Re-formatted & edited. My thanks to my editor Val Dumond for all the advice, encouragement & hard work making this possible.
This is the first in a series. Book Two is in the process of editing and will be out soon.
PRESS RELEASE: Butterfly and Serpent
Jamai Dlamini has lived a life of isolation in her own
community. She has a gift she doesn’t understand and can’t control. Other
forces with sinister intentions have set their sights on her, including a
disembodied spirit from another dimension who understands her situation all too
well.
Jamai
fights to discover her own background, beginning with her birth and the loss of
her mother, who she feels watches over her, keeping her safe. But she soon
learns of disturbing family connections and seeks answers to what is expected
of her.
As events in her life spin out of control, even her
best friend Youssou is drawn into the net tightening around her. Along the way
she will find that she has unexpected allies among the living…and the dead.
The
first book in Michael Robbins’ new trilogy, Butterfly and Serpent,
follows the life of Jamai Dlamini, a young woman born with strange powers, as
she undergoes an interview that raises more questions than it answers. Robbins’
fans of his imaginative writing can now follow this latest work, the first of a
brand-new trilogy. A full glossary of African language is included in this
fully researched book.
Butterfly
and Serpent uses a theme of isolation, the isolation others impose on
us and that we impose on ourselves, a sensation that Jamai has endured all her
life. Whenever we feel worthless, often wrongly, we sometimes have an
overwhelming feeling that we’re alone. We’ve always been alone and maybe it’s
something we deserve.
But
that’s not really true. We’re not alone; we don’t have to be alone.
The author developed this character by unlearning
everything he thought he knew about Africa. He never wanted Jamai to be a
bitch-in-britches like Tasha Yar, or the space marines in the Alien movies.
He wanted her to be a strong capable person; He wanted readers to see their own
possibilities. This novel is the first step in her journey, which begins like
this:
(Excerpt
from Butterfly and Serpent:)
My first memories were of water, all
warm and clingy, and a steady thrum-thrum as of a drum. I also remember a song
whispered by an angel. What the words were I couldn’t recall, other than one
which was repeated over and over: e-ay-as. No, that wasn’t exactly what it was.
Time blurs all things.
I
was torn from this snuggly cocoon into a world of insects and light, screeching
birds and shrieking winds. But again that angel trilled a song for my ears
alone, and the word would come: e-ay-as, e-ay-as.
Mama
died shortly after my delivery. I’d never seen her face. In my infant memory
it’s fuzzy and shadowed, but the song she whispered in the womb and at my birth
remains in my mind. On those nights when I lie in Nyoka’s embrace I call her
voice to mind, and I can pretend it is Mama keeping me safe.
As
for that word, I could never find what it meant, not from my father Baba (who
vehemently denied all knowledge of it) nor from the East African Community’s
database, surely the greatest accumulation of facts in all the world. I only
discovered the truth about this and many other things on that day when the
spirits led me to the temple.
Robbins
fans will find this easy to-to-read story about complex beings will bring
surprises of story line, but also increased understanding of Africa, where life
is believed to have begun and where the characters of Jamai and Youssou show us
a future of extraordinary culture.
What heightens Butterfly and Serpent from being
simply a “sci-fi” story is the relationships of family: Jamai’s sometimes
father, other relatives who pop up in strange places, and the friendship of
Jamai and Youssou that grows into trust and… love?
If ever there was a sci-fi book that would attract readers of all
ages with its adventurous characters and story line, you’ll instantly champion
the pair who accompany you through their dangers and trials. Butterfly
and Serpent is now available through Amazon and Kindle. Watch for the
second volume to follow soon.
Why: I wrote it:
I’ve had the seeds of an
idea for 20+ years; some of them bad ideas, but the characters
would not let go. A lot of my early, immature concepts had to be thrown out,
which turned out to be a good thing, but the bedrock of the plot remained.
I
spent years desperately trying to make this character work. I’ve had to take
these stories back to scratch and un-learn everything I thought we knew about
Africa. Which speaks to the second point, that is to take this opportunity to
mock &/or explode all the stupid myths ingrained in us about Africa. What
we’re doing to our home world and the divisive age that we’re enduring will
also be skewered in some Asides.
AUTHOR BIO
Michael Robbins is a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest
and a diabetic, both likely to be permanent conditions. He continues to write
novels and short stories with work that originates in his heart, and he draws
extensively from history, mythology, and a very fertile imagination. In his prose he strives for unity
above division, humor over prejudice, heart over heartlessness. His
work has appeared in four fiction collections by Muddy Puddle Press. Butterfly
& Serpent is the first novel in a trilogy.
Read
more about Michael Robbins on his webpages.
my
Butterfly & Serpent Facebook page:
