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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Guest author Karen A Wyle

Today I have the pleasure of having Karen A. Wyle here
on my blog while on her tour for Twin-Bred.

Twin Bred Button 3.jpg

Character Interview with Levi



Introductory Note: this would be, to say the least, a difficult interview to arrange. "Levi Thomas" was the name that would have belonged to Mara Cadell's fraternal twin, had he survived to be born. He died shortly before that point. Mara, emotionally traumatized by that loss, coped by keeping Levi alive in her mind as a companion. (The traumatic nature of her loss is based on reports from many twin survivors.)

Q.        I'll start with the question many readers would particularly like to ask you: are you purely a creature of Mara's imagination, or do you have some independent reality?

A.        Wouldn't you like to know?

            I could tell you to ask Mara -- not that she's in a particularly good position to answer that question -- but of course, she doesn't like to talk about me. She'd be quite perturbed that        you even know of my existence (if that's what we call it for purposes of discussion).

Q.        Do you agree with Mara that it would harm her career, and/or endanger the Twin-Bred     project, if people on Tofarn found out about you?

A.        Definitely. I've told her as much. You must understand, Mara is not the easiest person to get along with. She's prickly and doesn't suffer fools gladly. And she has a very low          tolerance for organizational politics. All of which means that only her exceptional      scientific ability induces people to put up with her. There are many who would like to   be shut of her if they had a good enough excuse. Delusions of twin-hood? Good enough.

Q.        Do you think Mara would be better off without you?

A.        Allow me a small sigh. . . . Mara would be better off if I had lived. And it's possible she'd             be better off if I had never existed. I'm not sure "better to have loved and lost" applies in     these circumstances, if it ever does. . . .  But there we were, twins. There's no getting         around that starting point. And she's tenacious, in love as in other things. It wasn't in her       nature to simply move on. All things considered, I think she's better off isolated and     secretive than seriously depressed. And of course, I'm good company.

Q.        Do you think it's made things easier or harder for Mara, being surrounded by twins?

A.        Both. But on the whole, I think it's been more healing than otherwise. All around her, she             sees humans and Tofa, most of whom would never have had a twin if not for her. You             could say that she's ensured I didn't die in vain. Though I doubt she's thought if it in those       terms.

Q.        Do you play any part in Mara's artwork -- her drawing and cartooning?

A.        Not directly. I don't think I would have been that visual. I'm more about the words. We    often talk about her drawings. Sometimes I lack the context to understand them, and she    explains. And her cartoons show a sense of humor that she doesn't normally indulge. That side of her, that hidden mischief, is where she and I are most alike.

Twin-Bred
By Karen A. Wyle

Can interspecies diplomacy begin in the womb? After seventy years on Tofarn, the human colonists and the native Tofa still know very little about each other.  Misunderstanding breed conflict, and the conflicts are escalating. Scientist Mara Cadell’s radical proposal: that host mothers of either species carry fraternal twins, human and Tofa, in the hope that the bond between twins can bridge the gap between species. Mara lost her own twin, Levi, in utero, but she has secretly kept him alive in her mind as companion and collaborator.

Mara succeeds in obtaining governmental backing for her project – but both the human and Tofa establishments have their own agendas. Mara must shepherd the Twin-Bred through dangers she anticipated and others that even the canny Levi could not foresee. Will the Twin-Bred bring peace, war, or something else entirely?



Amazon (POD): 

Nook Store: 

Smashwords (various ebook formats):  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94490

CreateSpace (paperback):  https://www.createspace.com/3541557

Excerpt:

The human colony on Tofarn and the indigenous Tofa have great difficulty communicating with and basically comprehending each other. Scientist Mara Cadell is running a project where host mothers carry twins, one human and one Tofa, in the hope that the bond between twins can bridge the gap between species. Alan Kimball, a member of the governing human Council, is hostile to the Tofa and has inserted agents into the project.

Excerpt #1 from Twin-Bred

Tilda looked at her twins, cuddled close together in the crib. Mat-set had all four arms wrapped around Suzie. They seemed to cuddle any chance they got. Maybe they were glad to be free of separate amniotic sacs.
She looked down at Mat-set and remembered the rumors of Tofa with five arms instead of four. She had even seen pictures, but who knew whether they were authentic. Certainly none of the Tofa Twin-Bred babies had been born with extra limbs.
Tilda glanced over at the big dormitory clock and then back down at the babies. She gasped and staggered a step back. Mat-set was still holding Suzie with four arms. So how was he scratching his head with another one?
Tilda looked around wildly for a chair, found one blessedly nearby, and sank down on it. She pinched herself. Nothing changed. Well, who said you couldn’t pinch yourself in a dream and keep on dreaming?
She got up and walked, a bit unsteadily, to the intercom and buzzed for a nurse. Then she went back to the crib. Of course. Four arms, only four, and what was she going to do now?
She decided to be brave and sensible. If she had really seen it, the staff had to know. And if she hadn’t, and she didn’t wake up, then she was ill, and she should get the help she needed.

  
The chief nurse tucked Tilda in and watched her drift off to sleep, sedative patch in place. Then she went back to her station and called up the monitor footage on Tilda’s twins.
Well, well.



* CONFIDENTIAL *
CLEARANCE CLASS 3 AND ABOVE

LEVI Status Report, 12-15-71
Executive Summary

Anatomical Developments

Observation of the Tofa infants has shed some light on the longstanding question of whether the number of Tofa upper appendages is variable among the Tofa population. The thickest of the four armlike appendages is apparently capable of dividing when an additional upper appendage is desired. . . .



Councilman Kimball bookmarked the spot in his agent's report and opened his mail program. He owed an apology to the young man who had claimed his poor showing against a Tofa undesirable was due to the sudden appearance of an extra appendage. Apparently the man had been neither dishonest nor drunk.
After discharging that obligation, Kimball made a note to seek further details as to the divided arms' placement, reach, and muscular potential. His people needed adequate information to prepare them for future confrontations. After all, forewarned — he laughed out loud at the thought — was forearmed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University.  She now considers herself a Hoosier. Wyle's childhood ambition was to be the youngest ever published novelist.  While writing her first novel at age 10, she was mortified to learn that some British upstart had beaten her to the goal at age 9. 

Wyle is an appellate attorney, photographer, political junkie, and mother of two daughters. Her voice is the product of almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction.  It is no doubt also influenced, although she hopes not fatally tainted, by her years of law practice.  Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family, communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence of unfinished business.


Twin-Bred Playlist Promotion

I'm running a special promotion for Twin-Bred:  be the first reader to suggest a song for a Twin-Bred playlist, and if I agree with your selection, your name and song choice will be included in an appendix to a future edition of the book!

Please send an mp3 file, or a link to a YouTube video where I can hear the song, to Karen A. Wyle at kawyle@kiva.net.  (At the same time, please let me know if you'd like to be on my email alert list, so you can hear about upcoming releases and events.)

I'll post occasional updates about the playlist on Twin-Bred's Facebook page.

Thanks for stopping by today, Karen!



1 comment:

  1. If the kawyle@kiva.net address doesn't work, please try kawyle@att.net. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete