My eyes started to open about the 5th grade. We lived in the new projects built on a fresh landfill. It was sweet for a while, then we got our own house where I became a teen. Looking back I saw the pattern how the urge of care produced a big bang of built progress, but no sustainability in people.

We'd all cry out "unfair!", get smoothed over with fanfare, then slide again into despair. I remember castoff teachers and bullies in school. How I wished I could blame them today, my foundations are as stable as the landfill we lived on. The trouble with me was the wakeup was slow, my timing was off. Perhaps I could have compensated for the lacks in the system and made alternative choices. There were parallel circumstances going on that threw me off. I kept waking up and going back to sleep. Soon I realized sleep helped me not deal with some complexities of life. I fought harder to awaken.

All this time I cursed my brain, a run away explorer, taking opportunity when no opportunity was there. Busy wither I had the skills, tools or not. It made use of everything awake or sleep. I had to tinker, had to draw, had to act out, had to act up, I had to, I just had to. To grow a developing brain is hard without skills, tools. No math to speak of, ironic I became a draftsman. No science yet I formulate many ideas that require science. Some times I lay on my bed, eyes unable to close. Something had removed the little light-bulb of ideas and replaced it with a photographer's flash. Flash, flash, flash, soon like a deer in the headlights, I see you but don't. It's grand, too grand to draw, too grand to write down. Funny thing is that I thought they were fleeing images passing through me, then gone forever. Now I realize they are my realizations of the whole world I know. No wait, I've seen this before. The soul is the present, the spirit is ancient. I extend my soul, there is want of filling. Like the landfill of my old neighborhood, it is not able to sustain. I touch the spirit, there is rest but an overwhelming fullness. You can't be empty, you can't be full, your awareness can't take it, so we struggle to awake somewhere between the two.......This has been science fiction radio, the attack of the creative brain.

For those of you 'jonesin' for your favorite Goddess in mortal guise, the Priestess is back! The Aesir Chief is searching for his men, but the Slave-Trader King and his sorceress Aunt are looking for him as well! Can the Chief find his men and get them out of the Citadel of Aduni before the King's forces find him? Will the Chief encounter the 'Man in the Black Mask' the Valley Knight warned him about and if he does, will the Chief stop at nothing to free his men? Find out in the latest phase of the Priestess Saga, "All Things Bearing Fruit" Part I!

All Hail the Priestess!

African and Non-African Populations Intermixed Well After Migration out of Africa 60,000 Years Ago, Genome Studies Show

New genome studies reveal that African and non-African populations continued to exchange genetic material well after migration out of Africa 60,000 years ago. (Credit: © Sailorr / Fotolia)

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2011) — Researchers have probed deeper into human evolution by developing an elegant new technique to analyse whole genomes from different populations. One key finding from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute's study is that African and non-African populations continued to exchange genetic material well after migration out-of-Africa 60,000 years ago. This shows that interbreeding between these groups continued long after the original exodus.

For the first time genomic archaeologists are able to infer population size and history using single genomes, a technique that makes fewer assumptions than existing methods, allowing for more detailed insights. It provides a fresh view of the history of humankind from 10,000 to one million years ago.

"Using this algorithm, we were able to provide new insights into our human history," says Dr Richard Durbin, joint head of Human Genetics and leader of the Genome Informatics Group at the Sanger Institute. "First, we see an apparent increase in effective human population numbers around the time that modern humans arose in Africa over 100,000 years ago.

"Second, when we look at non-African individuals from Europe and East Asia, we see a shared history of a dramatic reduction in population, or bottleneck, starting about 60,000 years ago, as others have also observed. But unlike previous studies we also see evidence for continuing genetic exchange with African populations for tens of thousands of years after the initial out-of-Africa bottleneck until 20,000 to 40,000 years ago.

"Previous methods to explore these questions using genetic data have looked at a subset of the human genome. Our new approach uses the whole sequence of single individuals, and relies on fewer assumptions. Using such techniques we will be able to capitalize on the revolution in genome sequencing and analysis from projects such as The 1000 Genomes Project, and, as more people are sequenced, build a progressively finer detail picture of human genetic history."

The team sequenced and compared four male genomes: one each from China, Europe, Korea and West Africa respectively. The researchers found that, although the African and non-African populations might have started to differentiate as early as 100,000 to 120,000 years ago, they largely remained as one population until approximately 60,000 to 80,000 years ago.

Following this the European and East Asian ancestors went through a period where their effective population size crashed to approximately one-tenth of its earlier size, overlapping the period when modern human fossils and artefacts start to appear across Europe and Asia. But, for at least the first 20,000 years of this period, it appears that the out-of-Africa and African populations were not genetically separated. A possible explanation could be that new emigrants from Africa continued to join the out-of-Africa populations long after the original exodus.

"This elegant tool provides opportunities for further research to enable us to learn more about population history," says co-author Heng Li, from the Sanger Institute. "Each human genome contains information from the mother and the father, and the differences between these at any place in the genome carry information about its history. Since the genome sequence is so large, we can combine the information from tens of thousands of different places in the genome to build up a composite history of the ancestral contributions to the particular individual who was sequenced.

"We can also get at the historical relationship between two different ancestral populations by comparing the X chromosomes from two males. This works because men only have one copy of the X chromosome each, so we can combine the X chromosomes of two men and treat them in the same way as the rest of the genome for one person, with the results telling us about the way in which the ancestral populations of the two men separated.

"The novel statistical method we developed is computationally efficient and doesn't make restrictive assumptions about the way that population size changed. Although not inconsistent with previous results, these findings allow new types of historical events to be explored, leading to new observations about the history of mankind." The researchers believe that this technique can be developed further to enable even more fine-grained discoveries by sequencing multiple genomes from different populations. In addition, beyond human history, there is also the potential to investigate the population size history of other species for which a single genome sequence has been obtained.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Chapter 4 - Room with some views

I was going to try to describe what I saw but I am not sure I have words for it. Put on a blindfold, cover your eyes, turn out the lights, and then head out to sea on a cloudy night. That is the kind of darkness we are talking about. I have never known darkness in my entire life. I have always seen in the night like it was, at worst, a kind of dusk. And its not like the kind of stuff where when you close your eyes, you see those lights from your optic nerve firing. Your optic nerve wouldn't dare to illuminate this darkness. 

Then there was a point, far away and we seemed to be falling toward it, and as we approached, that feeling of falling came to me, that unbalanced feeling you get as you start flailing about and realize you are about to come to an uncomfortable, sudden stop. I started waving my arms about, and screaming as I, since I did not see anyone else but me, I thought I was about to become a bug on a glowing windshield. I slammed into the ground face down and made a tiny bounce before settling to a painful and unpleasant landing. 

"Get up." A hobnailed boot punctuated that command by further traumatizing my rib cage.  

"Ow. And I was just starting to get comfortable down here. Was that first class?" 

Then I noticed the feet standing in front of my head as I started looking up. They were connected to very powerful legs and each thigh looked like it would be comfortable on a body builder. Then I found myself being lifted by the back of my collar into the air. "Is this it? This is the savior of the Six? I thought it would be bigger." 

"It is a he, Shango. Put the boy down." Kali's voice had a completely different tone. Warm, gentle. Was this the woman that made me question my very existence a few seconds ago? Shango. Why was that name familiar? Shango, the Thunderer? Shango, Thundergod of the continent of Africa? 

"Why is it, that I can't see the boy, then?" What is this black matter covering him?" Shango took a finger the size of my hand and wiped it across my forehead. A sticky swath of darkness followed his finger before disintegrating in a crackle of lightning. 

Umbra raised his head and put his hat back on. "Begging your pardon, Thunderer, the Equinox has determined that you are a threat and is attempting to protect the boy. I think we can fix that." 

"Is that what you call protection, Dark One? He would be better naked." 

Ms. Hart glared at Shango and reached out to take me from him. "Do not mistake his apparent lack of control for weakness, Great One. His power may not rival yours, but among his kind, it is not to be trifled with." 

"Do not mind my rude husband. I half expect he was hoping the Equinox would arrive and be attacking him to alleviate his boredom at watching the Nexus. Please come into the tower so we can talk in comfort." 

Ms. Hart gently placed me on the ground and brushed off some of the strange particles which were clinging to me. Then she and Umbra took my hands and the Equinox retreated into my body but remained hot in my chest. I also noticed all of my injuries of our recent travails were slowly diminishing. We walked around Shango who appeared to be looking out into the darkness and seemed to lose interest in us. He was a giant, easily seven feet tall and in his belt was a huge double headed axe, that bristled with electrical energy. As I walked by, I kept staring at it and a bolt of static electricity shot out to me, as if to tell me to mind my business. I promptly did. I think I saw Shango smiling. 

We went into what she called the Tower, but it was not like any tower I had ever seen. It was made from some kind of shiny stone like onyx, and when I touched it in passing, I immediately felt at home and welcomed. We walked to the center of the main floor and there was a sigil at the center. I did not recognize it immediately but everyone else walked toward it and got inside the lines. Trying to look like I knew what I was doing I joined them. 

The inside of the tower was lit and showed a collection of unusual objects, many looked like armor or art objects. The closest thing I could think of was a museum, except nothing was under glass, and many of the weapons looked very functional. The place was swimming in sigils of power, they floated through the air, and many of them when they passed me, sang out to me, telling me of their puissance, and the danger one would be in if one was to be so foolish as to touch anything here. No need to threaten me, I wasn't going to touch a thing.

With less than a second of apparent time, we appeared in what looked like a modern apartment. The kind my father never seemed to want to stay in for more than a few days. Lots of room, lights and windows. But it was the windows that were the most fascinating. Each looked out onto a different place. I recognized more than half of them as places we had lived. I found Paris, New York, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and I found myself running off to see where each of them went. When I was done, I came back to the coffee table that was in the center of the space and the others were already having coffee and talking. 

"Finished sight-seeing? Umbra was graciously accepting a cigar from Kali. "You might want to come over here. This concerns you." Kali proffered the cigars to me, and I looked at Ms. Hart. She shook her head and I politely said no. 

"He is a man, now, Hart. You will be asking him to risk his life. He should at least have all of the pleasures a man could know." As Kali said this she was looking at me in a manner that immediately made me uncomfortable. 

"He is not ready for the particular pleasure of any gifts of yours, Lady Kali. He does not understand the obligation it would place on him. His knowledge of the Second World is still incomplete." 

"Then you had better complete that education, because where he has to go, he must represent all of the missing clans and understand the obligations he current holds. He stands here completely unaware of his already considerable debt." 

I had enough of not knowing what they were talking about. "Someone needs to tell me what you are talking about. Especially this risking my life thing. I did not agree to risk my life for anyone. All I know is my father is dead, my governess is a superhero, she has friends who can make shadows come to life, and parties with mythical beings who are living in a tower with windows that look out over two dozen cities in real time. Did I sum that up right?" 

Ms. Hart looked at me and smiled, the first genuine smile I had seen in quite some time. "In reverse order, those are not windows, those are doors. You can walk through any of them and go to the places seen in them. In addition they can be changed so while there are two dozen current settings, they can actually be set to go anywhere on Earth, depending on the willpower of the person using them. Lady Kali and Lord Shango are not myths. They are people who currently embody the mythological energies of the mythical beings. They were once normal people like you or I who were changed by a divine decree. If they want to tell you more, it is up to them. Suffice it to say, their power, dwarfs anything you or I can do. But their limitations are also as interesting as their powers. Your governess is not a superhero, but the difference to you may not matter much. And Umbra is much like you, part of his powers are derived from the Darkness, a primal force in our universe. And as much as I hate to admit it, your father is dead. He died protecting you. He spent his life trying to see that you would not have to become the Equinox. He did not want this for you. But he prepared you in case it came to this. Did I miss anything? Do you want that drink now?"

I sat down and tried to organize my thoughts. "Why did they kill him? And who or what is The Light? 

Umbra looked up from his contemplation, tipped his hat back and said, "I guess, since we just entered storytelling time, I better go first." 

Nothing I heard this evening up to this point prepared me for what he said next. Not even close.

Jump to Chapter 5

Equinox © Thaddeus Howze 2011. All Rights Reserved [@ebonstorm]

In my trip to the RWA National Conference in New York City, I witnessed a historic event. Trisza Leann Renee won the Golden Heart award for unpublished authors in the Paranormal Romance category. Suffice it to say, it's like winning an Emmy! The awards ceremony runs like a red carpet event. When I saw Trisza's manuscript as one of the top four, I was excited but when she won, it felt good. It's a little hard for African American's to win in any event but in paranormal romance, doubly so.  If you'd like to read my interview with her, please check it out my blog: www.aliciamccalla.com.

I've posted the first three chapters of one of my novels on my Authonomy account if anyone wants to read. I mainly started writing it to get my husband through his Song of Ice and Fire withdrawal a couple of years ago.The title's a little hokey, but I'm still working on it. Let me know what you think!

http://www.authonomy.com/books/35487/darkening-horizon/

I just finished this novel by Milton Davis this morning, and as much as I want to give props to a fellow Sword & Soul writer, I am sorry to say that while I enjoyed it at first, ultimately it disappointed me a little.

I'll get the biggest and most fundamental problem out of the way: I didn't see any connection between the story suggested by the book's blurb and any of the three Kitabu within. The blurb makes you think this is going to be a tale of Changa's seeking revenge against the sorcerer Usenge, yet that is not at all the overarching theme of the actual Kitabu. We do see Changa confront a completely different evil magician, seek out a mysterious spice, and get caught up in Chinese/Mongol politics, but none of those plots seem to have anything to do with Changa's vendetta against Usenge. The impression I got was that Changa was actually putting his past behind him to pursue a life as a Swahili merchant, which reflects poorly on his character.

Speaking of characters, I was also bothered by the handling of the supporting characters. Neither Panya and the Tuareg get much if any backstory whatsoever, leaving us to wonder what they and Changa are doing together on the opposite side of the African continent from their native homelands. Nor does Panya, a supposed sorceress, get to demonstrate her magical powers very often if at all. She should have cast many more spells.

Then there are the editing errors. Not only are there scattered typos, but Davis seems to use "Chinese" and "Han" interchangeably when he should have stuck with "Han". In addition, the glossary at the end is incomplete because it doesn't list many of the ethnic terms used in the Kitabu (exactly what are a bahari and a bwana?).

None of the above is meant to say that this book is irredeemably terrible. The concept of an African hero exploring the Indian Ocean is definitely novel, as medieval Indian Ocean civilizations have definitely been unfairly neglected by storytellers, the prose is generally decent despite the aforementioned editing issues, and the numerous action and battle scenes are fun. It is for these reasons that I'll give the overall book a fairly positive rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

The Priestess returns midnight July 18th! The Priestess Saga continues as the Valley Knight, Little Fish and the Aesir Chief battle their way through the sewers of Aduni, City of Golden Towers. Their quest to find the Chief's men is nearly at  an end, but will it end with them being saved by the 'truculent trio' or have they already met a grisly demise at the hands of the Slave-Trader King and his sorceress Aunt? And what will be the fate of the beautiful Marta? Will the future daughter of the Aesir Witch Mjarga also meet a hideous fate alongside the Chief's men or will she find salvation as well? Find out in phase 4 of the Priestess Saga, "All Things Bearing Fruit"!

All Hail The Priestess!

working sucks, point blank.  It takes time away from stuff that really matters like the fam here at BSFS.  thats where i have been working.  Oh well, check out my relationship blog and lift me up in prayer or whatever it is that you do so that i successfully finish my thesis.  I am psychoanalyzing the hell outta Octavia Butler, lol!  Her Xenogenesis novels are the bomb though...

http://www.examiner.com/african-american-relationships-in-nashville/were-has-the-village-gone-the-evaporation-of-the-black-family-1

http://www.examiner.com/african-american-relationships-in-nashville/infidelity-can-prove-dangerous

Right now I have two major writing projects going on, both of which I started yesterday. One is a short story set in a world where humans and dinosaurs coexist and the second is a fantasy novel with an ancient Egyptian/African theme. I have a clear mental plan about where I want the short story to go, but the novel is more of a mystery to me now; I know how it begins and maybe how it will end, but the middle needs to be filled in.

This is actually one out of many times I've attempted to write a novel, but each of my previous efforts proved unsatisfactory and had to be scrapped because of plotting issues. I just hope this will turn out better.

Those interested can check out an excerpt of the novel-in-progress here.

Chapter 3 - Dancing in the Dark 

Umbra took off his hat and threw it at one of the Light. Halfway there, it changed its shape and became a hawk made of shadow. Its razor sharp wings sliced off the heads of two of them with its wide wingspan. It had a keening cry, mournful, the kind of sound a hawk might make past its prime. It flew past them and wheeled about slashing low through a half a dozen of them before returning to Umbra and landing on his head as a hat.

Ms. Hart followed behind the hawk, an engine of destruction swirling her spear and clearing a path through their ranks. "Keep up, we're not staying." She was everywhere and nowhere. My father used to called the spear, the king of weapons, because of its reach, speed and power in a fight with sufficient room. I used to laugh when he said it because I never saw him use one. It would seem I might owe the bastard an apology. Every move, whether it be forward or backward allowed her spear to smash, slice, pound the enemy. They began to realize she was not the target to be attacked. Which directed their attention toward me. Lucky me. 

Not to be outdone, I planted bullets anywhere a target presented itself, that Ms. Hart didn't already claim with lightning speed. Umbra came behind me and though he appeared to be unarmed his boots which I thought were just shod in metal, seemed to shoot shards of shrapnel with ever step he took in nearly every direction. He directed the shards with his hands, each slicing into the creatures of the Light. With so much carnage going on, I did not understand why we were not running out of enemies. Then I saw it. A portal of light just around the corner. My darkness adapted sight could not focus on the portal, it was simply too bright. But I could see waves of creatures of the Light pouring out of it, every few seconds. 

"Call Mr. Black, Umbra. We are not going to be able to get away without some help. Somehow they know he is the last scion and have decided whatever risk they take of being discovered is worth killing him for." 

"Are you sure, Mr. Black does not work for free. He will want something for his troubles. As a matter of fact, he will insist. I just as soon stay here and see if we can work this out." Umbra was starting to sound tired, his shrapnel boot were releasing their shards of razor darkness with less frequency. I was already on my second clip. 

"Look around you. Do you really think we can make it? If the Equinox were awake, maybe, but he does not have the skill to control it and we dare not wake it until he has learned how." She had been holding the creatures at bay but had stopped advancing as a new wave landed in front of us, leaping directly over us to land in front. Three dropped dead as I targeted them mid-flight. "Nice shooting, you are down to your last six. Hold them. Can you remember the black sword spell I taught you last month?" 

I had to think about it. She had shown me the rune forms and I was able to manifest a sword but after three minutes it fell apart. I wasn't sure I wanted to be that close to them when that happened. "Yes, I remember." 

"Good, cast it now." 

I could hear Umbra starting to breathe heavy and he threw his cigarette at one of the Light. The creature burst into flame when the cigarette hit it. I drew the rune in my mind's eye. It came to me easily and I extended my hand as the sword manifested there. It wasn't like before. This was easy. I slashed at a one of the Light as it rushed at Umbra from a blind spot. The blade was sharp, and the slice was effortless, like the blade was made of air.  

"Thanks, kid." 

"Take a load off, old timer. I got this for a minute." 

And for about sixty seconds I was the best I had ever been. My foot work was perfect, it was like a dance where I knew all the steps. I got hit a couple of times but each hit was absorbed by the jacket, which fought from my back as well. I was grabbed by one of the creatures and the jacket created a mouth and chewed through it. It was incredible. I turned toward the portal and began to approach it trying to stop the flow of the Light at the source. 

I could hear Ms. Hart shouting at me, but I couldn't understand her any more. The creatures were pouring out of the gate now five and six at a time and I killed them in waves, my sword strokes becoming longer, reaching farther, they died and they died and they died. And the closer I got to the portal, the more powerful my blade became, each stroke caused the ground to shake and buildings nearby to tremble. The Light rushed me trying to bring their mass to bear but it did not matter, nothing mattered anymore. They had killed my Father. I hated him, I feared him, I missed him. And they were going to pay. 

My blade sang a song of terrible destruction shearing away cars, buildings, the Light, everything in sight. When I reached the portal, the creatures stood there blocking it and my last stroke cut them down and slashed across the portal. As the blade crossed the Light of the Portal, I saw a man inside. He was watching me. The last thing I remembered hearing was "Magnificent." Then my blade reached the center of the portal and an explosion was unleashed. That was the last thing I remembered. 

When I woke up, Umbra was wearing his jacket and his hat. He was smoking a cigarette and looking at me with his strange dark eyes. Ms. Hart had a look on her face that reminded me of her when I was a kid, a moment of softness, then she hardened again. "Never approach a portal of Light again." 

"Why?" I was as weak as a kitten. My arms felt like lead.  

"You lost control. Look around you. This is why you can never lose control. If you do, people die." She pointed to the area where the portal stood. The creatures of the Light were scattered everywhere, sliced neatly in half. I expanded my vision and noticed buildings nearby also had huge slices through them, sidewalks were slashed, with waves of concrete broken up, chucks thrown everywhere. The pillar of the train platform sliced neatly in several places. There were also two bodies of homeless men who were nearly twenty feet away from the conflict, but my dark blade swept in a wide, long swath. I felt terrible. I didn't mean for anyone but these monsters to get hurt. She reached down to help me to my feet. I could hear the car's metallic frame reluctantly releasing me. 

"It's a good thing that car broke your fall. I really wanted to catch you, but I saw you were going to land on a Volvo and knew you would be okay." Umbra looked at me, a wry smile on his face, his cigarette lighting the space between his hat and jacket collar. 

"We have to go. The authorities will be here in a moment and we want them to think a bomb went off here." 

"Umbra, handle that." 

"Yes, your Highness. You know I just lit this one, right?" 

"I don't care." 

"It's my last one."

She turned, gave him a withering look and waited.

Umbra took one long, last drag on his cigarette as she pulled me toward her. Planting her spear into the ground in front of us, we watched Umbra flick his cigarette toward the location of the former portal. I watched him clench his fist and then release it. A fireball erupted and swept over us. Storefronts were destroyed. Car alarms went off. Her spear, protected us from the fireball while Umbra stood, apparently unaffected by the flames. 

The flames and shockwaves seemed to go on forever. Then slowly, the night and the darkness was restored. Burning embers, chunks of debris, everything seemed to return to what would have been expected, if a bomb had gone off here. The Light were gone, the bodies of the two old men were also gone. Somehow, that made me even more sad.

We were half a block away before the police and fire engines began to approach. 

Ms. Hart grabbed her spear and collapsed it into a small truncheon and strapped it to her hip. It disappeared as well as her armor did returning her to a conservative business suit. Umbra appeared to be little more than a derelict in a dark hat and coat. Ms. Hart touched my clothing and it returned to the appearance of clean and undamaged urban chic. We slid from the Veil and returned completely to the Human world. She was waiting for us when we did. She was a fierce looking woman, diminutive but radiating immense power. Her face and sari said she was Indian and her physical presence was a blow to my weakened body. I fell to my knees. Then I noticed Umbra and Ms. Hart also fell to one knee. 

Ms. Hart spoke first. "Kali Bodhisattva, Mother of Mankind, Slayer of Monsters, Queen of Darkness, how may we serve you?" 

Her gaze turned toward Umbra, who took off his hat, and stroking it absentmindedly, he muttered. "Uh, what she said." 

"Is this the Last Scion?" 

"Yes, Kali." 

"You have already drawn too much attention to yourselves. Now you are coming with me." 

"Is anyone going to tell me what this is all about?"  

"Speak when spoken to, boy. Now is not the time for questions," Umbra hissed. 

Kali looked at me, and I looked at them. Ms. Hart on one knee? She was the fiercest warrior I knew outside of my father. Umbra, while I did not know him well, he was quite capable in a fight and in his own way a master of magic. Who was Kali that she had them both on one knee? And why did I have this feeling I should be wetting myself right about now? 

She waved her hand and everything went black.

Jump to Chapter 4

Equinox © Thaddeus Howze 2011. All Rights Reserved [@ebonstorm]

Chapter 2 -Umbra

"Get up, boy." His voice was rough, like a heavy smoker, husky with a slight country twang. "Get up, we have to go now. Where is your father?" 

"He didn't make it. Who the hell are you?" I tried to sound tougher than I was. Then I threw up. He moved. 

"It will burn all night. The Light makes for fine kindling. Gives us cover." He wore a black trenchcoat made from some strangely slick matte-black leather. It was thick, coarse and had a weird animal smell. His clothes were hard to make out as if they defied my ability to focus on them. His shoes were a serviceable boot with hard metal studs all the way to the kneecap. "Get it out, because in two minutes we will be in the wind." The firefighters gathered around the fire were not having any luck putting out the fires. 

"They have my governess. My father said I had to find her." I started to feel a bit better.  

"I don't care two bits about your nanny. Your father called me and told me to come and get you. I got you. My job is to keep you alive. You are my priority now." 

I did not appreciate his tone. I grabbed his jacket and pulled myself to my feet. I leaned in close. "She is the closest thing I have to a family. I don't know you and couldn't give a damn about what your job is. So you help me or I will do this by myself." My chest hurt but I could feel this strange power trying to gather itself. 

"Alright, there is no need for that kind of talk. Do you have anything that belongs to her?" I thought about it and reached into the holster on my hip.  

"This was hers." He took off his jacket and threw it to the ground. 

"Give me that." He snatched the gun from my hand and released the clip. Then he threw the gun on the jacket. I watched him move his hands and with a ritual movement he touched his jacket. It became dark, shrouded in shadow and then the shadow stood. It had the shape of an alligator or crocodile, low to the ground long and masked completely in shadow. Except for its exceptionally white teeth. The gun was in front of it and it was sniffing the gun. It turned as if to smile, showing off its teeth floating in a shadow body, then it shot off into the dark. "If she's still here, he will find her." 

"What do we do in the meantime?" 

"We hope they don't find us first. How much do you know?" 

"About what?" 

"The Life, boy. How much did your father tell you?" 

"Nothing he didn't have to. Which was basically nothing at all." 

"Did you get any schooling at all?" 

"Yes, I got plenty of education, can speak a dozen languages, can use basic magic signs and sigils. I can fly anything, drive anything, fix anything and shoot anything." 

"Okay, so you're not a complete idiot." 

"Are you going to tell me what is going on?" 

"Eventually, but now is not the time. I reloaded your gun. Do not shoot unless I tell you so. Do you understand?" 

"Yes." 

"Let's go. He's found something." 

"Your jacket?" 

"Yeah, kid, my jacket." 

We ran out of the alley away from the fire and the only home I would ever likely care about. Once we got to the street we didn't run but maintained a brisk pace as we headed toward the local boulevard. I could feel the tension draining out of me and I felt suddenly tired. 

"You know, I don't even know your name." 

"Umbra, kid. Keep up, pay attention. If you see anything out of the corner of your eye, you tell me, right quick." 

"Okay, Mister Umbra." He pulled up short and turned toward me. He towered over me and looked me in the eyes. His eyes, previously hidden under his hat were suddenly visible. There was nothing but darkness in them. No iris, no sclera, just an sense of a never-ending night with tiny glimmerings of light.

"Umbra, no mister, no title. Just Umbra. I know you are working with a lot of stress and handicaps right now but I need you to focus. You are a man now, and you are one of us. We don't take titles, we don't use 'em. We have our name and that is the most important thing about us. Your father was Equinox. And now, that is your name. Whatever he used to call you is not important." 

He turned and kept walking up the street, focused on something far away. "He didn't used to call me anything but Boy. I think I may have had a name we used when we introduced ourselves but it changed every time we changed towns." 

I was about to say something else when I saw it. There was a flickering in the corner of my eye. When I turned my head, I couldn't see anything, but as soon as I stopped looking at it, I felt a distinct awareness of something on the side of my vision. The boulevard was almost completely quiet, with only a few people coming home from their night jobs, heads down, focused on getting home.  

"Umbra..." 

"Good, you saw them. Get ready, they are surrounding us. She is up ahead and still fighting." In this section of the Bronx there was an overhead train system and there were pillars of steel holding the train above the city streets. I was able to ride the trains a few times. It was noisy but fun. There was a station ahead and she was still alive fighting there, but I could not see her, directly, only sense her. No one else seemed to see or hear her either. 

"You can't see them can you?" He stared at me and then grabbed my head. He turned it left, than right, looking into my eyes. "You have not had it long enough." He turned and bent over to pick up his alligator-cum-jacket. "Put this on. Its the only way you will be of any use to me. Don't take it off for any reason." 

I gripped the jacket like I expected it to come to live in my hands, but it seemed to have returned to its jacket state, inert and still creepy. As I slid into it, I noticed its coldness, its seemed to suck away my heat and sweat and re-sized itself to fit my much smaller proportions. It was only then I noticed how big Umbra was. I was also aware, I could no longer see anyone on the street. Okay, that wasn't true. I couldn't easily see anyone on the street. It was if I was seeing them through a gossamer veil. 

"Stop gawking. Get your head in the game." With just a few more seconds. I became aware of them. Then I wondered how I could have missed them. They were massive, much bigger than the things that attacked the house. They had that same alien feeling about them, but they did not have wings. They made up for that by having two sets of arms. They were also surprisingly fast, much faster than their size would have you think. Their bodies had that same luminescent mother-of-pearl look to them and they did not have any kind of clothing, armor or weapons, save their wickedly clawed arms; all four of them. 

Then I saw her; Ms. Hart. She was beautiful. And she still fought with the creatures. She wore a silver body suit, similar to the one she trained me in. While she had it on, she was faster and stronger than she had any right to be. I had never seen her as fast and as deadly as she was tonight. I realized she was always taking her time with me. She could have destroyed me, at any time during our training.

She looked tired. She was covered in blood, some bright red, some black. The blood of the creatures splashed on a nearby shadow person and they dissolved into a green and gaseous cloud, accompanied by a baleful scream of sheer terror.  

She was using a metal shod spear made of the same shiny silver, with a blade at the tip and whipped it around her slicing away the limbs of the much larger creatures. But the loss of an arm did not seem to incapacitate them as well as I thought it should. But they were not asking me. I would have suggested rolling around on the ground.

She saw us approaching and instead of looking relieved she appeared to be far more angry. Her rage cost three of the glowing giants their heads. She vaulted over their bodies she strode toward us as the creatures used her break to completely surround us. 

"What do you think you are doing?" Her voice was sharp like a knife. 

"Rescuing you," I began. 

"You stupid boy, I lead them away so you could escape." Her emphasis seemed to focus her will. Her words cut me. Literally. A slash opened on my cheek. Using my sleeve, I wiped away my blood and her rage. Where Umbra's jacket touched, the injury was just as easily healed. But it hurt. 

"And you, you ought to know better." Her gaze fell on Umbra, who lit a cigarette and apparently ignored her. 

The circle closed around us. The giants began to move toward us, a light in their eyes. The streets were clear, and a chill wind blew past me. I drew my pistol. 

"Feel free to shoot any time, kid." He blew out his match.

Jump to Chapter 3

Equinox © Thaddeus Howze 2011. All Rights Reserved [@ebonstorm]

Hello fellow members,
Eric and I are gearing up for the New York City Comic Con in Oct and will be releasing an updated new Trade edition of GALTOW with a brand new cover and 5 new pages which will launch into the next issue of the series!

here's the cover drawn by the very talented Jay Aquilera, which will be on sale in our online store this week!

As we are currently focusing on the Intellectual property we will also seek out five pin-ups to be added to the tradebooks and promoted on our very popular website that has followers from around the globe.
We are looking for colored character designs of our major characters:
KEYLON JIYA CAFA or WU

The first prize is $100
and the second prize will be that you get to draw yourself as a warrior in the upcoming story.
this is also one of the perks in our INDIEGOGO promotion!
http://www.indiegogo.com/Xmoor-Studios-NYC-Comic-Con
so those folks interested lets get to work... The deadline will be September1, 2011

My first attempt at poetry in years. This is really just me getting my musings about my dream girlfriend out of my head and onto something tangible for the whole world to see.

Dream Girl

Most of the time I like being alone,

Living in my own little world.

Never was that guy who needed an army of friends.

Two or three is just fine.

Yet sometimes when I’m feeling down,

When my spirits hang low over the ground,

I think about you.

I know it’s cliché to say,

But you’ve got that hourglass figure.

You may be slender,

But your curves are gentle.

Your skin is a moonless midnight,

But it shines brighter than the sun.

Your eyes twinkle like onyx gems.

To look into them steals my attention.

What could please me more than

Wrapping my arms around your warm torso,

Stroking your woolly raven crown,

Or being stunned by your kiss?

Maybe it’s your voice,

Which the nightingale envies.

Every word you say massages my temper

And brings the sun out on a cloudy day.

I don’t believe in gods or souls,

But if they were real,

Jesus would covet your inner diamond.

You know how to make this peasant feel like an emperor.

You never miss a word I give you.

And even when the hurricane comes,

You are the cave that shelters me.

If only you could be my queen.

If only we could rule a home together.

We would always watch over each other

And when our final time comes,

Our ashes would mingle.

If only you were real.

See how the black rays of the black race
Have touched the immeasurable wisdom
And therefore the unknown quantity
See how they are not understood
Because as they are is not understood
And as what they know is what they are
See the unlimited freedom of the black rays

(Sun Ra)

If the Oankali from Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy came to earth with their Ooloi and took genetic material from Butler, Prince, James Brown, Sun Ra, Grace Jones, Jimi Hendrix and Betty Davis (Miles Davis' former wife), then you would probably get Janelle Monae, a.k.a. Cindi Mayweather.

After listening to her Archandroid album for the umteenth time, I realize that I need to make a decision if I want to go back to school and study world mythology with serious intensity, or continue to cut and paste my interest with my writing and screenwriting. I would love to create my own degree in Mythological Afrofuturism. I like school for purely intellectual reasons. I don't want to pay for it or waste time on academic bullshit that has nothing to do with my interests. (I should just audit classes and pretend to be a regular student) Or, I may just write my own manifesto and just share my work like some Platonic Griot. Some outlier blogging to an omniverse that may or may not be ready for some serious Afrofuturism.

As a writer of speculative fiction (everything from Sci-fi, horror, and dark fantasy)I get really frustrated with trying to create alternative ways of seeing the world, and having to deal with people in the slow lane who want the same vanilla films and TV and music. I have my peeps at The Black Science Fiction Society, and every year I flock to Michael Davis's Black Panel at the Comic Con to find my tribe of fringe dwellers. What kills me the most are black producers I meet who want to create the same silly "black" films, with the same dull black actors. They play it safe and small. No vision, no balls (or clits in some cases.) Silly comedies. Melodramas. Unoriginal thugnasty shit. Yawn.

Maybe I'll do like Janelle and create my own alter ego. Well, I actually did awhile back. Originally when I was going to do a blog, I was going to write under another name I created. I may still do it, but I won't share it here. There are some things I need to say, but I don't want folks to know it's me just yet.

I'm getting my portfolio together for the Clarion Science Fiction Workshop to apply for next year, and I'm in dire need of cosmic inspiration to help me muddle through bland ideas and concepts. My friends over at the Black Science Fiction Society have been great supporters and cheerleaders. So it's nice to know I have Fringe Fam in the world.

I'll just be like Sun Ra, do my thing for the thing's sake and nothing else. Which I do anyway.

Chapter 1 - Equinox

Did I mention that I hated my father? 

No, I probably didn't. Lying face down in an alley would not give me much time to explain that. Okay, since we have a minute, I think I can give you the Reader's Digest version. 

I think my father was a demon or something. He did not explain everything. Okay, he didn't explain anything. He and I had not always had the best relationship, as far as I can tell we did not really have any relationship. Unless you consider pain a relationship. That was something we had in common. From as far back as I can remember, we did painful things together. I learned to walk in a week, and I remember it vividly. The whole time, he was right there pushing me. Things did not get easier as I got older. He was constantly there drilling me in everything. I didn't get to learn one language when three was better. I spoke six well by the time I was ten.  

I worked out every day of my life.  

Every day.  

On days when he was not home, he left me in the capable hands of my governess, Ms. Hart. She did not have one, though. She was even more cruel than he was. She would train me in fighting skills, endurance training, rock climbing, mountain biking, from sunrise to sunset. When he came home, battered, and bruised, she would bandage him, talk with him and once he was covered in bandages, he would see how much I had learned. By the time I was thirteen, I had broken nearly every bone in my body.  

Here is where it got strange. We never went to the hospital. They would take me into the basement, put me on a table covered with cuniforms. They would wrap my wounds and leave me there during the night. Come the dawn, I was whole again. He had no problem breaking me again the next day and would leave me with my pain until sunset. We would fight while I was broken, punishing me, pushing me until sometimes I think my mind would break as well. The Slab did nothing for that. 

My life progressed from that point forward, we trained, he broke me, he left, she trained me, she homeschooled me. I never went to a real school and rarely met the neighbors anywhere we ever lived. We would move every two years, so it was just as well I never met anyone. 

When I turned eighteen which was only a few days ago, we had been settled in New York City in the Bronx, hidden away in the poorer neighborhoods, where we were seen but not noticed. People avoided us and we avoided them. But not for the same reasons. I did not know what my father did for a living, but I began to realize it was more dangerous than I believed. I always imagined he was a secret agent or something but I never gave it much thought since we seemed to have everything we needed and while Ms. Hart was not my mother, she was the closest, scariest thing I had to one. She would occasionally even talk to me, when she was not trying to kill me or teach me to read Erdu. Life was relatively good and while my father and I rarely had long conversations, I did not think anything was out of the norm. Until today. 

He came into the house and locked the door. But when you lock our doors, we had a variety of mechanisms that needed to be activated. Deadbolts that covered all four corners of the door. Steel reinforced doors, covered in sigils. Each window was also able to be sealed with lightproof, bulletproof and layered glass. He was hurt bad. I had never seen the kind of injuries he had today before. Once he locked the door, he turned around and looked at Ms. Hart and she grabbed me and pulled me into the safe room below the primary household structure. This room also doubled as our weapons room and the walls were festooned with a variety of hand to hand and ranged weapons. A Special Forces operative would think he had died and gone to Heaven. 

"Take this." She handed me a beautiful handgun, covered in silver except for the black metallic handgrip. She pulled the clip and I saw the silver bullets, all fourteen gleaming in the clip. Driving the clip back, she pulled the slide and armed the weapon. "Take your time. Make every bullet count." 

"Yes, ma'am." 

"You were my best student. Don't you dare die." 

That was the last time I saw Ms. Hart. She closed the door behind her and I could hear the muffled sounds of combat, bullets flying, explosions, and the sounds of something I have never heard before, a scream of unnatural proportions, it filled the room despite the fact it was outside of the locked space. The battle lasted for several minutes. Then it was quiet, but only for a moment.  

Then the door was being shaken. I could see the sealing sigils on my side of the door glowing brightly. And then one by one, they went out. When the last one died, I could hear the door being ripped off of its hinges by a hideous strength. I heard the footfall of something touching each step. And with each step, a flare of a sigil would flash and the creature would release a terrible sound, but it did not stop coming. As it approached I was less than fifteen feet from it. I could see it had been injured and I remember the first rule of fighting. If you can injure, you can kill it. So I waited. 

As it came down the stairs, and more of it came into view, the room grew brighter. I had always noticed, night had never been a hindrance to me. I never had a problem with darkness of any kind. When this thing came into the room, it was as if my vision was being blocked by its brightness. Would not stop me from putting a bullet in it. 

The creature saw me, turned its head as if it were surprised, roared and rushed toward me, with its strange wings flashing light, its wicked claws outstretched, its muscular but strangely proportioned body causing the ground beneath its feet to crumple with its weight. 

To me: it appeared to be moving in slow motion. 

Each shot was perfect. One in each eye. two in what ever passed for a brain, two in both sides of the chest, two in each knee. The gun was a thing of beauty, the shell casings flew through the air, hanging there as each bullet struck home. I dove to the side at the last second, holding my last six rounds. Each bullet struck the creature and when it hit, a black blood stood out against its radiant body and rained around the room. Where each drop of that blood struck, the object simply disappeared into a cloud of dust. The creature struck the wall on the other side of the room and lay still. 

Not dropping my guard or my weapon, I backed out of the stairwell and climbed to the top of the stairs. At least two dozen of these things were all over the building, ripped to shreds by bullets, or weapons or magick. I did not feel anything for them. Even dead, they caused revulsion but they reminded me of something. I just wasn't sure what. When I got to my father's study, I found him barely alive with six of the creatures lying around him. 

"You have to go. They weren't here for me. They were here for you." His breathing was ragged. His chest was ripped by the claws of these creatures down to the rib cage. I could feel his body's heat, he was like a furnace. "They were here for this." He points at his chest. 

"What?" I didn't see anything. 

"Equinox." He spits up blood.  "You have to find her. She is still alive. They can't kill her." 

"What is Equinox? Ms. Hart? I don't understand." 

"I thought we would have more time... Please forgive me. This will hurt."  He reaches into his chest, ripping past his ribcage with both hands. His scream fills me with more terror than anything I had heard this evening. Until today, I had never heard him make a sound related to pain. He pulls out a blob of darkness from his chest where his heart should have been; it felt sinister, terrible and alive. 

He grabs my neck with one hand and with the other presses the darkness against my chest. No pain I had ever felt even came close to this. It was as if everything I had ever lived though was happening at the same time. Every injury flared with renewed trauma, every break screamed a vigorous shout as if to say, "I'm back!'" I wanted to run, to push away, but there was nothing that could be done. I screamed until my voice broke and nothing but my whimpering filled the room. The last thing I remember was his warning. "Stay away from the Light." 

And that was the last thing I remembered until I woke up in this alley. The building I was in was still within my line of sight and was currently burning down. In my hand was a small black stone covered in cuneiform. It felt heavy as hell.

Jump to Chapter 2

Equinox © Thaddeus Howze 2011. All Rights Reserved [@ebonstorm]

What if the primal beat in us all were activated and shared, a global flash mob, for an hour we danced, globally. The diaspora from full blooded to the meager droplet, all hear and respond. I grew up seeing the Chinese in national dance and the Africans also. What if we devised movements of African forms for health and recreation, a dance sequence basic and vital for survival. To help ease the mental and physical dis-eases we have developed. They took away our drums, we never reinstated them though we have the freedom to do so. They took away our greeting the day's sun with hope and purpose. Some have lost it all, some remember some. When ever I hear music I find the rhythm, tap, sway, humm......

The Chinese do their meditative motions and the Africans dance for spiritual communion. We diaspora have individual flexing but no flexing as a people. We are too diverse, too weighed down to dance. We dance to stir the emotions to lust at each other for ego and sex. We need to devise a sequence of motions to practice to bend the body like a reed, strengthen like a shaft, to let our minds wrap around positive things and our spirits reach across the lies we've been taught to separate us. A daily dance to center us, to focus us, to calm us, to feel the other places our energy can be drawn from. We have the liberty to make individual energy but not a people energy. Now we are a diaspora people, though we don't recognize the origins, we are too full of the lies to see the lies can not live for ever. The beat dispels the lies from the fundamental upon which we can write a riff of life. We know how to improvise you know.

I've been to weddings of friends and yet the line dance had everyone in sync, even more than singing the Blk Nat'l Anthem. First we rise, then e dance, then we get down to business. 

When I first joined the Black Science Fiction Society earlier this year, I was a looking for a home to share my speculative fiction short stories. I'm a nerdgirl from way back, and I was reading MAD magazine, Stephen King and Dean Koontz in my bedroom at age 11. I began experimenting with spec fiction in grad school, and I saw the genre as a way to tell funky and futuristic tales blended with racial politics. When I posted excerpts of my writing for feedback, BSFS members provided a constructive and supportive forum and inspired me to stretch my imagination to the limit.

I recently published a collection of short stories, Escape from Beckyville: Tales of Race, Hair and Rage that grew out of the stories I posted here as well as several that I completed in my master's program. I'm free falling into this new realm as indie author and publisher with no safety net, and I believe in my mission so much, that I walked away from a career at a top-rated talk show to become a full-time writer.

I'm selling the print copy of Escape from Beckyville exclusively on my website nicolesconiers.com. The digital version is available for immediate download on Smashwords. Because the Black Science Fiction Society always supported me and was the first place I ran to to post my stories and to build with other sci-fi and fantasy writers of color, I'm offering all my BSFS peeps a 20 percent discount on the $14.95 print copy of the book. To take advantage of the 20 percent discount, click here!

Thanks in advance for supporting my work. Continue to write and dream on!

Nicole D. Sconiers, author
Escape from Beckyville: Tales of Race, Hair and Rage
http://www.nicolesconiers.com
http://youtu.be/5ABjaDFwrjo - "Beckyville" video promo
http://www.twitter.com/nicolesconiers