Authorpreneur Dashboard – Elizabeth Guizzetti
Other Systems
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Without an influx of human DNA, the utopian colony on Kipos has eleven generations before it reaches failure. Earth is over ninety light years away. Time is short. On the over-crowded Earth, many see opportunity in Kipos' need. After medical, intelligence, and physiological testing, Abby and her younger siblings, Jin and Orchid, are offered transportation. Along with 750,000 other strong young immigrants, they leave the safety of their family with the expectation of good jobs and the opportunity for higher education. While the Earthlings travel to the new planet in stasis, the Kiposi, terrified the savages will taint their paradise, pass a series of indenture and adoption laws in order to assimilate them. When Abby wakes up on Kipos, Jin cannot be found. Orchid is ripped from her arms as Abby is sold to a dull-eyed man with a sterilized wife. Indentured to breed, she is drugged and systematically coerced. To survive, Abby learns the differences in culture and language using the only thing that is truly hers on this new world: her analytical mind. In order to escape her captors, she joins a planetary survey team where she will discover yet another way of life.
Book Bubbles from Other Systems
Pain and comfort...
Warning: This scene has adult language and possible trigger words. Though this is the first scene in Other Systems, it is actually the last scene that I wrote. To capture the characters' emotions, I opened my heart to the devastation that a suicide causes within a family. As a widower, Harden was the obvious object of pity, but my goal was to make it clear that the entire family and crew hurt from Lucy’s decision. From my own experience, sadness is not the only emotion that people feel when faced with death. More to the point, I needed the reader to understand time dilation is a major plot point in the novel. Rosemary is aging at a vastly different rate than the rest of the family are. Whatever comfort she can give them, must come now.
Fear
While out walking my dogs, I was struck by the idea that I might write a science fiction book that deals with slavery. A few of the scenes from this chapter hit me hard. I wanted to capture a sense of uneasiness that moved towards fear and loss. I hurried home and immediately wrote it. While the rest of the novel mutated draft by draft, this scene remained nearly untouched. While the novel deals with some of humanity’s atrocities, it is also the story of what wonders humans might experience as we become a space-faring species.
