palingenesis, as I will explain.

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Introduction

Welcome back.

 In this post I’ll be exploring symbols and their use within the world of Palingenesis. But what is a symbol?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a symbol as: something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance, especially :  a visible sign of something invisible. Familiar examples of such symbols are the cross, Star of David, and the star and crescent.

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Introduction

Welcome,

This is the first in a series of posts leading up to the cover reveal of Palingenesis, my debut YA novel about 12-year-old Travis Turner, a bullied biracial geeky boy who learns he’s evil’s chosen. Travis must then fight the devil to protect the boy and world he loves.

Palingenesis is the first in a series and will release September 1, 2021. A recurring motif in the story is that of rebirth as symbolized by the phoenix, but this growth doesn’t come easy. As Octavia Butler said:

In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.

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Introduction

From the recent videos of police brutalizing and murdering Black people and those depicting violence against LGBTQ+ folks, to Books like The Hate U Give and Red, White & Royal Blue, trauma porn has been in for a while now. Trauma porn is defined as any media where the primary focus is on the suffering or pain of its characters.

Now you might be thinking, “Doesn’t everyone face challenges?” And you’d be right. The issues comes when the people in these stories primarily come from marginalized communities. Take videos of rundown buildings in Detroit and other majority minority cities for example. The purpose of said videos weren’t to humanize the residents of these cities but to provide entertainment for the bourgeoise whites and others who watched them. Likewise, when these same people read about Black and LGBTQ+ pain, they consume them as entertainment, which resultes in the dehumanizing of both communities.

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