Genre: Science Fiction/Romance (Intimate Adventure)
(See JL’s review in The Monthly Sectarian, September 1996, http://www.lightworks.com/connections/Lichtenberg/index.htm)
Long have the Senyasi and Bre’n danced together, joining their psychic talents to control their planet Deva’s unruly star. But their sun slipped the dancers’ control and seared Deva to dead ash. Rheba, Senyas fire dancer, and Kirtn, her Bre’n mentor, escaped their peoples’ fiery death and now search desperately for other survivors. They follow any lead, traveling from the depths of planet Onan’s gambling and vice-ridden underbelly to the hellpit of the Loo-Chim Fold. There, the decadent Loo, who see other races only as slaves and fodder for cruel entertainment, enslave them. Rheba and Kirtn must fight to survive, but they cannot leave, following the siren call of another survivor, a Bre’n woman. If her Senyas dancer survived as well, perhaps the Senyasi and Bre’n peoples will live on….
Female Protagonist: Rheba
Male Protagonist: Kirtn
External Conflict: Rheba and Kirtn must find other survivors and escape the slavery of the Loo. The Loo consider themselves a superior race, with other smooth-skinned humanoids coming behind. Furred humanoids, like the Bre’n, are animals, not people at all. Relations between a "smoothie" and a "furry" are the epitome of perversion….
Genre: Mystery
Forensic anthropologist Elizabeth MacPherson follows her loves of Celtic myth and folklore and British seal biologist Cameron when she arranges to join a motley crew of professional and amateur archaeologists on a dig at the Scottish isle of Banrigh. While Cameron monitors his seals on a nearby island, Elizabeth spends her chill, soggy weekdays delving into ages past. Ocean waves run dark and deep at the coast, and all is not as peaceful as their work might seem. One member of the expedition is badly injured, and Cameron spends his weekend visit taking the injured off to a hospital for care. Another man dies mysteriously alone; a third discovers the dead only to follow him into death soon after. Have the long dead cursed the living who disturbed their rest? Will Elizabeth discover the clues to the illness stalking the expedition members before another victim is claimed? Trapped on the small island with a sabotaged radio and only one small rowboat, can they survive until the next scheduled contact with civilization, a week or more away?
Protagonist: Elizabeth MacPherson
External Conflict: The major external conflict is the murders; Elizabeth must find out why people are dying and avoid becoming one of the victims. Minor external conflicts support this (and tie beautifully into the internal conflict): the first expedition member to die is a socially inept, irritatingly obsessed true-crime aficionado; the expedition member injured is an overbearing control freak with a willing doormat (chooses to be/continue as a victim) for a girlfriend.
Genre: Television serial, Action/Adventure
Terrorists have released doomsday on the world in the form a modified Ebola virus. Stolen from a high security medical laboratory, the virus spreads around the world at the speed of modern aviation. Frank Parker, chrononaut, must ‘backstep’ in time seven days. Seven days in the past, Parker and the Center’s scientific team identify the lab, but, by the time they locate it, the thief has already struck. Racing against time, Parker tracks down the terrorist and attempts to stop him. During the ensuing struggle, the glass vial containing the virus is cracked but quickly sealed. All seems well, but Parker discovers he is infected and now must run for others’ lives. Has he already infected someone else; will the terrorist succeed after all?
Protagonist: Frank Parker
External Conflict: Parker must go back in time, discover the identity of the terrorist, prevent him from releasing the plague on humanity, and thus save the world.
Copyright © 1999 Anita Bausman
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