Guest Post: Lyndi Alexander’s favourite book
Earlier this year, I asked author Lyndi Alexander to tell me about her favourite book. After thinking about it for a while, she sent me her answer. Check it out!
The Call of the Series: how one is inspired by George R. R. Martin but I get my last book written!
by Lyndi Alexander
First off, I’ll confess that at this point in my life, I have limited energy because of some chronic conditions, so I concentrate on writing more than reading. I had two books published this year and have just completed a third—so as you can see, I’m keeping myself busy!
That being said, I do keep a book on the nightstand at all times, and for the past year and a half it’s been some part of George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Ice saga. I’ve made it through Game of Thrones, a Clash of Kings, and now I’m halfway through A Storm of Swords. I’m in no rush for the one he hasn’t come out with for so long—I may never last that long!
I thoroughly enjoy the detail in his work. He clearly understands the medieval sort of life and the codes of knighthood. He gets into it all pretty deeply—so I’m glad I was able to watch the HBO series first just to have some basic understanding of time, place and character, that I can now build on with his original work.
I also admire the character arcs that continue through series. I’ve got three big series myself, and it has always been a challenge for me to keep up the stories, with ups and down, through three or more books.
The series I’ve most recently completed is my Color of Fear books, a YA post-apocalyptic series with several romantic arcs, published by Zumaya Publications. The story is set in very recent times, and was first written about ten years ago, when things in America were quite different politically than they are now.
Color of Fear — a series by Lyndi Alexander
Book 1
Bio-terrorists release a plague in the United States that spreads to kill most of the world’s Caucasian population. As the deadly virus mutates, Tzu Shin, a renowned medical doctor and biologist, defects from China to help develop a cure. His only daughter, Lin Kwan, is left behind in Hong Kong with her aunt.
Then Kwan’s father summons her from across the sea to bring him Chinese medicinal herbs he needs to develop a cure. Lonely and missing her parents, she accepts the challenge, traveling with her sensei Li Zhong to the New World.
But a Chinese assassin is on her trail, determined to kill her and Li Zhong, and when Kwan discovers her father has disappeared, she sets out on a journey to find him and deliver her precious cargo, a quest that she may not survive.
Book 2
Xi San saved the life of a mysterious girl one night in his ravaged San Francisco neighborhood. He can’t get her out of his mind, but believes that she’s lost to him.
Lin Kwan came to America to bring her scientist father Chinese medicinal herbs, hoping to stop the virus that killed most of the world’s Caucasians before it mutates to infect the rest of the world. On her way to finding him, she meets again the man who once saved her, a man she can’t forget.
With a diverse group of fellow travelers, they head for St. Louis, where civilization is being rebuilt. Between them and safety, danger lurks—Gabriel, a self-styled religious leader and white supremacist, who has organized his army from Upper Midwest survivalist and militia followers, determined to take revenge for the white man.
But Gabriel isn’t their only enemy. Before they reach their destination, they will battle nature, prejudice and even those hidden among them who wish their destruction.
Book 3
Life after the devastating biological terrorist attack that decimated the White population in the US is beginning to recover as Tzu Lin Kwan is finally able to deliver her precious cargo of herbs to her scientist father. Or is it?
The virus may be mutating, spreading to infect those previously immune. Tzu Shin and his fellow scientists—and now Kwan—are literal prisoners of the US military. The White supremacist army of the demagogue Gabriel has invaded St. Louis. And the Chinese assassin Piao knows where to find his targets.
Kwan and her friends Valery, Eddie, and San are ready to fight to the death to defend their recovering world. The question is: Are courage and determination enough?
About Lyndi Alexander
Lyndi Alexander always dreamed of faraway worlds and interesting alien contacts. She lives as a post-modern hippie in Asheville, North Carolina, a single mother of her last child of seven, a daughter on the autism spectrum, finding that every day feels a lot like first contact with a new species.