Miriam Newman is the author of heartfelt historical romances and adventure-filled science fiction tales. She's joining us today to share her new releases from DCL Publications. Let's give her a warm welcome. She'd love to hear from you. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question.
A CHRISTMAS THOUGHT by Miriam Newman
So, OK, the big holiday is over. The presents are opened, the dinner eaten and perhaps your
tree is a little lopsided if, like me, you have a puppy. Well, she’s in housetraining, so it
could be worse. I count my
blessings that she’s a “she” and not prone to lift a leg. My last puppy chewed up all the
Christmas ornaments along with the wrapping paper, cards and ribbon all
carefully stored in my attic. I
even tell the story in one of my books, Dancer Dog.
Another of my books is Season of Love, a Christmas anthology
brought out a couple of years ago by DCL Publications. There are stories by Kate Hofman, Bill
Haworth, Susan Blexrud and me.
They’re all good stories, otherwise we wouldn’t have included them, but
for the purposes of this post I’m going to consider my own. For the first time, at my publisher’s
request, I tried writing science fiction.
I hadn’t done it before and was pleasantly surprised at the outcome,
Peace on New Earth.
In my story, colonists from a future Earth have left their
overcrowded planet for the freedom and challenges of life on the planet
Megasta. That life is literally
hanging by a thread. Despite their
massive technological achievements, the colonists have still been outwitted by
Mother Nature which has brought along their ancient, inherent susceptibility to
the measles virus which has spread to the indigenous population like a virtual
plague. The natives, a nomadic
people not too far past their planetary equivalent of our Stone Age, are
beginning to die and they don’t plan to go down peacefully. In a last ditch attempt to preserve
lives and fragile peace, med-techno Janelle attempts to successfully immunize a
tribal chieftain, Aron, who has offered himself for the experiment in hopes of
saving his people. This is a
romance, after all, and of course you can guess at the outcome. World peace and a love affair. Sappy stuff, perhaps, but after all it
is the Season of Love.
Aron is a sensitive and intelligent man even if he does
still like a good spear for bringing down wildlife. He is impressed by the technology of the colonists,
believing from what he sees that they are capable of almost anything. So when Janelle tells him that she
envisions a future in which their people will live together in peace, he responds,
“If you see it, I believe it may be so.”
Such a simplistic statement…or is it? If we see peace, can we not achieve it? We have “seen” the atomic bomb, the
first Moon landing, the cures for major diseases—things no one a hundred years
ago thought were even remotely possible.
If we SEE peace clearly enough and with a powerful enough vision, can we
fulfill Aron’s simplistic yet profound belief that seeing a thing can make it
so? In this Season of Love, what
do you think?
Fantasy poetry driven by myths and legends has been Miriam’s
passion for as long as she can remember.
She was published in poetry before catching the romance writing
bug. She brings that background to
her writing along with a lifelong addiction to horses, an 18 year career in
various areas of psychiatric social services and many trips to Ireland, where
she nurtures her muse. Her
published works range from contemporary fantasy romance to fantasy historical,
futuristic, science fiction and historical romance. Currently she lives in rural Pennsylvania with a “motley
crew” of rescue animals. You can
view her books at www.miriamnewman.com.
