And here it is!
Below is the official press release that gives you a hint of what is going on with this book. Afterward I'll give you a bit more inside information on what this book and and the rest of the series entails.
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION
Presents
THE SILVER PENTACLE
Airship 27 Production is thrilled to announce the release of writer Nancy Hansen’s newest fantasy saga.
In the far distant future the Earth has long been abandoned with the majority of mankind traveling to the stars to discover new worlds. Whereas old hatreds continue to fester among those who remain until a global nuclear war lays waste to everything. Hundreds of years later a demigod named Jordyn Orion descends on what remains to discover new human enclaves have sprung up among which are men and women possessing strange, supernatural abilities.
One of these is the young fire-starter Aleta Kalama and together they battle the Angel of Death in the ruins of a once great Metropolis. Later they join forces with a lovely Wind Shaper to take on a merciless sea pirate known as Crazy Katy.
“The old phrase about throwing everything into the mix including the kitchen sink was the reaction I had when reading this book,” reports Airship 27’s Managing Editor Ron Fortier. “Nancy Hansen is a treasure to the New Pulp community and her work is always fresh, exciting and above all else original. ‘Silver Pentacle’ is nothing like her previous works and we are very excited to be bringing it to her legions of readers.”
Master Storyteller Nancy Hansen launches her most imaginative series yet in “The Silver Pentacle.” These are fantastic tales from a time and place lost to the future.
Colorado based artist Guy Davis provides both the interior illustrations and the painted cover, while book design was handled by Art Director Rob Davis.
AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!
Available now from Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
This book is actually the first in a series, and it's a collection of two long stories. The premise is that post-apocalyptic Earth has been nearly destroyed by a a series of cataclysmic events. Nuclear warfare over dwindling carbon fuels and the resulting environmental breakdown those battles caused has killed masses and ruined the environemnt, while ongoing mechanized warfare (read that as large, automated hostile units) as well as chemical and biological incursions are still ongoing in some areas. Billions have have suffered and died and what is left of humanity mostly exists in small and scattered mixed groups wherever life can be supported. Lingering radiation has caused both sterility and mutations that have made it hard to repopulate the planet, let alone thrive where so much of the world is a desertlike wasteland and people are relegated to subsistence living.
Ah, but there are other less technologically-based dangers as well, so this is not simply a story of science and industry gone wrong...
Because of the often sudden and violent exodus of so many souls, the foretold Rapture has occurred, and those who were still true believers have followed their God to whatever paradise was promised. The rest of the lost souls are just sort of bobbing around the Universe as formless energy beings, and their sudden influx has caused rifts in space and time. So all sorts of beasts and beings from the past, as well as monsters and individuals of legends and myth, have begun to appear or reappear on Earth. It's not unusual to come across living examples of Earth's history such as random dinosaurs, lost Roman Legionaires, or megafuana, interspersed with things like dragons, Atlantean merfolk, demons, and cannibalistic underground dwellers. Many levels of technology now exist at once as well, so these stories have everything from advanced war mechs, bio labs, laser or plasma weapons, and thorium powered cargo ships; to ironclads, zeppelins, swords, cannons, catapults, and Tesla coils. Abandoned, bombed-out highrises in coastal regions are flooded or inhabited by predatory sentient beings, and in the war-torn areas there is great trade in scavenging anything that can be resold from ruined machines. Mankind is struggling, but still trying to hang on.
All this activity has drawn the attention of higher vibration 'ascended beings'—most of them former deities or other immortals who see the potential for growing more powerful by mining converts from the humans who are left behind. Not all of them have Earth's best interests at heart. And sent forth to clean up the mess, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are now appearing, for Earth is designated for total annihilation as a lost cause. This is of course something that these angels of destruction relish, for their stock and trade is that of mayhem and death. Earth is now their battlefield as well as their playground. In the meantime the other gods and goddesses have gathered to prevent that, and sides are being taken as the leaders gear up for yet another war—this time for the souls of those left behind. As always, frail humanity, already teetering on the edge of extinction, is caught in the middle. Of the ascended, nobody seems to care if the remainder of what was once Earth's most uniquely intelligent and prolific species pays the ultimate price in another senseless conflict over who gets to rule these now vacated stomping grounds of the most popular god. There is sport to be had and old scores to settle.
Yet one optimistic demigod from the ever meddling Orion clan isn't quite ready to give up on humanity. So he decides to go down and take a look around. He is greatly disturbed by not only how thoroughly the humans destroyed their once beautiful world, but also what he can already see will be happening next. In his travels across the planet he stumbles across the first elementally gifted being that has been engendered in eons. If he can find three more before it's too late, there will be four to face the Horsemen, and with his help five to stand together and fight, each with his or her own unique ability. Only then will there be a tipping in the balance of powers to thwart the Horsemen, and enough incentive to unite the returning godlings. But it will take a lot of work to reach out, convince, and train each of these four talented individuals how best to use their special gifts for the greater good. Along the way, they must inspire the battered and weary remnants of humanity to stand up once more and fight for their world, which will bring forward other unique individuals who will join in to save Earth from becoming a dead rock in space and humanity from being completely wiped out.
Yeah, nothing simple about these books. So for now, let's just talk about the two stories in Book 1.
TO KINDLE A FIRE introduces our cosmic traveler and humanity's cheerleader, Jordyn Orion. He's currently the last of his line, and having grown bored with immortality, decides that saving Earth would be an interesting diversion. In this story Jordyn finds Aleta Kalama, a young woman who willingly sacrificed herself to a local fire demon to ensure his ongoing protection for her people. Aleta is slowly and painfully ressurected and reanimated many leagues distant, and now she has the ability to project and manipulate fire—if she can get over her terror of the burning and learn to use it. She travels with Jordyn and along the way, finds herself sorely tested in both learning to accept and use her newfound gift while dealing with the memory of her past trauma in acquiring it. But it is a skill that could turn the tide when they stumble over a rebuilt settlement with an ugly secret. On the outskirts lurks an old adversary who has raised a legion of the damned to not only take over the area they are currently residing in, but to subjugate humanity altogether into thralls that will become a source of breeding material for more monsters and sustenance to keep them all alive.
WHERE FAIR WINDS DO BLOW gets Jordyn and Aleta to the Unified Islands, what is left of the UK, for a trip across the Atlantic to North America. While waiting to board, they meet the second elemental being, the Wind Mage Zephirine Merriwether who is working her way across the ocean as the sail settler on the cargo ship they will all be traveling on. The ship's engine runs on thorium, but they use a parasail to pull it along and save fuel, and being able to read and interpret winds for the best placement makes Zephirine a highly valuable asset. She is from a bit more civilized and well-to-do family in a culture where such talents are frowned upon, so is in denial of her abilities. Along the way though she and Aleta become friends, and in the difficult and dangerous situations they find themselves in while at sea, they soon begin to work together. Zephirine is no warrior, but she has to learn to fight or she will surely die like so many others. In finding her courage to face all the death and destruction around her, she too realizes that she has more control over what she can do than she ever thought possible. And now Jordyn Orion has found two of the four elemental beings he needs, and his hope for humanity is growing.
So why the series name THE SILVER PENTACLE? Two reasons really. First of all, there will be five main characters in the series, the four elementally gifted humans, along with Jordyn Orion. They correspond to the five points of a pentacle, which is simply a crisscross star shape held within a ring. There will be a greater significance to it later, on but for now it is a symbol of hope as each point corresponds to a particular 'gift'. Jordyn as the top point and being a demigod means he represnts spirit; that which inspires and motivates us to work for the greater good. Aleta represents the element of fire, Zephirine the element of air. There will also be a water elemental (introduced in the next book, which has already been written and turned in) and an earth elemental (in the 3rd book which I have started and will go back to working on a little later this year). There will be more books in the series after these first three which introduce the team and set the scenario up, for we still have a lot of ground to cover even after all that.
Also with the pentacle idea, each of our elemental beings will have a patron god or goddess who once the skill is mastered and some commitment is made to using it for saving humanity, will offer a silver pentacle medallion that is specifically designed for the wearer. For instance Aleta's has a golden flame backdrop, Zephirine's has wings (she doesn't fly but can at times float while buoyed on a cushion of air). Jordyn's has not been revealed yet, because I don't want to tip my hand there. There's also sort of a treasure hunt ongoing throughout the books, but it's too soon to talk about anything related to that.
I've done a lot of writing over the years, much of it in the last thirty. Of all the things I've written, this series is probably my oddest and most ambitious undertaking. It's quite a mashup of genres. I sure hope you enjoy reading it even half as much as I have writing it. So exciting for me now is seeing it come to life not just in reading format, but with both a fantastic cover and equally amazing interior illustrations by the very talented Mr. Guy Davis. All told, it is a labor of love, and I'm positively thrilled to have it available to readers who want something just a little out of the norm and more than a bit edgy.
You keep reading them and I'll keep writing them,
~NANCY
