14/03/2024
Six months ago, I decided that I wanted to leave something behind for my three amazing children. Not anything material (although I’m sure they would have preferred money), but something about them that they could hand down and share with their kids. Something they could experience and remember fondly, that would immortalize them as well as our dog, Winnie.
So, I did what I have wanted to do for over 20 years - I wrote a book.
The Relic of Hoomspire - the first in a three-part trilogy - is a speculative science-fiction novel/chapter book aimed squarely at middle grade kids who want to sink their teeth into a wholesome and epic adventure about the power of family, growing courage under fire, unconditional love, and the unbreakable bond between kids and their dogs.
I don’t expect anyone to buy it, and I certainly don’t expect to make a living out of this. But if you’d like your middle grade-aged kids to enjoy a warm, engaging chapter book adventure with three amazing children, loads of danger, laughter, discovery, and…well…talking dogs, I think you and your kids will enjoy my story quite a bit.
Available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/jcRwU5M
“Everyone comes to a moment in their life when they must make a choice - a big, huge choice, that defined who they were, and who they would end up being. Mei thought she had already come to a moment like that, back when they first made the mistake of walking through that air duct. Now, once again, was a fork in the road, and a choice to make. But now, after all this time, she finally understood. If you’re faced with that choice, and you’re determined to do the right thing…You really don’t have a choice at all.”
10,000 years have passed since asteroid 2086 BF scorched the planet, forcing humanity to slip beneath the surface in desperation. They had settled into a comfortable life in their subterranean cities, and had everything they ever needed – food, water, power, and all the technological marvels that could sustain them. But merely sustaining wasn’t enough for Mei, a motherly 14-year-old who craved adventure above the surface but was afraid of her own shadow. Thanks to her insane yet brave little sister Su, and her steady and reliable stepbrother Jaden, she would get the adventure she desired after all – whether she liked it or not. Needing to find a map to their city entrance after being trapped outside, the children embark on a journey to a nearby human ruin, and the university within.
During that first desperate exodus, humans had to leave everything behind, including their four-legged best friends. Friends who, many millennia later, would worship and emulate their former companions by using their Hoom artifacts to build wondrous cities, learn to speak their language, and rapidly evolve to walk and use tools like them. One of those Kineen, Winnie, was a simple herder who wanted more than anything to strike out into the wilderness in search of ancient Hoom ruins and relics. After her best friend Chase returns from a hunt with some of those treasures, and the location to a former Hoom settlement, the friends enthusiastically embark on a quest of discovery, joined by the elite Guard Copper, the gentle scholar Ruby, and the wise master of the Wonder House, Winston.
Hoom and Kineen lives would forever change as the two travelling groups encounter one another, pursued by the vicious Untamed and their savage leader Rock. Through tragic loss and heart-stopping danger, the new friends would face the revelation that Kineen were once considered pets and property. Hearts are shattered and new bonds strained, but when Rock tries to use the children to cut off the air to their city and take revenge on the people who left them behind to die so long ago, the Kineen remember that their Hoom’s belong to them, just as much as they belong to their Hooms.
Mei and Winnie, Su and Chase, Jaden and Copper, they all represent the best and worst in us, but the undeniable power of a love between a human and their dog is something that will always withstand the test of time.
