Happy Birthday, Nicolaus Copernicus!

Much thanks to Pamela Dollak for pointing out that this week (February 19th) was the birthday of famed astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus!

Nicolaus Copernicus

In the early 1500s, famed Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus first proposed that the Earth was not the center of the universe — a revelation that, more than 500 years later, has catapulted the 16th century scientists into the center of the Google-verse.

Google's Copernicus "Doodle"

The Internet search giant Google honored Copernicus' paradigm-shifting model of the cosmos with a unique dynamic "doodle" that animates the motion of the solar system's planets around the sun. The Copernicus doodle went live on Copernicus' 540th birthday.

Birthplace in Torun, Poland
February 19, 1473

Nicolaus Copernicus was born on Feb. 19, 1473, and traveled to Italy at age 18 to attend university. At that time, the prevailing theory of the cosmos stated that the planets (not to mention the sun) all circled the Earth, which was at the center of the universe.

At the University of Bologna, Copernicus studied astronomy under professor Domenico Maria de Novara, during which time he helped observe the night sky. After return to his native Poland to serve as a cleric in Frauenburg, he continued his astronomical observations using a observatory in the tower in which he lived. [The Greatest Astronomers of All Time]

Copernicus is perhaps best known for his work on the motion of solar system planets. The prevailing model — that the Earth was at the center of the universe — resulted in a complicated view of the solar system in order to account for the apparent backward motion of some planets across the sky. This "retrograde motion," as it was called, was explained by confusing circles within circles (called epicycles) by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy.

But Copernicus' model streamlined the solar system by proposing that the Earth was not the center of the universe — a heretical view at the time. Instead, Copernicus proposed that the center was near the sun, and that all the planets (Earth included) revolved around it. He also proposed that that it was the Earth's motion around the sun that caused other planets to appear as if they moved backward — a theory later proven correct.

The Copernican model of the solar system is also known as the heliocentric model. While Copernicus still got some details incorrect (he assumed the orbits of planets were perfect circles, not the ellipses we know today, which still required epicycles), it did lay the foundation for future astronomers.

Copernicus documented his theory in handwritten notes to friends in 1514, when he would have been about 41 years old. It was not until he was 70 and near death that Copernicus formally published his proposal in the book "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres."

Despite Copernicus' work, nearly 100 years later Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei found himself in trouble with Catholic church authorities in 1632 when he also proposed that Earth orbited the sun. Both astronomers were ultimately vindicated, leading to the modern understanding of solar system mechanics scientists have today.

Check Out The Kabrini Message On Goodreads!

We are finally on Goodreads!

I never knew a book had to be physcially "listed" on Goodreads.  I thought it somehow magically appeared there as soon as it was published.  Surprise!  

With a little help from Etopia Press Senior Editor, Laurel Kane and the librarian at Goodreads, we are finally listed and have a 5 star rating!

Goodreads - The Kabrini Message

Goodreads - Author Profile, J.R. Egles

Please check out Goodreads and leave a review, comment, recommend, start a discussion or all of the above!

Interview With Gwen Jones, Wife of Author J.R. Egles

Joe and Gwen
Taken around the time of the writing of The Kabrini Message, c.1987
Surf City, NJ
Notice the ham radio equipment on the left and the telescope on the right!

Today we have a Special Guest with us, Gwen Jones, wife of Author J.R. Egles, who has a unique point of view of The Kabrini Message as she was there during the entire time it was written.

Thank you so much for being with us today, Gwen and for sharing some of your insights with us.  Tell us a little about your involvement during the writing of The Kabrini Message and the process itself.

Joe always wanted me to read what he had written each day and to hear what I had to say about it.

What are some of your fondest memories from the time of the writing of The Kabrini Message?

Joe always asked my opinion about his writing and after listening intently, he would ignore all of it...LOL

Did Joe always want to write a book?

Joe was always a creative person and I think he was looking for an outlet to show his creativity.

Did he do much other writing in addition to The Kabrini Message?

He wrote some short stories and music lyrics. 

How did you feel about the character of the news reporter being named after you and do you remember how that came about or have any special memories regarding the writing of that character?

Actually, I asked Joe to put me in the book and he loved the idea. I think he nailed it...LOL

Who would you want to play “Gwen Jones” in the movie version?

Hmmm...Kate Hudson

What character, dialogue, or parts of the book in general seem the most like Joe?

I think the book as a whole is Joe.  Reading it I can hear his voice saying the words. 

Can you think of anything in particular that may have inspired all or parts of The Kabrini Message?

Joe had many different theories on many different subjects and was open minded to unlimited possibilities.  There are messages all around us; some people are just more tuned in than others.  The main character in the book, Jeffrey Driscoll, has that in common with Joe.  Jeffrey always sensed when he was looking through his telescope that someone or something was looking back, which is why the Kabrini chose him to get their message out. 

Do you know where the word “Kabrini” came from or why that particular name? 

That’s just their name.  Just like it says in the book, that’s what they call themselves.

Did Joe ever speak about perhaps writing a sequel to The Kabrini Message or what he felt happened to the characters beyond where the book ends?

I think there would have been a sequel to it.  Joe had a lot more to offer.

What “message” would Joe most want us to take away from The Kabrini Message?

I think Joe made his message clear in the book.  It's all in there and he said it best.

What else would you like people to know about Joe? 

There was so much more to Joe than most people ever realized, I hardly know where to start, but I'll try.

One thing that comes to mind was his ability to reinterpret something difficult to comprehend - anything from bible verses, Shakespeare, complicated scientific theories – anything at all really, and restate it a way that was easily understood and suddenly made perfect sense.  He was great at teaching.

Also, he was very interested in reverse speech and the messages within. He did a lot of research in that area with fascinating results.  That’s just another, separate example that messages are all around us and we are all capable of receiving them…if we listen. But to certain individuals, it just seems to come naturally.  Joe was one of those people. 

In closing, is there anything you would like to add? 

I think we lost an amazing man way to soon, as he had so much more to offer.  I miss him everyday.

And finally, here are two of my favorite quotes I'd like to share.

Joe in 2006

"In my  solitude I have pondered much on the incomprehensible subjects of space, eternity, life and death."

                                               - Alfred Russel Wallace

"We love our dear ones deeply and miss them when they leave us.   But we know that the bond of love is greater then death."

                                               - Harold Klemp

Auld Lang Syne Awesomeness!

The Best New Year's Resolution of All:

Best Wishes for a Very Happy & Healthy New Year Everyone!

Rod Stewart says it best in this video...enjoy!!!  xoxoRod Stewart - Auld Lang Syne - Live from Sterling Castle in Scotland Dec., 2012

Be sure to check out Wednesday's post, when Cat Cavendish will be our Guest Author and she will tell us about her latest paranormal horror novella, Miss Abigail's Room.  Cat is fabulous and we are so fortunate and excited to have her!  

See you in 2013!

As the Spirit of Christmas Continues!

Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season with friends and loved ones!

Sharing some inspiration for planning our "New Years Resolutions".  Not so much the usual ones to lose weight, workout more, etc.  These will accomplish more results in the long run...and are easier to achieve!

1.  Resolve to be kind.

“If you really understood everything, all your wrong reactions would turn into compassion. Those who evoke wrong reactions in you are out of harmony, and especially in need of love. Yes, it is most important to be loving. Meet every situation with love and you will be able to handle it. If someone does the meanest thing to me, I feel the deepest compassion for that person and pray for that person - I do not hurt myself by a wrong reaction of bitterness and anger.”

  - Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work In Her Own Words 

2.  Resolve to make a difference.

There are 3 kinds of people in the world:

Those that make things happen.

Those that watch what happens.

Those that wonder what happened.

Resolve to make things happen!

3.  Resolve to expand your horizons!

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.    - Saint Augustine 

Guest Author, Steve Emmett

I want to welcome this week's guest author, Steve Emmett!

Let's start with Steve's brief Author's Bio:

Steve Emmett is a British author, occasional book reviewer and creative writing tutor, and a member of the Society of Authors.

Born in Harrogate, the genteel Yorkshire spa town known as the place where Agatha Christie hid away from the world thirty-two years earlier. He studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and built a few houses before going off the rails. For over twenty years he ran his own real estate agency specializing in Italian country homes and, for almost ten years, lived by Lake Trasimeno in Umbria, the setting for his horror debut, Diavolino. Born at the end of the 1950s, Steve grew up on Dennis Wheatley novels and Hammer Horror films, and on many occasions started to put pen to paper. Completely dissatisfied and unfulfilled with his career, Steve decided in 2008 that he wanted to write and began Diavolino. Right now he is completing three horror novels. Steve’s work is influenced by the writing of John Ajvide Lindqvist, Stephen King, M R James, Anne Rice and Joanne Harris (and one or two others), but he has his own distinctive style. Steve is an avid reader of horror and suspense, and works as an occasional reviewer for the New York Journal of Books.

And now...Steve, please tell us anything you'd like us to know about yourself and your writing.

I often get asked if I’ve always wanted to write. You know how some authors say they always knew, that even as children they would write stories and stick them in boxes under their beds? Well, I didn’t do that. I didn’t even read much in my early years. My father never read and one of his proudest boasts was that he’d only ever read one book in his life, so it’s hardly surprising that as a small child I had little exposure to books. 

That all changed, of course, when I went to school. The funny thing is, I could read before I started school and I’ve been trying to remember how I learned. I think I taught myself because I have vague memories of sitting on the stairs at home with some books I’d been given by one of my aunts and my grandparents. So once in the classroom, my reading and writing took off.

But things didn’t change significantly at home to provide the kind of environment in which I could easily discover myself. My mother did read when she could, in other words when my father wasn’t around to criticise her for doing so, and that’s how I stumbled upon Dennis Wheatley’s The Irish Witch, but you have to imagine that I went to school by day, and by night had to listen to the mantra ‘education doesn’t matter’. It’s amazing that I went to university.

There is one event from schooldays that sticks in my mind. Do you know the poem Death in Leamington by Sir John Betjeman? Here it is:

She died in the upstairs bedroom
By the light of the ev'ning star
That shone through the plate glass window
From over Leamington Spa

Beside her the lonely crochet 

Lay patiently and unstirred, 

But the fingers that would have work'd it 

Were dead as the spoken word. 

And Nurse came in with the tea-things 

Breast high 'mid the stands and chairs- 

But Nurse was alone with her own little soul, 

And the things were alone with theirs. 

She bolted the big round window, 

She let the blinds unroll, 

She set a match to the mantle, 

She covered the fire with coal. 

And "Tea!" she said in a tiny voice 

"Wake up! It's nearly five" 

Oh! Chintzy, chintzy cheeriness, 

Half dead and half alive. 

Do you know that the stucco is peeling? 

Do you know that the heart will stop? 

From those yellow Italianate arches 

Do you hear the plaster drop? 

Nurse looked at the silent bedstead, 

At the gray, decaying face, 

As the calm of a Leamington ev'ning 

Drifted into the place. 

She moved the table of bottles 

Away from the bed to the wall; 

And tiptoeing gently over the stairs 

Turned down the gas in the hall. 

I can hear our English teacher at King James’s now taking a deep breath, looking at us over the pages of the book and asking, “What do you think that tells us?” My hand shot up. “That the nurse gassed her,” I said.

King James School
Founded in 1616

If only I had seized that moment I suppose I might have had the courage to become a writer instead of allowing myself to be railroaded down the wrong path. I’m talking of the 1970s here and like so many of my friends I got channelled into a career based on bricks and mortar. When I look back on it, I cannot think of much that could have been less suitable for me.

But here we are. No point crying over spilled milk, as they say, and the one thing that I did gain from my previous career is varied experience. Of course, looking back, I would have loved to have been a writer in my twenties – but what the hell would I have written about? Now I have a whole lifetime (well, half a lifetime or thereabouts, I hope) behind me, rich with events and characters that I can draw on to create my weird stories. In Diavolino I used Italy and things that happened to me when I lived there to build a Gothic horror, contrasting the beauty of the place with evil. I have just completed a vampire novel which draws on my 

Book Signing With Fellow Authors
 Julia Kaven (left)
and Cat Cavendish (right)

knowledge of ancient and modern Rome. And I’m currently working on what might be a psycho-sexual novel that examines aspects of the human condition few are willing to acknowledge. I’m actually writing this one with another author and dear friend, Julia Kavan; neither of us writes fast so maybe it’ll be a case of many hands make light work of dark words! All my stories have something to say about the society we live in and feature, in one way or another, people I have met over the years. 

The other obvious question, then, is how did I make this massive change from real estate agent of twenty-five years to published author? You know, the real answer is that I had it forced upon me. In 2008 I had already grown tired of my work and had returned to reading horror fiction in a big way. I knew I wanted to do it, to take that big step, but it’s one thing saying that and another walking away from a business that has supported you for over two decades. Lehman Bros made the decision for me, because when they went down so our business ground to a halt. I could have waited, bided my time as I had done in previous downturns, but I didn’t want to. It was my chance and I took it.

The first thing I did was to research what writing courses were available. I finally settled on a novel writing course run by the London School of Journalists which I could complete online (being still in Italy with lots of paperwork to be done this was important). That really set me up, and by the time I’d completed the course, Diavolino had been born. It took me another couple of years to complete the book to my satisfaction and I felt elated when, amongst the various rejections, I got an acceptance from Etopia Press.

That all seems a long time ago. I’m now comfortable being a writer and it no longer requires gritting my teeth to tell someone what I do when they ask. I love my work, even though it is the hardest thing I have ever done. I’ve made some terrific new friends to whom I owe a great deal for the way in which my writing has developed. The main thing is that I am now proud of what I do, and that is a new experience to add to all the old ones. Experience, like education, is our future; we just need to learn.

Thank you so much for joining us here today, Steve!  

Here is a short excerpt from Diavolino (it sounds wonderful!):

There was no heat wave in Clavelli’s apartment. The fire raged in the hearth as it always had. The renewal had improved his inner strength. He could pass among the hordes in the Basilica and the labyrinthine corridors without drawing too much attention to himself. To them he was just another decrepit old cleric living out his final days in comfort. He enjoyed watching them. They came from all over the world, attracted to the place like flies to shit. Soon he would destroy them all.

He went out onto the small balcony, impervious to the suffocating temperature. He could sense that she was near. How many centuries had he waited? Now, at last, he would be able to delight his Master. He would have his reward.

He inhaled deeply. Not for his senses the choking diesel of the taxis and the two-stroke scooters, not the wafts of cooking smells from the seedy restaurants where the insects gorged themselves, not the stink of sweat from the unwashed masses below, their armpits wet and rank with the heat. No, among all this he found it; the smell was unmistakable. Faint, undeniably female, a scent that reeked of sexual desires that could snuff out life with the twinkle of an eye that had at its very core the power to create doubt and blunt the sharpest intellect.

He raised his eyes to the stars. The sky was deepest purple with a film of haze drawn across like chiffon. He was aware of the blackness lurking around the fringes. He knew, yet it was as imperceptible as a leopard inching upon its prey. It would be no easy task to accomplish—but he had no choice. The chance had not come to all. He had been chosen.

Diavolino is available as an eBook or paperback from major retailers including:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Barnes and Noble

The Hive

There are signed copies available directly from Steve via his website (lots of reviews, interviews, other buy links and posts too!):

http://steve-emmett.com/

Steve's creative writing services are here:

http://thewritingcouch.com/

And you can also find/follow Steve at: 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chukkie58

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Steve-Emmett/190772694286916?ref=hl

Society of Authors: http://www.societyofauthors.org/profiles/writers/53953

New York Journal of Books: http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/reviewer/steve-emmett

Guest Author, Theresa McClinton

Today's guest author is Theresa McClinton.  Before we begin, here is a brief author bio on Theresa:

 A long time enthusiast of things that go bump in the night, Theresa started her writing career as a journalism intern—possibly the least creative writing field out there. After her first semester at a local newspaper, she washed her hands of press releases and features articles to delve into the whimsical world of young adult paranormal romance.

Since then, Theresa has gotten married, had three terrific kids, moved to central Ohio, and was repeatedly guilt tripped into adopting a menagerie of animals that are now members of the family. But don’t be fooled by her domesticated appearance. Her greatest love is travel. Having stepped foot on the soil of over a dozen countries, traveled to sixteen U.S. states—including an extended seven-year stay in Kodiak, Alaska—she is anything but settled down. But wherever life brings her, she will continue to weave tales of adventure and love with the hope her stories will bring joy and inspiration to her readers.

Welcome, Theresa and thank you for joining us this morning!  Please jump right in and tell us anything you'd like us to know about you, your life and your career.

Hi Marie! Thanks so much for inviting me to your blog today.

My name is Theresa McClinton. I’m twenty-seven years old, live in central Ohio with my husband, three kids, and cat, Pepper. Yes, I know. I've got a lot going on. On top of all the normal chaos in my house, I’m also a young adult paranormal romance writer. Actually, that’s the calm part of my life.

I was never a big reader. In fact, when I was a kid, I would much rather someone read to me, rather than on my own. Why? It was a combination of several factors. The main one was that we moved around so much in my childhood, I barely had enough time to adjust to one school before we packed our bags and relocated to another. This pattern left me with less motivation to pick up a book, because all those big words were just too intimidating. I’ll tell you a secret. To this day, I am a terrible speller. (Thank God for word processors!)

But when we did settle down, it was on the glorious island of Kodiak Alaska. See, when my mom married my amazing stepfather, he had been living on Kodiak for thirty plus years. So instead of staying in Washington, where we didn't really have any reason to dig in our heels and stick around, we relocated. By then, we were used to it.

Fast-forward seven years, and I just completed my freshman year of high school. Again, we move, this time to North Carolina. Here is where my interest in reading and writing really sprouted and bloomed.

I’ll never forget sitting in English class, listening to my teacher talk about the subtle undertones in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. My eyes suddenly opened, and for the first time in my life, I saw the true potential in books.

Not just books, but stories. Epic ones. Stories so submerging, you forget to eat. Books that force you bring it to the bathroom because you can’t bear to set it down, but you really have to go! Stories that not only kept you completely entwined, but emotionally invested. I learned to love books, their characters, their stories, and I learned how to care if one of them was in pain. In fact, with some really fantastic stories, I've hurt with them.

Fast forward another two years, and I’m tearing through novels. Now I’m involved with my high school newspaper, The South Wind. Not only involved, but I’m a features editor and features reporter. Another year later, I applied for an internship at our local newspaper.

With my hopes high and my ears more wet than a baby seal, I waltzed into the newspaper, ready to tackle the project of becoming a real life newspaper reporter; the one with scarlet red lipstick and six inch stilettos.

Too bad that once I was done with my internship, I loathed journalism. On my last day, I passed through the double doors, walked across their oddly set parking lot, unlocked my little Toyota, and made a decision.

No more editor-in-chief breathing down my throat, no more writing about things I was deathly bored with, no more being assigned projects. I was going rogue. I was going to write novels.

Eight years of a crazy life later, here I am! Self taught, motivated, and completely in love with what I do, I get to play with my kids during the day, and weave paranormal romance stories at night. It’s the best life I could ask for. 

Be sure to check out Theresa's new book, The Stone Guardian, coming out this month!  Also, here is a list of links for Theresa, including one for the video trailer she did for The Stone Guardian and a link to all of the video trailers she has produced for other authors as well.  Theresa  is responsible for our fabulous video trailer for The Kabrini Message...which we hope to soon update to include our release date and cover photo!

Theresa's Links:

            Facebook:  www.facebook.com/theresamcclinton.author

Twitter:  Twitter:  www.twitter.com/t_mcclinton

            Pinterest:   www.pinterest.com/theresayaauthor

            Website:  www.theresamcclinton.com

Video Trailer for The Stone Guardian:  www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fN1JvOOntWw

All of Theresa's Videos:  www.youtube.com/user/100tmcclinton?feature=watch

Meteor Showers...And Other "Stars" To Watch This Week!

                                                                                                                                                                                             

Going to make this brief today...

The holidays are a very busy time of year, but take some time to LOOK UP this week!

Be sure to catch a glimpse of this!

Also this week:  Be sure to stop by on Wednesday and meet guest author, Theresa McClinton.  Theresa writes Young Adult Romance and I know you will love her!

http://theresamcclinton.com/

Among her many other talents, Theresa also composes videos and she is the one we have to thank for our fabulous video book trailer.  If you have not yet seen it, please check it out:

The Official Kabrini Message Book Trailer - click here

Theresa has done several other videos, too that you can see (LIKE, FOLLOW) by clicking on this link:

https://www.youtube.com/user/100tmcclinton?feature=watch

I am excited to say we have guest authors lined up for each Wednesday all the way into mid January so far and adding more each day.  The genres of each of these authors vary greatly - so it will be a very enlightening experience! 

The Voice on the Inside...

My favorite inspirational quote for any important goal:

"When the voice and the vision on the inside become more profound, clear and louder than the opinions on the outside, you've mastered your life." - Dr. Demartini

So true!

It doesn't matter in the slightest:

• What anyone else says, thinks or would do.
• What anyone else would do in your place.
• What anyone else would say, think or do..."if they knew".

That matters not at all!  Block it all out!!!  The only thing that matters is your focus, your commitment, your drive, your point of view.

When thoughts of "anyone in their right mind would (fill in the blank, but usually...'have given up by now'), threaten to creep in, stamp them out!  Tell yourself  it's not abut "anyone in their right mind"...it's about YOU!...lol...

Then repeat the quote to yourself...OFTEN.  As often as necessary - until it becomes second nature.  Make it your mantra.


Again..."When the voice and the vision on the inside become more profound, clear and louder than the opinions on the outside, you've mastered your life."






                   
                                                                                   The Way

To every man there openeth

A Way, and Ways, and a Way,

And the High Soul climbs the High Way,

And the Low Soul gropes the Low,

And in between, on the misty flats,

The rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth

A High Way, and a Low.

And every man decideth

The way his soul shall go.

                                            - 19th century English poet, William Dunkerley, 

                                            writing under the pseudonym John Oxenham

                             

The YIN & YANG of it all!

Even though The Kabrini Message was written by a male and is primarily science fiction, which is often (although certainly not always) thought to be a more male oriented genre, there is some irony in the realization that it has been an entirely collaborative female influence that has brought it to the published page.

I'm not sure what, if any, significance that has, but it's interesting and a little paradoxical.

Originally I was (only slightly) concerned that because the writer/editor I hired to "polish" the novel is a woman, there could be an impact on the smooth transition we wanted to achieve.  That was never an issue.

Additionally:

The original manuscript for The Kabrini Message was typed by my mom, Marie Egles - I believe on a real "typewriter", not on a computer!  She encouraged Joe and was the one that, I feel, led me to the envelope of loose pages in my attic.

When I found The Kabrini Message, Gwen Jones (Joe's wife) was the legal owner and had she not been on board with having it published, this would never be happening.  Gwen was also present and "a sounding board" throughout the entire time of the writing of the novel.

Amy Bell of WritePunch, Inc. edited and polished the manuscript.

Professional psychic and astrologer Pennye Scullin, gave great advice all along the way.

Theresa McClinton produced the fabulous video trailer.

Ultimately, Annie Melton, founder of Etopia Press is the publisher that signed The Kabrini Message for publication.

So not only was the whole male/female thing not a great challenge to be avoided, but, as it turns out...a very diverse group of women is exactly what was needed to literally bring The Kabrini Message out of the attic and into the world!

Incidentally, if you have not yet seen the video trailer, please check it out:
The Official Kabrini Message Book Trailer

Crystals and Radios

At the end of a past post "Timeless Messages" the importance of crystals and radios was briefly referred to.

As previously mentioned, Navigating the Collapse of Time (Weiser Books, 2011) by David Ian Cowan, was written in 2011, yet many of the theories highly detailed in Mr. Cowan's book are touched on and are the underlying current of The Kabrini Message, written a quarter of a century earlier.

In the previous post, "Author's Bio", The Kabrini Message Author's passion for the world of ham radio was discussed.  Not mentioned in the bio was the fact that the author (J.R. Egles, aka "Joe") also worked in the field of radio for a time as a D.J. at a radio station.  That is certainly where some of the material for chapter 16 of The Kabrini Message (entitled "KUX Radio, Twelve Miles Away") came from.  Incidentally, "K2UX" were Joe's ham radio call letters.

The following are additional excerpts, all from Chapter 5, entitled "DNA - The Interface between Galactic Light and Human Potential" of Navigating the Collapse of Time (Weiser Books, 2011) by David Ian Cowan.  It discusses the significance of crystals and also, ironically, radios!

     "There seems to be an intelligence operating between life forms beyond the limits of physical proximity and bio-chemical messengers.  It is now appreciated that DNA is more crystalline in its qualities, which goes a long way toward explaining these observations of non-local communication."

     "Crystalline structures...creates what seem to act like a net, antenna or resonant matrix for specific frequencies of light/energy.  All true crystals have an electrical aspect as well."

    "I recall, as a child, getting a crystal radio kit for Christmas one year.  It was really cool!  All these wires and coils had to be put together and where you placed a certain wire on the quartz crystal determined which radio station you heard.  And there was no battery!  The crystal not only was the power supply for the radio...but also acted as an antenna receiving radio signals specifically matching the arrangement of molecules on the different faces of the crystal."

    " ...what we know about crystals can now be applied to our appreciation of how DNA functions".

     "What may help explain the crystalline nature of DNA is the fact that DNA is nested within a matrix of ideal or clustered water molecules....Water is the only liquid-crystal substance on Earth, other than perhaps mercury.  All life on Earth depends on it.  Even though water is in a liquid state and can rise in frequency into a vapor or descend into solid ice, the water molecule itself is 'dielectric', as are solid-crystal molecules.  That is, it can hold an electrical charge, like a solid crystal.  As such, water can be charged from an outside source like sunlight and thus go into a more coherent, crystalline functional state, in which it can absorb and emit energy and information."

     "Clustered water surrounding DNA is thus part of an information-sharing system that links the DNA through the quantum-physical structures of the extra-cellular matrix of the body along with the meridians and chakras to the macro universe of light, sound, cosmic radiation and extra-dimensional information.  Throughout the body, we find specific protein structures called 'microtubules' and 'actin filaments' that support clustered water molecules within them.  These structures make up a web of protein filaments literally connecting all cells and their DNA with the body's own Internet or information superhighway....Given that we now understand the meridians to be 'pathways of light,' we can truly say we are 'light beings.'  This is not just New Age mumbo-jumbo; it is solid science.  Consider the implications as the planet moves in the galactic photon beam.  And the whole system is being amped up from the center of the galaxy directly to the center of your cells!"

Granted, crystals and radios are not gone into as seriously or scientifically in The Kabrini Message as they are in the quotes above, but the theories, although much more subtle, are there.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Author Bio: J.R. Egles

Author J.R. Egles was born on November 23, 1949 in Elizabeth, New Jersey to Marie and Bob Egles.  He was the eldest of four children.  Other than a three year period from ages nine to twelve when the family lived in Hialeah, Florida, Joe was a lifelong New Jersey resident.

From an early age, Joe developed a fascination of astronomy.  Joe ground his own telescope lens from a big thick circular piece of glass about the diameter of a dinner plate.  Day after day, he spent endless hours in the basement of his family’s home grinding it with rouge.  When it was finished, he installed the lens in a large telescope that he built himself from scratch.  Joe’s father set a pipe in concrete in the backyard to serve as a mount for the telescope.  Joe was also an avid photographer whose favorite subjects were, of course, the stars and planets.  With that telescope, Joe was able to combine his passions for astronomy and photography by capturing amazing photos of the moon, planets and constellations.

The one thing that surpassed even his obsession for astronomy, however, was his enduring love of ham radio.  At a very young age, Joe joined the close knit community of “hams” when a neighbor introduced him to this unique world of communication.

When the sky was clear, Joe would spend the entire night out in the backyard gazing upward.  When it was cloudy, he would retreat inside where he’d chat with folks all over the world on his ham radio.  Back then, his ham call letters were “WB2UXJ”, and he could be heard calling, “This is Whiskey, Bravo, 2, Uniform, X-ray, Japan” throughout the night.  Later, after receiving what is known as an Extra Class license, the call letters became K2UX (and the mantra became “King, 2, Uncle, X-Ray”).  It was the pre-Internet version of online chatting.

Therefore, we should not be surprised that The Kabrini Message combines both of Joe’s loves: outer space and communication.

Joe graduated from Governor Livingston Regional High School in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey.  This was not the high school most residents of his home town of Garwood attended—Joe hand-selected the school because it offered electives in electronics.  After graduating from high school, Joe attended Union County College.

Joe wrote The Kabrini Message in Loveladies, New Jersey in 1987 over the course of about six months.  At the time, Joe was serving as a full-time, live-in caretaker of another Joe, his elderly grandfather.

Joe most recently lived in Ship Bottom, New Jersey with his wife, Gwen.  He was a father of three and a grandfather of four.

In January, 2010 Joe passed away at the age of 60.  Although he wrote a few short stories and did some freelance writing for a local newspaper, The Kabrini Message was his first and only novel.  The Kabrini Message was an idea 25 years ahead of its time, and there is no doubt that Joe is very pleased that his novel’s time has finally arrived!