Anarres 2

The Other Shore - General Synopsis

2011-10-03T21:24:00.003+03:00

Is the time always flowing with the same speed and in the same direction? Do we live in a dream of do our dreams live in a real world? If a temporary bridge connects us to another corner of the Universe, how would we see such a world? How would we change it? How would it change us? If we encountered an extraordinary advanced civilization, will we acknowledge its existence at all?

1795. Excelsior, a military brig on a routine sea mission disappears without a trace, just to return to her harbor three months later with an incredible story. Alberto Shimada, the second officer on board is separated from his crew during a fierce fight with the locals of a mysterious island where gold is as cheap as stone. With his direct access to the coast blocked by the enemies, he treks along a mysterious river with the intention to reach the shore in a farther away area and return to his people by sea on an improvised raft. But things becomes stranger and stranger along his journey, as he seems to live several lives at once. He falls asleep in one just to wake up into the next. Faced with the Chuang Tzu dilemma about the man dreaming of being a butterfly or the butterfly dreaming of being a man, Alberto doesn't know which one of his lives is real.

A young woman and her father save the officer from the brink of death and help him recover in a mysterious village. Alberto falls in love with Nivit and they begin a journey across the mountains nearby planning to reach the shore and return to Excelsior. A snow storm blocks them in a cave and Nivit can't survive the prolonged cold. Now Alberto is split between his duty for his crew and his desire to cross into the world where Nivit disappeared and save the woman he loves. Can he do both? In the end, which one of all the existences he experiences is the real one? And what kind of universe is hidden behind the shores of this mysterious island?

The first 50% of "The Other Shore" available for free on Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/90767

The first half of "The Other Shore" free to read on Smashwords

2011-09-24T23:07:00.003+03:00

As the second half of my book is the most interesting part, and as reading the first half should deffinitely be enough to decide my readers if it's worth paying the 99 cents to read the rest, I've made the first 50% of "The Other Shore" available on Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/90767
I'm really curious to hear your opinion :).

Butterfly's Dream 3

2011-09-23T00:48:00.000+03:00

I wake up and can't remember where I am. Why do I feel such a pain in my thoughts, such a sadness in my heart? I am inside an immense cave with an arched ceiling. The ceiling is lit in a yellow color by myriads of tiny organisms. The floor is covered in several places by large, white mushrooms.

Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.

On what side is the real world and where is the mirror? Which one am I, the butterfly or the man? But if there is no "I", would this question even make sense? Because in this case I/there is no "I" can't even know who is asking. So, in the end, is there more than one reality? Or maybe everything is a dream? Am I/there is no "I" awake now?

During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream. And yet fools think they are awake, presuming to know that they are rulers or herdsmen.

Chuang Tzu has described correctly this situation since millennia ago. Slapping my face or pinching my skin would be dream slaps and pinches and won't make me wake up. One way to start figuring out what is going on is to check my notes. The last written date is June 20. So, is it June 21 now? This should be the longest day of the year. But is it really June 21? I suppose I didn't sleep for more than one night. My watch is broken and I can't tell the time. Reading the notes in my log I remember our expedition to the city and the kidnapping of the beautiful princess. Salik told me her name starts with an "N." I think it is Nern. And she looked exactly like Nivit from my dream. But was it a dream? Let's see. If it was a dream, then I haven't had time to learn the Edorian language. I shall try to write down a few phrases using their writing, which I am not supposed to know. If my trip to Edor, the mountains and Nivit were a dream, then I shan't be able to do it. If it was real, I am supposed to know about five thousand words in Edorian and have no problems to hold a conversation in this tongue. I call it "Edorian" because I have learned it in my dream in the village of Edor, but I suppose the people from Gold City speak the same language and might name it differently.

My hand writes the alien letters without any effort. And they are also easy to read. I can speak the locals tongue with a crystal clarity. So, assuming my log is correct, and today is June 20, how did I live somewhere else for more than a month during a single night of sleep? My beard should have had time to grow a lot during such a long period of time. But when I touch my face, I find my relatively freshly shaved cheeks. Because I did shave right before our expedition to the Gold City. If more than a month did not pass over me, then it means that I must be dreaming now. Otherwise, how could I learn a new language during a dream and use it while I am awake? I need to wake up quickly inside the circular cave from the mountains and see if I can cross over to Nosyon and look for Nivit. Still, I can't think of any way to do it. If I killed myself, I'd certainly leave this world, but can I be absolutely sure this is a dream? What if I just cross over from one reality to another? And what if I die in one? Would I die in the other too? This experiment is too risky. Better think about other ways first...

Using a music video to advertise my book

2011-09-21T23:30:00.002+03:00

Another option to advertise my book - use a music video with one of my songs and a slideshow of my digital creations where I include three times the cover of my book. Will it work? We shall see.

Using Youtube to advertise my book

2011-09-20T22:18:00.005+03:00

Advertising a book on youtube might be a lucrative option. So, I've used some of my digital creation, one of my songs and a voice over reading an excerpt from my novel Let's hope it will attract a decent number of viewers.

Butterfly's Dream 2

2011-09-19T21:46:00.001+03:00

I couldn't understand what was happening to me. I felt my body being lifted by someone, but could not move or talk. My vision was so blurry, that I believed it to be a hallucination or a dream. The pain in my whole body was overwhelming, yet I could not even utter the slightest sound. This must be the Hell. I suppose I was evil during my life after all, even though I thought of myself as a good person. Now it's time to pay for my mistakes. I didn't deserve to be saved and now an eternity of suffering is all that's left for me.

My eyes stay open and I can't move my eyelids. My gaze is immobile. I lie on my back in something looking like a long canoe. I can't hear anything. The huge sky is pressing my skull and the clouds are burning my head. They go in and out, indifferent to my pain. My skull is as big as a mountain and I can't move it. Soon it will crush under its own weight. At least, this would give me some satisfaction: I imagine the clouds inside it being trapped and squeezed until they pop up like soap bubbles. This image makes me laugh, but outside my mouth remains stiff. I see, all my body is made of stone now, that's why I can't budge. As from a large distance a face is moving across the sky. It's a young woman face. I can't see her clearly but she has long black hair on a beautifully oval face with pale skin, big eyes and a small, straight nose. And it seems to me that I have seen her before. Or maybe I have dreamed of her?

Something comes close to my lips. It looks like a cup. She's trying to open my mouth and pour its contents inside. Despite the intense pain that tortures my body within, outside I am completely numb and feel nothing. There is a swallowing move, but it doesn't seem to belong to me. I can't feel any taste. My eyes stay open and I can't close them back. But the vast sky is fading away and a few moments later I dive deeply inside the world of dreams. Only my fixed, glassy gaze, like that of the dead lizard, remains in this world.

Butterfly's Dream

2011-09-17T21:39:00.000+03:00

"Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Tzu. Soon I awoke, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things. "

I wake up in the middle of the night, thinking about the words of the great sage. I hear some noises in front and see a small fire still burning in front of me. An improvised spear and stone ax lay on the floor to my left. Where am I? Where is the great cave with the luminous ceiling and the edible mushrooms?
I feel totally lost. Then, slowly, my memory comes back. It is the early morning of June 20, I got lost from my people during the fight on the island and am following the river to the sea in order to rejoin them. The entrance of the little cave is jammed with many pieces of wood tied with vines. And from outside, some unknown beast tries to get in.

The four steps to become a self-published author

2011-09-11T18:09:00.008+03:00

Amazon (and other sites) gave a chance to many people to publish on their own what they wrote. And I am one of them. As my book just went on sale less than 48 hours ago, I can summarize (from my personal experience) the publishing of a book in four steps:
1. Writting phase - I thought this would be the most difficult part, but I was wrong. It took time and work, and discipline to spend at leas one hour every day (sometimes two or three) in putting your ideas on the screen. Initially I used to edit my text at the end of the day, but then decided just to go ahead with the action and leave the editing for later. I can say now that for me, the writting phase was the easiest (after publishing phase from step 3).
2. Editing phase - Probably the experienced writers don't go over their manuscript more than once after they finish writting it. But in my case I had to do it four times, until the text finally looked OK. In this phase it was important for me to kill the imagination and sharpen my critical sense as much as I could. Compared to the writting, editing took about as long with more hours of work every day and more effort. I would say that editing is harder than writting.
3. Publishing phase - Amazon uses kindle format. It is possible to convert a .doc, .html or .pdf document automatically. I used latex and had a pdf. The conversion looked so-so, I didn't like the final result. So I had to spend a full day and use html code (in wordpad) and the mobi creator to make the kindle myself and have it appear to the reader the way I wanted. With what I've learned when converting the text for my first book, next time I will be able to do everything at least three time faster. Designing the cover will also consume some time and energy, but can be done in a day. Uploading the file on Amazon is very easy, so this is deffinitely the easiest thing to do, once the book is ready. So, I'd say that pubishing the book is the easiest thing to do.
4. Selling the book - My intuition, my 48 hour experience since my book went live and what I read on other websites tells me that this is by far the most difficult phase. When you have some books written before, people heard about you and they cand find your new book easy enough. But what to do when you simply don't exist as a writer? Your book is displayed on Amazon among millions of other items. How is anyone going to find you?

Adding a few labels to the book might help having it included in some categories.
A review can be useful for the potential buyer.
Mentioning your book a couple of times on the Amazon forums where other people are LOOKING for books might also help. But avoid aggressive advertising, or it may have the opposite effect. Providing a review of the book is better than saying: "Here, this is a wonderful book, costs only...", and provide its link - this is a no-no.
Going on kindle book forums can also make a few people look for you, but will be time consuming. You also need so spend some time to find the right places.
Using a blog and posting interesting stuff about your book and other related things can make a few readers curious.
Using twitter
Using facebook
Sending your book for review to websites that have a decent no. of visitors.

I am on stage 4 now, and I'm learning how to do it myself. If I find a way to increas the sales of my book (the link to its address can be found in my other posts), I will post further details. Obviously, if the book is poorly written and looks unappealing graphically, the four steps mentioned above are totally useless. Quality, above all, should be pursued.
So, on a scale from easy to difficult, we have publishing-writting-editing-selling.
Of course, I would also be interested to hear comments and suggestions from my readers, especially about stage 4.

Short description of "The Other Shore"

2011-09-10T09:58:00.005+03:00

"The Other Shore" by Marian C. Ghilea has the equivalent of 230 pages in paperback format. The book is a combination of fantasy/science-fiction. Has three short stories in the beginning (they seem unrelated but at the end of the book the reader finds that they ARE related), followed by a novel ("Butterfly's Dream"), and an epilogue that explains a few more things and brings a deeper understanding of the structure and manifestation of the mysterious world described in the book. The novel starts in 1795 and follows the personal log of the second officer (Alberto) on board of a military brig that reaches a mysterious island with a city where gold is abundant and cheap. And the gold issue is the least strange thing about this new place. At some point, he is separated from his crew and begins a journey through stranger and stranger realms. The action includes unexpected adventures, a love story and some very interesting philosophical ideas. Fast-paced, easy to read, and totally unpredictable. It's impossible to guess what happens a few pages further. And it also has a nice and unexpected end.
A a sequel to the "Butterfly's Dream" is expected early next year. Price tag: $0.99.
The book address on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LUS 68W

"The Other Shore" available for purchase

2011-09-09T23:46:00.001+03:00

My book is now available for purchase at the address below:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LUS68W

"The Other Shore" published on Amazon

2011-09-09T19:24:00.006+03:00

My new book - "The Other Shore" is in process of being published on Amazon.com. I've put a price tag of $0.99. Today or tomorrow I expect to have it available for purchase. It has 230 pages, three short stories in a prologue, a novel (the posts labeled with "Metamorphosis" are the beginning of it in raw form) and an epilogue that clarifies some things and shows the links between the stories and the novel itself.
I don't know how much will my readers like my work, but I certainly can't be blamed of lack of imagination. I will post the download link as soon as it's made available on Amazon and hope that you will spend the 99 cents and shall enjoy reading it.

Story becomes novel

2011-08-03T09:26:00.004+03:00

My story "Metamorphosis" became in the end a full novel (I've changed the title to "The Butterfly's Dream"), incorporating even the three short stories already posted. My novel title will most likely be "The Other Shore of the River" and is progressing at a steady pace. I hope to finish the raw part by next week, make the corrections as fast as I can and publish it on Amazon (with the plan to sell the electronic version for 99 cents and eventually publish later a paperback version for under 5 $). My readers shall be my judges.

Sometimes you write the story.... but sometimes the story writes you

2011-07-19T09:26:00.006+03:00

"Metamorphosis" planned to be a short story, about the size of "Under Siege" (that part itself is part of a future novel), but ended up being almost a novel itself. It's a thing that sometimes happens with the writters - you have a plan and the basic ingredients. The story starts, but even an imaginary world has rules and logic, so, the initial conditions lead to certain developments of the story and so on. With "Metamorphosis" I arrived at places and events that often took me by surprise. For example, Alberto leads a group of people through a very long tunnel. It's a commando mission. Suddenly their advance is blocked by a locked door:
" Yet here, only two kilometers into our trip, we saw something like a door blocking our advance. It was a huge door made of steel. And it was locked. We pushed and pulled it with all our might, but nothing happened. One of the sailors suggested using some of the packs with gunpowder we had, but I opposed the idea for fear of a cave in that could block us forever inside the tunnel.

“Let's first try to analyze the lock more carefully, maybe it's a way we can open it with a knife or a needle. We could use a gun loader for that.”

Bringing the torch close to the lock, I inserted the sharper end of the rod used for loading the guns through the large keyhole and started moving it around with the hope to reach the locking mechanism. It must have been a simple lock, because I could feel it with my iron rod but it must have been jammed, because I could not move it. Two of the sailors tried the lock, too, but obtained no positive results.

“What about using a tiny quantity of gunpowder to make it move?” asked someone.

“We need to put it inside a recipient, and we have nothing that could do the job”, came the answer from another sailor.

Looking at my pocket watch I saw that we have been here for twenty minutes already.

“We have to find a solution in ten minutes” I said. “Otherwise we come all the way back and take the central tunnel to support the captain. And I started to think feverishly."

As I was writting these lines, I was thinking feverishly myself about a solution. And, fortunately, I succeeded to find it in less than ten minutes. It's amazing how writing a story can sometimes identify you with your character! I have a plan about how "Metamorphosis" ends. But I am sure that more surprising details will emerge as I write it down. And the end might be different from what I expect now.

Metamorphosis (part 3)

2011-07-13T11:04:00.007+03:00

If you haven't read part 1 and part 2, please check them out first.

Part 1 - here.

Part 2 - here.

I woke up next morning in the warm rays of the sun, but could not get up. I had a strong nausea and stomach cramps, probably from the ingested river water. Also, the hunger made me too weak to move. But here, in the sun light, I was in danger of a sun stroke. With all the will power I still had, I started crawling slowly towards a tree I could see about twenty meters ahead. Once in a while I would faint, but would come back to my senses after in a few minutes and continue my advance. When I reached my shelter, it was almost noon. And I fell again in a painful and numbing sleep.

I opened my eyes again in the evening. Some of the pain and nausea were gone, but I was too weak to move. Around me, there were several round fruits, similar to oranges, probably fallen from the branches. I decided to try to eat them. I would have died anyway without food, so, there was nothing to lose. But I was lucky. They had a refreshing taste and seemed to contain a lot of nutrients. Feeling pain in all my body, I took small morsels and forced myself to keep eating. After eating the second fruit, I fell asleep again.

June 17 – The second morning on the other side of the river. I am still very weak and all my body is pierced by invisible needles, but, for the first time, I can stand up and walk slowly. My nausea and stomach cramps are gone. The plan is to continue the trek along the river with the hope to reach the sea. I don't have any tools to make a raft or a small boat on which to escape from this island, but maybe I can find on my way a village where I could get some help. I use my coat as a bag and take with me as many fruits as I can. They will help me quench both the hunger and thirst. I take a dry branch, too, and use it as a cane. With my speed, I can barely cover one kilometer in one hour. Strange, white birds, fly above and dive periodically in the river. The land is covered by small grass with trees scattered here and there. I see no big animals. The rocky mountain ridge seems to go parallel with the waters. In several places, I can see yellow gold veins on its slopes.

I have to take frequent rest breaks and use each of them to eat a fruit. My condition is gradually improving and my mind starts thinking clearly. I begin to inspect my possessions. My pocket watch was damaged by the water and has stopped working. Fortunately, my log notebook and my pencil were well protected in the tiny waterproof wooden box from my pocket. A small, foldable knife I thought lost, fell into the stuffing of my coat. But the flint I had is gone.

At noon, I take a longer break and spend about an hour on the river bank cleaning my clothes. Then, while they are drying in the sun, I'm searching for some rocks I could use to start a fire and find a couple that can do the job. With the little knife, I make a spear out of a branch and try to catch some fish. Unfortunately, without success. In the grass, I also see some long vines. I cut the longest ones and manage to knit together a primitive basket what I can carry on my back. It will be used to carry fruits or other useful objects I could find on my way. I take several more vines to use later as ropes.

Late in the afternoon I feel more and more energetic, my speed has increased to about three kilometers per hour. On my way, I find more orange-like fruits and fill my little basket with them. The river valley is becoming narrower now and the banks have a rocky consistence. Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems the river is narrower, too.

At night, I gather dry branches and succeed in making a fire by striking my flint rocks on each other. I improvise a torch and try to do some fishing in the dark. This time I succeed in catching two. While they are getting cooked on the fire, I discover a small spring on a rock nearby. For the first time since the palace dinner, I am not hungry or thirsty. Soon I am diving into the world of dreams.

June 18 – I wake up full of energy, eager to continue my trip. I eat a few more fruits, fill the basket for later from a tree nearby and start my march for a second day. After about one hour of walking, the valley becomes as narrow as the river itself. I'm surrounded by mountains and, on the ground full of stones, my speed slows down considerably. The rock walls have an unusual blue color (could it be whinstone?) There are no more trees with fruits. I take a long break at noon and spend about two hours fishing. My skills have improved and I catch five fish this time. Cooking them takes another hour and it's already late afternoon when I start marching again. In the narrow gullet, the night seems to fall faster. I pass by a cave and decide to spend my night inside it. Fortunately, some bushes still grow here and I can find enough dry twigs for a fire. Some water drips from a ceiling corner and it's more than welcome for my thirst. After dinner I fall asleep almost instantly.

I sit in the cave, next to the fading fire and listen to the whispering of the river. The moon is preparing to set and suddenly I feel I am not alone. I lift my head and can't believe my eyes. The second-in-command stands in front of me. This can't be happening. Am I awake?

“How come you are here sir?” I ask. “How did you find me? Am I close to the shore? Is Excelsior nearby?”

“You're dreaming” he says and sits down on a stone in front of me.

“I just came to say good bye.” he adds.

“What do you mean? Where are you going? Is Excelsior already gone?”. I was hoping all this time that I can escape from the island and that my ship will be waiting for me somewhere. The first lieutenant doesn't answer immediately. We look at each other in silence. Then, he says in a low voice:

“I was among the people who died in the Gold City.”

“This can't be true. I thought I saw you next to the captain, at the shore!”

“An arrow hit me. I was taken in the boat but died from the wound a few hours later, aboard Excelsior.”

Again, uneasy silence follows. And, even though I'm dreaming, I know he is telling the truth.

“I am very sorry for your life loss” I add in the end. “I had no weapons with me and could not even join our group to help their retreat”.

“This was my destiny, I suppose.” the first lieutenant replies. “My life was not so bad. In the end, sooner or later, we all have to go”.

“Then, can you tell me what happened at the palace while I was exploring the city?”

[This is where the online story ends. The complete version will be made available soon in my book published on amazon.com].

Metamorphosis (part 2)

2011-07-12T13:46:00.012+03:00

If you have not read part 1, please read it first here.

June 20 – One week has passed and I could not write anything in my log. I am now a prisoner in this world and cannot come back. I will put on the paper the last few days events now, as they are still fresh within my memory.

That night of June 13, the dinner at the palace was like a gift from Heaven. The captain, sitting next to the chief, began talking about trade. We were going to be all rich, so rich that none of us would ever have to work again. Both officers and sailors were happy and relaxed. We, we found the Island!

I was curious to explore the city and asked for permission from the chief and our captain. They kindly allowed me to wander around. Soon I was walking onto a large boulevard made of granite stones, lit with by same strange yellow globes. All the buildings were made of white marble. The doors and windows were made of an unknown species of red wood while the roofs were all covered with gold tiles. Some of the houses had only one floor while the tallest had up to five. Gardens with exotic plants would sometimes separate the walls. Here and there, some people would pass by, dressed in beautiful silk robes, most of them colored in green. The men were tall and athletic, the women had their hair long and looked very beautiful. Everybody's hair was of a dark color.

Walking slowly towards the city center, I reached a large, round square. It was dominated in the middle by a large statue of a man with a sword held up. Of course, even the statue was made of gold. I crossed the square and continued my walk towards a park with beautiful alleys surrounded by trees similar to birches. Here, I lied down on the grass for a moment and looked at the sky. And I could not understand.

All the stars and constellations so familiar to me were now completely changed. I could still see the Milky Way, but even it looked strange and unsettling. And then, from the horizon, the moon rose.

It was unbelievably huge. With a small coin in my extended hand, I checked its approximative diameter. This moon was more than twice the size of the one I knew, with a bluish tint and its surface features totally different. Then I realized we were not on Earth anymore.

I had to tell the captain about my discovery and started running back towards the palace. In the silence of the night I could hear the echoes generated by my footsteps reverberating along the streets corners.

I am near the palace now, breathing heavily from my run, yet something seems wrong. I hear gunshots and see a lot of local soldiers in red uniforms and wearing halberds and swords. It seems a fight has broken out between our people and the locals. Unnoticed, I come closer. Through the open door of the palace, the captain, followed by officers and sailors, bursts out with a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other. The guards are knocked down and they start running towards the quay. I am following them in the same direction. From a side street, about fifty local soldiers show up and before I have a chance to join our group they are blocking my way. I am unarmed, so I slow down, pretending I am a local and trying to pass by the road side. Yet, one of them turns his head towards me and shouts something. Two soldiers start running towards me with their halberds ready to kill. And their weapons are made of steel, not of gold. I have no choice but to turn back. Behind me, I see more and more soldiers filling the road and moving towards the quay. Gunshots can be heard once in a while, noises of steel hitting steel, people shouts, cries of pain. I turn a corner and try to reach our ship by avoiding the direct path and making a circle towards the sea. Even the canons from Excelsior can be heard now. Before leaving the main street I can see several bodies lying on the ground.

I can hear the soldiers behind me and have to keep moving. The street seem to become more and more narrow and soon I see myself in front of a dead end. I have no time to lose. A balcony hangs not so high on a house wall. I jump and grab its lower end. Before the soldiers arrive at the scene I am on the roof and start running towards the quay jumping from a house to the other. In the moonlight I can see clearly the fight on the dock. Some of our people lie down, too, while the captain and the others have already jumped in the boats and are rowing towards Excelsior. Our ship keeps bombarding the shore area, inflicting a lot of damage. The locals shot at her with burning arrows, but she is to far away to be reached. I can see thousands of them now. Even though we have superior weapons, we can't win against so many people.

It's too late for me to go back to the ship. I will try an evading route to the quay edge, jump in the sea and swim towards her. But I have to move fast because other footsteps are clearly audible on the roof now. I can see four or five soldiers behind me and my only choice is to keep running. But as I reach the edge of the city I can see that Excelsior has lifted its anchor and is moving away. And I am left alone.

My first idea is to surrender and wait for their mercy, but on second thought, I don't know what caused the trouble. Maybe they will kill me on the spot or imprison me for the rest of my life. It's better to move away from the city and try to find out what happened while staying free. It's imperative to act fast and make everybody lose my tracks before it is too late. I jump from the last roof into a tree and disappear in a small forest not so far away from the shore. I can still hear the footsteps of my followers and change my direction towards the inner area of the Island.

It's hard to run through a forest at night, even in moonlight. More often than not your face is hit by branches and you stumble on rocks and roots you can't see clearly. But I had no choice, I must keep going. Soon I find a narrow path and my speed increases. I expect to see myself climbing a gentle slope, but, surprisingly, the road starts descending. My common sense estimates that I should be now below the sea level. My lungs are burning and I feel needles piercing my legs, but I can't stop if I want to see the sunrise tomorrow. After about half an hour, the forest ends abruptly and I can see a marsh cutting my escape. Far behind, a rocky mountain ridge reflects the moon rays. I take my chances and start crawling towards the thick cane bushes that cover the wetland. Up to the neck in the water, I pray that my enemies won't find me.

For two days, I stayed inside the marsh, swimming or crawling slowly towards the other edge, hidden by the cane. In the morning the shore was full of soldiers, they even brought a few boats, but none of them passed really close to me. Every time I could, I would move a few meters further. Fortunately, the mud was not thick and I also found a small wooden log to keep me afloat. Suffering of thirst, I had to take my chances and drink some of the marsh water in small sips. It had a mildly salty taste, but was potable.

After a while I realized the marsh is actually the edge of a huge river. A huge river below the sea level? And where could it flow to? Swimming slowly I crossed the waters in the third night. None of the soldiers ventured after me, yet I kept going for another hour along the shore before I finally felt safe. Suffering of hypothermia and exhausted from hunger and effort, I fell down and lost consciousness.

Continue to part 3 here.

Metamorphosis

2011-07-11T14:12:00.011+03:00

Timeless, the Island lured and enchanted the imagination of all the nations. Her cities with large streets and beautiful, white towers, were considered by many the peak of architecture. But more than anything, the gold, available in unbelievable quantities, lit the imagination of sailors.

You will not see the Island on any maritime map, be it old or contemporary. People only knew its approximative direction. Hundreds of miles away from its shores, the ships' compasses started rotating in circles, the constellations looked every time different, the sun seemed to rise and set every day from a different place. The only way to maintain the ship direction was to use a long loch while navigating on a calm sea. Unfortunately, almost the whole year the Ocean was stormy. For this reason, only a few tens of ships in history could ever reach the Islands' mysterious shores. Had they not come back with huge quantities of gold, everybody else would have thought about her as a myth only.

As the technology evolved, faster, more advanced ships, started crossing the Ocean back and forth, cataloging and mapping every single piece of land. Nobody ever saw the Island again and the common opinion was that she submerged completely during a powerful earthquake that happened at some point over the Ocean.

Excelsior, a military ship with a crew of 120, was sailing along the coast with a transport of supplies (canons and gunpowder) for the northernmost fort of our country. The weather was good and the trip promised to be short and enjoyable. However, on the date of June 12, the ship had disappeared without trace. The preliminary searches found nothing and assumed that Excelsior must have hit an unmapped underwater rock. Yet, three months later, on September 14, the ship was entering the capital port in good condition. Thirty one members of the crew were missing while the survivors were ready to tell the world an incredible story.

Extracts from the log of Alberto Shimada:

June 11 – Uneventful journey so far. The sea is calm, we have good wind from the pupa and hope to arrive at the destination in three days. This afternoon, a group of eight dolphins accompanied the ship for about thirty minutes, jumping out of the water in spectacular ways. As the third officer on Excelsior, I am in charge of the weather observations.

June 12 – 10 am - Anomalies in the magnetic field have been detected. The helm compass started rotating like crazy this morning. The shore is out of sight, all we can do is to keep the helm straight and follow the sun. The captain ordered the loch launched behind the ship.

1 pm – Cumulonimbus clouds are gathering from the east. They look threatening. The sea is still calm, but it is already too late to avoid the storm. Fortunately, the compass seems to have stabilized.

4 pm – Most of the sails are wrapped. The wind has intensified while above the sky is absolutely black and full of lightnings. It's terrifying. Fortunately, the waves are not too big and the rain hasn't started to fall.

8 pm – The storm is at its peak. Huge waves and lots of rain batter the ship. With difficulty we can still maintain approximately our course. Some of the crew suffers of sea sickness.

11 pm – Excelsior survived with relatively little damage. A total calm surrounds us. The wind has stopped and the ship floats immobile on unknown waters. The waves have a strange blue color, given by billions of small light-emitting creatures.

June 13 – 9 am – The wind had started to blow again and we are moving. What gave quiet a scare to everybody today was the greenish tint of the sun color. It also seems the sun is a bit bigger and paler. Not having a direct way to measure its angular diameter, I hold a piece of glass in front of a candle to darken it with smoke and then looked through it at the son. Holding in the other hand a small coin and looking at it with the other eye, I could make an approximative comparison. The sun seemed about 10% larger. I suppose, an unusual dispersion phenomenon was to blame. Even the sky had an unusual green tint.

2 pm – Our course continues towards north. At noon, the sailor in the crow nest saw some land. This is certainly unusual, because we are supposed to have only open sea in this area. Based on the facts, the only logic explanation is that we lost our course in the magnetic anomaly, during the storm or both. The captain ordered the course changed towards the shore, as it was not too far away. We could identify the island and implicitly our location before correcting our course.

7 pm – The island was reached at about 4 pm. We saw a small harbor and a city with large streets and white towers build on a rocky shore. None of us could recognize it. Excelsior set anchor close to the quay. Hundreds of stone stairs were climbing towards the high promontory where the city lay.

“We shall find out soon what is going on here” said the captain and about fifty of us went ashore. The roofs looked shiny, made of a yellow metal looking like gold. Of course, I thought, there is no way this is gold, because nobody could afford such a waste for a whole city. And then I remembered the legend about the Island and froze. What if.... I look at captain's face, and his expression shows me that he also knows where we are.

The locals welcomed our group and invited us to a beautiful palace on the sea shore. Dressed in a sumptuous blue robe and with a small white crown on his head, the chief invited us on a beautiful terrace where several long tables, full of food and drinks were waiting for us. What I found curious was that I did not see any old person in the whole city.

The chief had next to him a translator who could speak satisfactorily our language. He asked us how was our trip and why nobody from our people visited their city for such a long time. The captain told him what he knew, how the ships in the past used to find the Island and how it could not be found anymore in the recent times.

“Yes, every time people from your country come, they complain about the difficulty to find our city. Then they want to trade pretty much everything they have for our cheap metal objects. We would be glad to trade with you, too. But first, please sit and have dinner with us. We have prepared our best food in the honor of your visit”.

And he was right, the food was wonderful. When the night fell, instead of candles, they brought some crystal globes that radiated a calming, cold, yellow light. And yes, all the cups, plates, roof tiles and every other metal objects are made of gold. Could this be the Paradise on Earth?

Continue to part 2 here.

Under Siege

2011-07-10T13:35:00.018+03:00

When the Great Summer is at its peak, Ephyr, the second sun, shines bright in the northern sky day and night and will continue to do so for many years to come. After the main sun sets, trees and mountains leave trembling shadows in its cold light. The night sky has a gray color and only the brightest stars can be seen occasionally. Yet, this nocturnal light can still trigger plants' photosynthesis. Luxuriant vegetation, unknown during the Great Winter covers the mountains and plains. The abundance of vegetal life triggers great animal migrations from the opposite hemisphere

On a rocky hill, the Citadel, with its tall and massive stone walls, dominates the landscape. Up, in the watchtower, Moriel is inspecting the valley full of enemy troops with a worried look. How many of them came? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand? We only have three thousand people within, half of them women. If we also leave aside the children and the old people, about one thousand men are left. And from them, only about three hundred are real soldiers. The Fortress has enough food supplies for about two months, but can we last for two months in front of such a big army? I heard the Hadar don't take prisoners, but transform all the survivors into slaves. They consider themselves some kind of chosen people and have declared the whole world their rightful possession. Everybody else is supposed to be a servant for them and their god. And why should this be happening right now? Now, when the whole world is under a much greater threat. Instead of battling to stop the real invasion, we need to fight for our lives in a useless war against these arrogant people. With a sigh, he lifts the head towards the serene sky, as expecting a miraculous help from there. Two long, trembling shapes, can be seen flying beyond the scattered clouds. Another pair of dragons. I envy them for such a great liberty to go wherever they want and live how they like...

Down, in the fields, the enemy is assembling huge catapults. The Citadel is completely surrounded now by their troops and mobile fortifications. Any escape is virtually impossible. Zephyr set long ago, but the light from the secondary sun, Ephyr, brighter than ten moons, makes all the landscape visible with a crystal clarity. The Hadar take their time in preparation of the attack, confident in the soon-coming victory. They intend to throw hundreds of wasp nests inside the Fortress and have their lizard warriors climb the walls on long ladders while the people inside run away from the angry insects.

If only the king could help us in time! Messengers were already sent to the capital a few days ago, in ways so hidden that nobody should have known of their presence before they arrived in front of the palace. But with such a ruse enemy, you can never be sure about what might happen.

A soldier comes up in the tower. "The war council asks for you" he says.

"We only have two mind whisperers in the Citadel, it will be difficult for them to control all the swarms when the attack begins", says one of the captains. "It might be necessary to gather all our people on a single side of the Fortress. But then, any massive attack would easily break in through the undefended perimeter."

"What about using smoke?" says a priest. "I heard the bladegrass is a good barrier against the wasps."

"The smoke will make life difficult for our archers" replies a knight. "They shall not be capable to spot and repel the enemy in time."

Moriel is only listening. It's still beyond my comprehension how such a distant place can have animals and people almost identical to our world. The humans on this planet are genetically compatible with us. Shall we ever know the truth? I have only been here for half a year, but already feel like I am a Dorian myself. And, as the king's sworn brother, I am supposed to protect them, because they are now my own people, too.

"We need to attack them first" he says in the end. "The wasp nests have to be destroyed before they are thrown insite the Fortress. What makes the insects more aggressive?"

"The smoke of red basil", replies an old physician.

"If I remember correctly, we do have dried supplies of these herbs. We shall take one hundred arrows, wrap their heads in red basil, lit the plants and attack the nest boxes." says Moriel. "We don't know where they keep their nests, so we can't shoot the arrows from here. It's necessary to pay the enemy a visit inside his own camp. The nests themselves need to be burned down, all of them. I shall lead the operation myself."

In the cold light of Ephyr, the fog begins to cover the ground. Taking opportunity of a small forest placed between the Citadel and the enemy lines, a small group of people is crawling outside the walls through a small, secret gate. Twenty knights and a priest advance slowly, carrying swords, bows and arrows. The enemy catapults are almost ready to fire, but the nests are still in the wooden carts, at an unknown location, somewhere inside the camp. The incoming Dorians are dressed like the Hadar, they even had their faces darkened with pine oil to avoid drawing unwanted attention. One of them carries a dead fawn on his back and they all look like coming from a reconnaissance and hunting operation. The priest is the only one who speaks Hadarian fluently, so he leads the commando.

Many crossing points leading to the Hadar camp are not watched properly. The enemy is so confident in its success that he only guards the main entrances. Casually, the group walks onto the other side. Nobody pays them any attention. The people split and walk around the until one spots the nest carts. A discreet signal gathers them back together as they approach the target. A small fire burns nearby and they start a bigger one next to it, pretending to prepare the fawn for cooking. The arrow bags are taken off discretely and lain close, ready to be used when needed. Moriel observes a huge tent in the front, perhaps belonging to a higher-ranked officer. Pretending to go to toilet, he takes some kindling and a flint in his hand, igniting discretely the canvas when passing by. The flame begin to eat from the cloth and transforms immediately in a blaze, but he takes a few more steps ahead. Behind, the tent has become a huge torch. Using one of the few words he can say in Hadarian, the commander starts shouting "Fire! Fire!" and runs back towards his men. "We are attacked by the Dorians!" shouts the priest as loud as he can. "Watch out, they are dressed just like us!."

Giddy people are coming from all sides, running around in circles, some awaken from their slumber, some drunk, some armed, all still confused about what is going on. But the Dorians are ready. Two Hadar soldiers are slain instantly by Moriel's people while he strikes down a third. Utterly confused, the Hadar start fighting each other while the knights shot their burning arrows towards the nest carts.

"The Dorians are retreating to the Fortress!" shouts the priest again. "Don't let them escape, chase the enemy!." And all the knights run out of the camp as hard as they can, followed by numerous Hadar troops. Some of the invaders realize now the truth and start attacking Moriel's group, but it's too late. As the Hadar are nearing the Fortress walls, the archers from the towers are already shooting them down while protecting the Dorian fighters. Overwhelmed, the invaders have to retreat quickly back to their camp. And right at this moment the hell breaks loose over there, with the furious wasps attacking everybody in their range.

Meanwhile, behind the stone defenses, the defenders prepare their own catapults. Taking opportunity of the higher ground and a longer range, they start sending burning arrows into the camp of Hadar, seeding more death and panic everywhere.

Next morning, the enemy moves further away from the Fortress, but the siege line remains unbroken. Hundreds of them must have died during the previous night from the wasp stings. Out in the open, in front of the Citadel gate, defying the invaders' strength, Moriel observes their maneuvers and waits for a sign from his king. Suddenly, climbing down from one of the trees nearby, a brown squirrel approaches him. It has a scared look while looking at the man, but a power stronger than its will makes the animal come closer.

"Mo-mo-mo-moriel?" the creature says with a tiny voice full of fear. It talks in Eso language, the only tongue that people, birds and animals can speak in this world, .

"Yes, I am Moriel" answers the man in the same tongue.

The squirrel will now say the message, as imprinted in its brain under hypnosis by the sender: "The Hadar killed all the Rota birds. We sent a human messenger, but he could not cross the camp and used this squirrel to deliver our words. Your request for help was received. The king troops are only one day of march from here. Ten thousand Dera troops and two thousand knights are coming by boat on the Arion River. They shall attack the South West area of the enemy camp tomorrow at noon. Be ready to synchronize your maneuvers accordingly."

The animal is quiet now and some of its fear has faded away.

"Come with me" says Moriel, "I shall give you a reward - all the food you can eat. You can stay in our Fortress as long as you want. Don't be afraid."

Still reluctant, the squirrel continues to stare at the man but changes its mind soon after and jumps on his shoulder. The gates open and the commander disappears behind the walls.

Zephyr has set again behind the snowy peaks, leaving this part of the world wrapped only in the soothing light of Ephyr. The circular camp of the Hadar can still be seen embracing the Fortress hill like an iron ring. Up, in the watchtower, Moriel is inspecting the valley full of enemy troops. This time, however, his face has a look of confidence. Soon... Very soon, we can start preparing for the real war.

The Attic Looking Glass

2011-07-09T12:54:00.015+03:00

In my childhood I was fascinated by the dark worlds hidden under the earth's surface. Back then, I used to spend long hours searching for caves in the mountains around my home. These caverns were spread over a relatively large area, few in number and small in size but their discovery and exploration made me feel like the heroes from my favorite adventure books. More often than not, I would have to climb almost vertical rocks, covered with moss and hidden by pines, until suddenly a new opening to the underworld would pop up in front of my eyes. I was already too old to believe in finding there treasures and trolls. My main purpose was simply to visit areas unseen previously by human eyes.

In one of these expeditions, while crawling through a narrow gallery, I reached a small chamber where my torch light was reflected by a shiny object on the floor. It was a beautiful, transparent cube, with its side measuring about six centimeters. It could easily be mistaken for a nicely cut block of glass, but a more careful look in the light reflexion would show small, regular dots, that displayed strange diffraction patterns. I could never explain how the cube got there, as nobody knew about the grotto where it was found. The object could be from the War time but it could also be from a much earlier period, even from Antiquity. I remember playing with many types of lanterns and illuminating its interior. Every time I did this, the cube seemed to fill with light in the same way a vessel full of water is filled by a drop of ink. Bright filaments of different colors would begin to grow inside, until the crystal was uniformly lit. I knew it had something special, yet I had never shown it to anyone besides my family and a few close friends. It was my little secret.

Trying to understand the phenomenon, I spent many months reading all the books about optics I could find, but none of them gave me a satisfactory explanation. I could never understand how the crystal worked, but those lectures increased my interest in science and I ended up teaching physics at a small college and working in light-related research.

The years passed and I almost forgot about the cube. It was kept inside a small box, together with other memorabilia from my childhood. And probably it would have stayed there for the rest of my life, had I not started doing some new research into solid state lasers.

I had been living and working in the nearby city for several years, using my childhood home mainly during vacation. That summer began as usually and nothing, absolutely nothing, could predict the incredible events that were going to follow. Yet, they were already gathering around, like the threatening clouds of a hurricane.

I was working on a new project that consisted in designing and building an improved portable laser for low power devices with potential use in both research and industry. The new material employed for the stimulated photon emission released an unusual purple beam. I left the city and took the device with me, planning to do some of the work in the improvised laboratory set up in the attic during the previous year. A small window proved very convenient to test the beam focus at large distances, as it was opening into a large empty area, with the mountains on the background. Every night I would spend a couple of hours looking at the thin purple thread disappearing into the forest-covered peaks. And one evening, suddenly, I remembered about the crystal cube.

I am really surprised how this thought never crossed my mind. Having this object at home for such a long time and never probing its reaction to monochromatic light was certainly unusual. But tonight I shall find out what happens.

The crystal feels cold and hard in my hand when I take it to the attic. I need a few minutes to fix it on a small rotating platform in front of the laser. Then I set the beam to work in continuous regime and the light filaments begin to fill the crystal. It's a slow process, yet the brightness within becomes more and more powerful with every second. The whole attic is wrapped up now in a diffuse, purple color, with small dots of higher intensity projected on the inside of the roof at regular intervals. I am rotating the cube slowly until its surface is perpendicular to the beam. The laser light crosses the crystal, becomes divergent and points to the window that opens towards the mountains.

It's already dark outside. I look at the rectangular window glass. The beam is covering it almost completely. And, on the other side, a strange view is now visible. Incredulous, I come closer and find myself admiring a totally alien garden, with alleys placed in regular geometrical patterns and huge trees with white trunks and violet leaves. On the background I can see tall forest-covered mountains. A gray-violet sky and a few purple clouds are visible above. Far away, some unknown, snake-like creatures, are flying. The glass has become a looking-glass. But, unlike the one in Alice's story, it looks totally different on the other side from the very beginning. And I can't cross the boundary between these worlds.

I spent the whole night rotating the cube on all faces, yet every time I did it the same view appeared on the other side of my window. I placed other pieces of glass in front of the beam, but the light passed through them unhindered and nothing unusual happend. I tried other windows from my home with exactly the same setup. The unusual phenomenon did not occur. Only the attic window opened towards this incredible view. And when I used a lantern or a tiny laser pointer, the light beam crossed the glass border into the other world... At dawn, the light from outside my home became too bright and the view faded away.

My grandfather used to tell me about a house on the northern hill, not so far away from ours, built by a farmer more than one hundred years ago. The man bought the windows from a glass merchant who used to live in our town for a short time. One day, unexpectedly, he left his property and moved into a far away city. Nobody from our village heard about him anymore. The house was soon demolished, but not before the new owner sold its doors, windows and some of the furniture. My grandfather bought a small window and used it for the attic of our home. Everything took place a long time before I was born. Time flew by and the people today lost track of the glass merchant and the other sheets of glass. In the mean time, my grandfather has passed away, like everybody else from his generation. And now, very few even remember that there used to be a house on the other side of the village river. As for the names, they are already long forgotten...

I took a small sample of the window and analyzed its composition in the university's lab. The results showed just a typical, ordinary glass. During the following years, I tried my experiment secretly on every type of transparent material I could think of and with every available laser wavelength. Nothing unusual ever happened. The amazing view opened only into my attic while using the purple light beam. I tried to track the other window sheets, or the glass merchant whereabouts after he left our village, but both glass and man had disappeared without a trace. There was nothing else to do but resign myself to the idea that my attic window was the only piece of glass with these amazing properties.

Every time I come back to my childhood home, I spend long nights looking into the alien world. I have installed another laser to send automatic light pulses, hoping that some intelligent creatures still live there and will answer back someday. I never tried to unmount the glass sheet from the window frame - I like it more this way, it gives me the feeling that my whole home is part of a different universe, that I could cross onto the other side only if I opened it. Sometimes it's daytime, sometimes it's night in the garden. Watching the movements of the white sun in the alien sky, I have estimated the planet day length to be about 27 hours and 17 minutes. The flying creatures never came close so far, so I can't tell for sure what they are. I have taken photographs and recorded videos. Yet, for the time being I prefer to avoid telling others about my unusual discovery. Having my sheet of glass taken away by the government to a secret location surrounded by armed soldiers and used for dubious purposes is not what I want.

I believe that mankind is not ready yet for an official contact with an alien world. For the time being, only the light can cross the boundary of glass. But teleportation experiments that carried electrons and atoms from one place to another have been under way in several laboratories for quite a while. Someday, we might be able to use photons to even transport our bodies between different locations. And that could include passing through the glass boundary of my attic window into the alien world. But not now, not yet.

The garden might be a remote, little circulated area, perhaps the builders of its stargate left the planet long ago. Or maybe they still live nearby and might appear in front of the glass sheet at any moment. So, I continue to send them pulsed signals of light every time I come to my ancestral home.

There is a stargate in my attic. I don't know where it opens, but, based on string theory, my calculations suggest that the mysterious garden visible on the other side is less than one hundred light years away. Someday, this planet will be discovered by our telescopes, and maybe in a distant future a man-made probe will cross the dark cosmic void to explore her strange landscapes. However, for the time being I'd rather keep it as my personal secret.

Cassiopeia

2011-07-08T12:35:00.017+03:00

The late night sky looked cold and frightening next to the thick foliage that surrounded the river. It was actually cold, close to freezing, yet he decided to sleep here in the tent, to avoid for one night the continual noise from the city. A bloody moon was just rising behind the pine-covered mountain ridge and looking above he saw the great ``W'' shape of Cassiopeia. The tent was already installed and the fatigue was slowly taking over.

Inside, the sleeping bag swallowed him quickly while the slumber enveloped his body like a cocoon. Dreams started soon coming and going in a whirlpool of colors and shapes.

The soothing sound of the flowing water, only five meters away, seemed to gradually become louder. Frequent splashes in the shallow waves were interrupting its music. And he woke up.

The thought of a boar crossing the river made him reach for the lantern and get out quietly. After just a few steps, the stream became visible in the moonlight, and then he saw them, marching through the water upstream in parallel lines, hundreds and hundreds of golden fish-like creatures. Some of them reached over half a meter in length and all had lizard-like legs. Astonished, he turned the light on, remarking that the other shore has totally changed from the evening. Trees with huge trunks and blue leaves, similar to baobabs, were spread over the entire slope. Even the sky looked completely alien that way, covered by the arms of a huge, unknown galaxy. The boundary between his world and the other was marked in midair by a fuzzy area with bluish sparks. A huge and beautiful insect, with three pairs of violet wings landed on his shoulder.

The march of the strange creatures was continuing along the river. Now a sound of drums was audible, too. Then, suddenly, everything faded and the landscape came back to the familiar configuration. The unusual phenomenon had lasted only two or three minutes. Yet, on his shoulder, he could still see the alien being. Not adapted to the unfamiliar environment, probably affected by the cold temperature, it died a few moments later. With utmost care, he took the creature in his hands and placed it in an empty glass.

In the morning, everything seemed only the memory of a dream. But the glass with the fragile body of the alien insect proved the things to be otherwise. Back in the city, while preparing for work, he heard the news on TV:\newline
``... unusually high tides were observed in several coastal locations. Some scientists believe that this phenomenon could be related to an invisible massive object passing in the close vicinity of Earth. Supplementary investigations are needed in order to prove this hypothesis. Several fishing boats also reported that...''

There was once a planet called Anarres...

2011-07-08T12:05:00.011+03:00

Many of the readers of this post must be familiar with Ursula K. LeGuin's book The Dispossessed, where a civillization strangely close to our own lives on a double planet - Urras, and its moon Anarres. On Anarres 2 I do not plan to continue the adventures of the brilliant physicist Shevek, but to present a plethora of worlds and stories that will hopefully inspire my readers. Yet, as the anarchist idealists from Anarres, I want to avoid being bound by rules and conventions, by authority and laws.
Anarres 2 purpose is to present short stories. When enough posts had gathered, I intend to improve and develop them into a book.