THE LOST CHORD

lostchord800x1200A poisonous wave is spreading disease and discord across the eleven known universes. Seven special people, known as Keys, must strike the Lost Chord in order to restore the balance.

Among those Keys is Bee Warrick, an autistic teenager from Earth who has traveled between the realms for years without realizing it.

While Bee is her initial, it is also symbolic of the sound she makes when she doesn’t want to deal with people – she will point two fingers at them and buzz off key. She also does this when she wants to escape reality–she’ll buzz/stim to herself until she’s feeling better. As one who suffers with Sensory Integration Disorder, she is overly sensitive to loud noises and often stims by running her hands through bins of rocks, feeling sand on her fingers, etc.  She is very educated about rocks and crystals and will eventually choose a talisman gem for each of the travelers commensurate with their chakra.

Corydon Briggs: Cory is 17, a minor athlete who plays on the varsity football team for his school on our Earth, in Universe E, but he’s no star, never will be.  He’d rather play in the marching band, but his brother, six years older than he, died as a rising football star so he is pressured to live up to Stan’s standard by his firmly middle-class parents. Though he’s always had whatever he needed/wanted, he feels sometimes like his parents don’t really see him.  An avid reader of sci-fi and fantasy, he’s moved on to online video games where he can become a hero, a role he believes he can’t hold in real life.

Devlynn Kayne: Devlynn comes from “B” Universe, where the black race is the majority, and she is a black girl of 16. She is a star student, bound for higher education in the sciences, perhaps medicine someday. She shuns extracurricular school activities, concentrating instead on her after-school business designing web sites, which has made her quite a bit of money. This combines her predilection for science with her creative drive, and marketing skills as well. She thought she had her whole life planned out before her—until she meets the quest for the Chord.

Photo by Sam on Flickr

Hana Moss:  Hana is essentially a wild child, having been raised by a single dad who’s an artist and musician in the desert in Universe F. They’ve pretty much kept to themselves. She’s home schooled and never had siblings, though she has many friends through the Netlink, their version of the internet. She’s had an eclectic upbringing and has created a “family” from a number of pets, a couple of wolf-dogs and a small wildcat, but also an iguana, a tarantula and a tank of salt water fish.

Maxian: Max is tall and thin, bookish, and comes from Universe A. His eyes are startling blue, with a vertical pupil like a cat’s, and a light coat of fur that can almost pass for body hair, a trait developed by his people to compensate for the fact his planet is further from their star than Earth, with less light and heat.  He is reckoned at 8 revolutions by the ways of his people, but in Earth years would be about 18. Max’s gift is perfect pitch, and is honored among his kind for his ability to sing the Stories, the verbal history handed down from generation to generation. He carries a set of runes carved into wood, and uses them from time to time to divine his choices.

Photo by Chris Ellinger via Flickr

The Conductor: He is the raison d’etre of the journeys of these children, coercing, teaching and leading them into position to fulfill the prophecy to unite all the “notes” or “keys” into the lost chord. A former professor of music, before music was banned on his homeworld in Universe H, he has the secret information passed to him by Ruane Alm that can heal the universe by bringing together the lost Chord. The reader is not sure till the very end whether his motive to complete the terms of the legend is intended for good or for evil—but of course, the end of one world is always the beginning of another.

See the book trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRTzaB5rUKo

 

Can Bee help the Conductor find the other Keys before a bitter enemy strikes the wrong chord and shatters the universes?

the Crystal Cave    (attribution Snessek)

 


See inside the book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Lulu, & Smashwords

PAPERBACK [EAN 978-1-941278-81-9 | ISBN 1-941278-81-7] 6×9 library trim (200 pages) | Average Retail Price: $11.99 or less || Paperback at Amazon | Paperback at Amazon UK | Paperback at Barnes & Noble | Paperback at Barnes & Noble | Discount Paperback at Lulu |

HARDBACK [EAN 978-1-941278-80-2 | ISBN 1-941278-80-9] 6×9 library casebound (200 pages) | Average Retail Price: $19.99 or less || Hardback at Barnes & Noble | Discount Hardback at Lulu |

EBOOK [EAN 978-1-941278-82-6 | ISBN 1-941278-82-5] Available in EPUB and Amazon Kindle (70,000 words) | Average Retail Price: $4.99 or less || Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | EPUB at Apple iBooks | EPUB at Barnes & Noble | EPUB at Kobo Books | EPUB and MOBI at Smashwords ||

5 star reviews at Amazon!

I give this book five stars because it contained all my likes, different universes, chakras, stones, believable characters and magic talismans.

Once you read this, it will strike a chord within you that will resonate all the way to your soul.

A conductor goes on a search to find the chosen few, each with their own special talents who set out to save ALL the universes!Each child gave their all in this quest, especially our Bee who will steal your heart.
I am sure many of the readers will know someone like Bee who excels in the world better than we do. Their uniqueness makes us all think how highly intelligent they can be with the right guidance and support.
I work along many students on the spectrum for the past three years, it is amazing to see how they process tasks and complete them in their own unique way. Each own special talent they excel at, like Bee.

The Lost Chord was a very hard book to put down and stop reading, I had to read it all in one day!! —S.S.

***

“The Lost Chord” is a multi-dimensional story that pulled me in and kept me enticed. I am not a Sci-Fi fan normally. However, I decided to pick up this novel because the heroine was a teenage girl with autism. I have been an autistic support teacher for 13 years and this is book has had one of most realistic, believable portrayal of a person living with autism! I will be recommending this book to my colleagues because it gives an insight to the feelings and mind of people on the spectrum. It allows people to see the main character, Bee, as different, not less. I appreciate that!

I am giving this book a five-star rating because of it has a unique premise and is well-written. This story follows “the conductor” through various universes in order to find the “keys” need to heal all of the universes, which are being plagued by disease. “The Lost Chord” wraps alternate universes, chakras, stones, unique characters, and magic all into one amazing story that will captivate you until the end. I would love to see this made into a movie!  –M.S.