Hello readers!
Even though we are physically distancing, we can still stay socially connected! I’ve posted a short video on YouTube of me discussing the two books in The Catalysts series and reading an excerpt from Catalyst which comes out in Ebook in June and paperback in September.
If you’d like to connect with me one-on-one in a virtual meeting during this time of e-learning, send me a note on my contact page.
Take care and stay safe!
I’m working on Book III of The Catalysts series. It will be from both Marcie and Eric’s perspectives. Marcie is in Washington, DC and Eric is in France. I’m heavily into the Research portion of the writing process!! I LOVE research!!
Before Social Distancing for COVID-19 started I took a research trip to Washington DC for background on what Marcie might be doing and seeing while she’s there. I’m hoping to make a research trip to France in the next year or to do the same for Eric’s POV.
Here are some pics from the trip.
What are you doing to keep busy and engaged and positive during Social Distancing?
Contact me to set an Author Talk up for your students!
The Wait is Over!
You can now read The Field on your E-reader of choice! Perfect timing for our voluntary Social Distancing! Order your copy today!
E-Book ISBN 978-1-61254-447-2
Take care, stay safe and keep positive friends! Read, read, read!!
Grand mix of genre and plot lines
Four Star Review of The Field by Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews.
Richardson pens a great story in The Field, which is written for the YA reader, but I enjoyed it as well. I haven’t read anything from this author before, and I really enjoyed this story. The characters were relatable and very well-developed. This story includes soccer, but also characters that have more than normal abilities. The author’s writing style is works for this story, and brings the stories to life. Mixing science with sci-fi, and mixing in the family and high school dynamics. It just works, and I liked it. I liked it a lot. I look forward to reading more by this author. This book is a definite recommendation by Amy’s Bookshelf Reviews.
I’m starting a Newsletter! If you want to stay up to date on news about my books and where I’ll be signing books, sign-up for my bi-monthly newsletter on my website!
I’ll be giving away FREE STUFF including books and other cool things and announcing the winner in the newsletter – so you need to sign up to find out if you’ve won! To enter the contests, follow me on Facebook or Instagram – links on the website.
My next give-away will be an Advance Review Copy of Catalyst in the next week, so follow me today to enter to win!
We are currently in the middle of the Sixth Mass Extinction on planet Earth. That’s right – the sixth one. The difference this time is that one species, Homo Sapiens (yup that’s you and me) is responsible.
Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the non-fiction book, The Sixth Extinction, maintains that we are living in the Anthropocene period of Earth’s history. A time period characterized by human beings’ attempts to manipulate our environment, resulting in the extinction or near-extinction of many different species.
Just as with Climate Change, there are those who would deny that human activity has such a negative impact on the Earth. They would say that climate change and mass extinctions are a natural part of Earth’s history. And they would be right – I mean this IS the Sixth Mass Extinction. However, the previous five weren’t caused by a single species. This one is. Us.
Some anthropologists would even argue that this mass extinction started thousands of years ago when man hunted pre-historic animals like the mastodon and the giant sloth to extinction. But it’s accelerated within the last 100 years during the Industrial Age when we began spewing carbon into the atmosphere.
Carbon emissions are causing global warming and increased temperatures in the oceans which destroys coral reefs. Increased ocean acidity is killing off clams, barnacles and starfish. There are currently 1414 species of fish at risk of extinction. Due mostly to overfishing.
The animals on the Endangered Species List categorized as Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable include leopards, rhinos, gorillas, orangutans, elephants, giraffes, porpoises, dolphins, whales, pandas, hippos, turtles, bears, bison and bees. Rainforest deforestation by farmers and ranchers will result in many species that will not survive the reduction in habitat. And the species that rely on them will also perish because the biodiversity of the rainforest is inner-connected.
That is the single most important FACT to take away from this. We are ALL inner-connected. What happens to elephants in Africa has an impact on humans in Detroit or Albuquerque or Poland. Fires in Australia are impacted by rains in Indonesia. The nuclear plant meltdown in Fukushima, Japan in 2011 is STILL spreading radiation throughout the Pacific Ocean killing fish, contaminating the water and exposing millions of Homo Sapiens (that’s US again) to radiation as far away as the west coast of the United States and beyond. Ocean currents will eventually carry the radiation across the globe.
Concerned? You should be. Not sure what to do? SPEAK UP!!! Contact your senators and representatives. Attend Climate Change rallies. VOTE for environmental candidates. Look at what one girl in Sweden started by skipping school and sitting outside the parliament on Fridays. Fridays For Our Future is now a global movement of young people and Greta Thunberg is Time magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year.
It’s not enough to simply reduce your use of plastic and recycle your newspapers. Time is running out. There is no second planet. The Earth needs us to act now.
I’m thrilled to share the cover for my next YA scifi novel, Catalyst! Publishing June, 2020. It was designed by my talented son, Alex Katsaropoulos of the band Verluna. @verlunamusic. I LOVE it!
Catalyst is about fracking and climate change with supernatural and science fiction elements thrown in for good measure! Eric’s younger sister, Marcie is the protagonist, but Eric and Renee have their roles to play, too.
There’s also a Goodreads Advance Review Copy giveaway going on until February 11th. Click here to enter to win!
Marcie Horton has a sixth sense. Not in the “I see dead people” way, but . . . well, maybe a little. She feels a sort of knowing about certain things that can’t be explained—an intuition that goes beyond the normal. Then there was that one summer four years ago, when she connected with a long-departed spirit . . . But nothing that incredible has happened to Marcie since.
This summer, Marcie is spending time working at Angel Mounds, the archeological dig her mother heads, along with her brother, Eric, and his girlfriend, Renee. The dig is the site of an ancient indigenous civilization, and things immediately shift into the paranormal when Marcie and her dig teammates meet Lorraine and Zeke. The two mysterious dig assistants reveal their abilities to access the Universal Energy Field with their minds—something Marcie knows only vaguely that her brother has also had experience with. Marcie learns how our planet will disintegrate if action is not taken, and she and her team must decide if they are brave enough to help Lorraine and Zeke in their plan to save Mother Earth, her resources, and her history.
It looks like the summer just got a lot more interesting.
4 Star Review for The Field by Storybook Reviews
This book actually surprised me because sometimes sci-fi/paranormal books are and miss with me. But this story of a young man’s ability to absorb the energy around him and see or sense things intrigued me. Since this is a YA book, it wouldn’t be complete without the usual teenage drama and young love.
This story follows Eric, an up and coming goalie for the high school he attends. He has a younger sister and brother with whom he has a good relationship. Actually, he has a good relationship with all of his family which is refreshing to see considering what we see in the news. The drama or angst comes from his friends and their shenanigans, which is not uncommon for a teenager. Eric has some strange dreams and has no idea what they could possibly mean until events prove his dreams to be a reality and not just some weird dream.
I enjoyed the science aspect of this story and the explanations of matter, energy, and harnassing it for the betterment of mankind. I think that all of this could be possible one day, perhaps sooner than we think. I also appreciated that the science in this book was thoroughly explained and not just glossed over. The author definitely put her degree to good use in this book.
There is romance between several of the characters and of course northing runs smoothly as is usual with teens. However, I felt that the advancement of the various relationships felt solid and realistic. The relationships were subdued and did not progress too much more than kissing.
We give this book 4 paws up and if you enjoy YA with a sci-fi or paranormal flair, you might want to pick this book up for your next read.
Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. ~ Carl Sagan
This quote by Carl Sagan is NOT the one I chose for Catalyst, but I love it because it sums up my feelings about science and spirituality. To me, science doesn’t disprove or negate the possibility of a force greater than ourselves, which you can call God, spirit, the Great Mother, The Force or whatever you want. Science demonstrates an intelligent Universe. An intelligent design.
Richard Rohr, in a November 7, 2019 article entitled “The Field of Love” said this:
“The physical phenomenon of quantum entanglement is a wonderful illustration of the interconnected nature of reality, both spiritual and material. Allow me to try to explain in layperson’s terms: In quantum physics, it appears that one particle of any entangled pair “knows” what is happening to another paired particle—even though there is no known means for such information to be communicated between the particles, which are separated by sometimes very large distances. [1] Perhaps we could compare this to phenomena such as bilocation, mental telepathy, providence, or synchronicity.”
One of the ideas behind The Field is that we’re all connected through this Universal Energy Field or the Collective Consciousness. This field , or energy, flows through all of us and everyTHING in the Universe. Quantum physics proves that particles are connected at a subatomic level. The idea behind The Field is that we’re all connected at a human level. Is this field of energy what some would call God? I think so. What do you think?
We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. ~ Carl Sagan
