In the spirit of the season, Pots & Pens and The Writers’ Lens have teamed up to offer you the chance to win two ebooks:
–My historical fantasy novel, ZERO TIME: As Zero Time nears, only Keihla Benton can save two worlds from the powers of Darkness. But first she must unlock the secrets of Machu Picchu and her own past.  AND
–Susan Kaye Quinn’s YA dystopian novel, OPEN MINDS: When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.

Learn about Susan Kaye Quinn in her Nov. 18 interview  on Pots ‘n Pens, and check out my Nov. 4 interview on The Writers’ Lens.

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment or question on The Writers’ Lens blog between now (Dec. 6) and midnight Dec. 10, 2011. Please include your email so we can reach you if you win. The more comments you leave, the greater your chance of winning the contest. The winner will be chosen after midnight on Saturday and announced on Sunday, Dec. 11.

Good luck, and happy holidays!

Congratulations to Kathleen Kayembe, winner of a signed copy of ZERO TIME and a full Mayan astrology report from www.onereed.com. She commented at www.thewriterslens.com. Don’t miss this week’s giveaway, a signed copy of Diana L. Driver’s THE MAYA: PEOPLE OF THE MAIZE.

If you’re like me, when numbers repeat, I take notice. So this morning, the first thing on my mind was grabbing my copy of Ruth A. Drayer’s book, Numerology: The Power in Numbers. Here’s some of what she has to say about the master number 11/2:

• It represents a force that holds the lantern that lights our way up the path to higher consciousness…to go through this doorway (created by the double 1s) requires strength and flexibility.
• The main attribute is a desire for balance between masculine and feminine energies…to accomplish this, great integrity, strength and gentleness are required.
• Because 11/2’s inner voices are contradictory, it may be difficult for them to decide which voice to follow. When in doubt about which step to take, they should take little ones, but they should keep taking them.

NOTE: A master number is an attainment number that comes forward in later years…There is also greater potential for destructive behavior.

John Capraro is the winner of the ebook giveaway. His name was chosen in a random drawing from those who submitted comments. Thanks, John for stopping by!

I’m celebrating today! More than a decade ago, I “time traveled” to this day, even if it was only in my mind. The story that unfolded became my soon-to-be-released historical fantasy, Zero Time. Then Sept. 20, 2011, seemed like the distant future! When I pictured Keihla Benton, a science writer who joins an archeological group at Machu Picchu, here’s what I saw:

“Keihla stood in the tower, watching the sky’s pale orange and blue colors melt in a spectacular play of shifting light as the setting sun cast darkness on the Urubamba River gorge–home of the Inca gods…Keihla reached her hand up to examine one of four niches she could barely see in the dim light. They were really there. She would never have joined Dr. Banks’ expedition if it hadn’t been for the niches. And the dream.

She remembered little about the woman who stood over her in the dream, but Keihla vividly pictured the serpent draped over the woman’s shoulders and arms…the snake’s length at least doubled the woman’s height and was bigger around than her waist. Its triangular head hovered inches above Keihla’s face and the tip of its ridged tail lay alongside her body.”

I first got the idea in 1997 while searching through files at the University of Michigan in East Lansing. I needed a story idea for the last week of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy workshop. Instead, I fell in love with the ancient Mesoamerican culture. It was not something I could condense into a few pages! I had to come up with another short story idea for the workshop, but the tales of the Inca, Maya, and Aztecs continued to fire my imagination over the years. Well, work and life intervened, but  I finally finished writing Zero Time in 2008. It’s been another long, slow road to publication.  I’m grateful to the publishers at L&L Dreamspell for giving my book life before Dec. 21, 2012– Zero Time–and the end date of  one of the Mayan calendars.

To help celebrate, today I’m offering a drawing for a copy of the ebook anthology, Dreamspell Sci Fi Vol. 1. It features my Maya-inspired short story, “Solar Lullaby,” and some fun tales by three other writers. All you have to do is leave a comment about this post AND your email address before midnight, Wednesday, Sept. 28.