Free E-Book, Zong/Congo: The Covenant of the Yellow King (fiction)

http://www.amazon.com/Zong-Congo-Covenant-Yellow-King-ebook/dp/B019QXJ0G6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451099216&sr=8-1&keywords=Mccamy+Taylor


Punk tectonics: science fiction/fantasy based upon the premise that the human genome codes for special abilities which become active in times of environmental cataclysm, i.e volcanic winter and the occasional meteor strike and ice age. I have now completed seven novels in the series and will start work on the eight "Dracula's Bram Stoker" soon. It all began while working on the story "Reichenbach Falls" in my Mycroft series. I wanted Mycroft to deliver a lecture. But on what? I decided that he would promote the idea that the human genome codes for extraordinary abilities which become active only at times of extraordinary environmental cataclysm. While researching the idea, I discovered that the major creative movements of the last 1000 years have started immediately after a massive volcanic winter---and that the greatest geniuses of the last five hundred years including Leonard, Einstein, Blake were all young at the time of the cataclysms. Could the "pretend theory" that Mycroft was going to lecture on have some grain of truth? I did more research. Recent studies show that certain forms of autism are likely triggered by trauma that occurs in early life. And why not? If everything is going great, you want people to be sheep, doing exactly what their forefathers did. If the world is going to shit because a big cloud of volcanic ash has blotted out the sun, causing mass extinctions (a la Toba 70,000 BC) then you want your kids to be creative, free thinkers, mavericks capable of looking for new solutions to new problems. "Naked Neanderthal" a novel in the Mycroft series was the first to explore the notion. That was followed by "The Marriage Hearse" in which modern day neanderthal clone Adam begins to experiment with his supernatural powers by time traveling. There will be at least one book in that series. However, I got side tracked when I wondered what would have happened if, rather than ushering in a new scientific age, Einstein had used his Krakatoa induced autistic savant skills to unseal tectonic magic---i.e. using the special abilities acquired from environemental cataclysm to create more cataclysm to create even stronger magic abilities.----, ushering in a new era of magic. That led to "The Idea of Good and Evil in Diablo, California" and the sequel, set in the same parallel universe, "The Secret Garden of Earthly Delight" a rift on "The Secret Garden" in which the three kids become wizards---and Mary has to save Dickon and Colin who are lost in a world where the barriers between art and reality no longer exist. The next three books I wrote began as a minor plot devise in that last book. While wandering through Bosch's painting "The Garden of Earthly Delight", Dickon encounters Poe's detective Dupin, who "solves" the mystery of Jack the Ripper by suggesting that the motive for the killings was economic rather than sexual---which led straight to "Mack the Ripper" a Marxist take on the Whitechapel murders. For this one, I included another recurring character from my short stories, Radu aka Stefan the brother of the real life Vlad, a codependent vampire who heals people by drinking their blood, first introduced about a gazillion years ago in "Blood Red Rose." In 1880s Whitechapel, Stefan befriends my young fantasy hero, Gao and helps with his education as a magic bard endowed with the Voice---the power to compel people with his words and songs. Gao, a mixed race bisexual anarchist is now a wizard, and the forces of darkness which he tackles are capitalism, colonialism and fascism---much scarier than Voldemort IMHO. By following the timeline of history, I know where Gao and Stefan will go next. They were involved in the Meyerling Affair. They were at Johnstown for the Flood and then went west for the Ghost Dance and the death of Sitting Bull. They were back in Paris for the massacre at Fourmies and the start of the Dreyfus Affair. Next up---Henry Irving's production of "King Arthur" and Oscar Wilde's trial, and, of course, the events that trigger Bram Stoker to write "Dracula." And no, when I was writing the short story, "Reichenbach Falls" all those years ago, I had no idea that a minor plot device within the story would lead to seven going on eight novels. What a long strange trip it's been.

All the novels in the series from Mack the Ripper through the newest, Zong/Congo: The Covenant of the Yellow King free this weekend at Amazon for Kindle.