The Fact Behind the Fiction of Vessel

The sun exploded on April 18, 2112 in a Class X solar storm the likes of which humankind had never seen.

They had exactly nineteen minutes.

Nineteen minutes until a geomagnetic wave washed over the Earth, frying every electrical device created by humans, blacking out entire continents, and every satellite in their sky.

Nineteen minutes to say goodbye to the world they knew, forever, and to prepare for a new Earth, a new Sun.

Generations after solar storms destroyed nearly all human technology on Earth, humans reverted to a middle ages-like existence, books are burned as heresy, and all knowledge of the remaining technology is kept hidden by a privileged few called the Reticents.

Alana, a disfigured slave girl, and Recks, a traveling minstrel and sometimes-thief, join forces to bring knowledge and books back to the human race. But when Alana is chosen against her will to be the Vessel, the living repository for all human knowledge, she must find the strength to be what the world needs even if it's the last thing she wants.

Title: Vessel
Publication date: May 2015
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Lisa T. Cresswell

~The Fact Behind the Fiction~

In Vessel by Lisa T. Cresswell, the characters are living on Earth in a future time period that has vastly changed from what we know today. A massive solar storm, bigger than anything we've ever experienced, has damaged the electrical network we now rely on and often take for granted. Entire civilizations have been destroyed and humans are starting over.

The idea for Vessel was actually born out of the recent development of ebooks. Ebooks were (and are) becoming more and more popular and it got me thinking, what if some day we stopped making print books all together? What if all our books, all our information, and knowledge became strictly electronic and we somehow lost it all? What would become of us?

So many of us living on the planet now are reliant on large scale farming for our food supply. Our cars, airplanes, satellites/telecommunications are more reliant on electricity and computers than ever before. It might make a person a little bit nervous to know that the sun at the center of our universe, the very thing that allows us to live on Earth, could actually change the life we know dramatically.

Solar flares and solar storms are a real phenomenon. Electromagnetic waves from the sun affect us all the time, but our atmosphere protects us from serious damage for the most part. That's not to say it couldn't cause damage in the future. You never know. It has in the past. In the 1850's a solar storm knocked out telegraph service in North America and the Northern Lights were visible in places on Earth they normally aren't seen. Luckily for folks back then, they weren't relying on electricity yet for much of anything. If they were, things might have been different.

Here's a link to more info on the web if you're interested to read more about the science behind my science fiction novel Vessel. Enjoy~

~About the Author~

Lisa, like most writers, began scribbling silly notes, stories, and poems at a very young age. Born in North Carolina, the South proved fertile ground to her imagination with its beautiful white sand beaches and red earth. In fifth grade, she wrote, directed and starred in a play "The Queen of the Nile" at school, despite the fact that she is decidedly un-Egyptian looking. Perhaps that's why she went on to become a real life archaeologist?

 Unexpectedly transplanted to Idaho as a teenager, Lisa learned to love the desert and the wide open skies out West. This is where her interest in cultures, both ancient and living, really took root, and she became a Great Basin archaeologist. However, the itch to write never did leave for long. Her first books became the middle grade fantasy trilogy, The Storyteller Series. Her first traditionally published work, Hush Puppy, is now available from Featherweight Press.

Lisa still lives in Idaho with her family and a menagerie of furry critters that includes way too many llamas!

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