What is Frama-12?

My recent posts have described the process of turning my fantasy manuscript, Frama-12, into a book to be published by The Wild Rose Press. Currently, round one of the edits is now complete. My assigned editor had emailed my marked-up manuscript, and I, in turn, made corrections and volleyed it back. As I await round two (of three), I’d like to share a few things about my novel that will begin to explain what Frama-12 is. Let’s start with the deleted prologue from my book. The information still applies.

At precisely one hour, four minutes, and eleven seconds before sunrise, just as the tide undulated toward shore, a time-tear connecting two adjoining worlds started to rise. On the empty stretch of private beach, the time-tear gradually ascended from beneath the damp sand until a column of static electricity, six and a half feet in diameter, grew from the ground. As each minute passed, more of the shimmering light rose into view–if eyes had been there to witness it.

Upon reaching the exact height of ten feet, the time-tear separated from the earth. As the glittering column lifted toward the sky, one speck broke free. A sea breeze caught it, casting it toward the nearest beach house. The spark, conveying an urgent report, slipped through the window screen. It reached the chosen one sleeping within. His eyes snapped open. In that instant, he understood.

The turmoil, which had been foretold so long ago, was about to begin. There was only one problem. It was coming too soon.

**************************************************************************************************************************

One of those worlds is Earth. The other is Frama-12 (rhymes with drama), which is the title of book one of my fantasy trilogy, Winnie and the “Wizard.” The series chronicles the adventures of two incompatible teens and one six-year-old named Mikey, who claims to be an adult general.

In Book One, Mikey, in his general incarnation, offers a warning to his big sister, Winnie, “When the sea is smooth, the lurkin will attack.” Since he’s too small to do anything about it, he asks her to go to Frama-12 and fight the battle in his place. She readily agrees, but only because she believes it’s just a game.

Winnie, a well-meaning know-it-all, and Kip, a charmer and amateur magician, converge on the alternate world. After a rough start (he’s annoying, she’s outspoken), they begin to work together on battle plans. If they don’t defeat the lurkin army, it will pass through the time-tear and into their world.

Naturally, in an alternate world, non-human creatures abound. In this book, there’s a man-horse hybrid called a “palum.” Nope, not a centaur. Recently, I described the creature to a student in the graphic arts class where I work when I’m not writing.

“Let me get this straight,” the student said. “It has a horse head?”

I nodded.
“With a human torso.”
“Yup,” I said, “including arms and hands.”
“And the back end of a horse? I have to draw this.”

Epps and I both had a good laugh over it.

Naturally, since it is a graphics class, I decided to create the thing in Adobe Photoshop. I showed that same student my version, and we howled with laughter over the pure silliness of it. Surprisingly, when I sent my Photoshopped palum (along with my edited manuscript) to the editor, she wrote back that the image was exactly how she’d pictured it.

And speaking of horses. I finally had that photoshoot at Thorncroft Equestrian Center. If you scroll to the bottom of the link, you’ll see photos of all their awesome horses!

Many thanks to Mikaela for acting as the liaison between me and the horse, Frosty. Also, I’m grateful to my photographer, Randy, for taking a ton of pictures.

I confess, when I first heard I’d get to hang out with a horse named Frosty, I expected her to have a white coat. I think the name came about because she’s a roan. Her coat has a frosty sheen to it.

At one point, Randy had said, “This is an author photo. It’s not about the horse.” Too bad, because she was more photogenic than I was!

That’s all for now. Next time, I’ll give some behind-the-scenes info about Frama-12.