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I have a wonderful book to share with you today. Song Of The Oceanides is a YA Fantasy blend and sounds wonderful.

Please enjoy Author J.G. Zymbalist’s guest post and an excerpt from the book.

And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

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Guest Post by Author J.G. Zymbalist

Background of the book

I began to conceive Song of the Oceanides when I was just a little kid.  Every summer for about four or five summers straight, my family would spend the holiday in Castine, Maine right on Penobscot Bay.  Every June or July we rented out Robert Lowell’s house, and there I would look back on the previous school year and take stock of the latest round of insults I had weathered.  As I walked the halls of that house, I knew that someday I would have to do something about my growing sorrows—channel my childhood depression into something redemptive.

The house itself fascinated me and pretty much demanded to be the setting of a book.  As such, when I wrote Song of the Oceanides, I used the actual downstairs and upstairs floor plan as the model for the house where my young point-of-view character, Rory, lives.  Looking back, I think what enthralled me most about that big old New England house was the way the soft hazy summer light moved through the windows and all about the rooms and hallways.  Nothing triggers the imagination quite like the movement of light.

Almost as important, living in a New England house like that for the summer gave me the opportunity to experience the ocean:  the majestic sight of the bay, the roar of the Atlantic, the aroma of the waters and breeze, the alluring call of the seagulls.  Everything combined to give me the sense that I stood in the presence of either God or some eternal force of destiny I could not understand.  The ocean also terrified me, and for the first time, I actually remember thinking about things like mortality.  I can recall discussing my fears with my totally-baffled mother.  At the time, I did not know what ocean myth would be best to bring all these concerns to life, but I knew I would find it someday.  (It ended up being the Oceanides of course; hence my title.)

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Song of the Oceanides

by J.G. Zymbalist

Genre: YA Fantasy

Synopsis

Song of the Oceanides is a highly-experimental triple narrative transgenre fantasy that combines elements of historical fiction, YA, myth and fairy tale, science fiction, paranormal romance, and more.  For ages 10-110.

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Enjoy the excerpt

Blue Hill, Maine.

3 August, 1903.

 

From the moment Emmylou heard the song of the Oceanides, she recognized something godly in the tune.  As it resounded all across the desolate shoreline of Blue Hill Bay, she recalled the terrible chorus mysticus ringing all throughout that extinct Martian volcano the day her father went missing down in the magma chamber.

Aunt Belphœbe followed along, guiding Maygene through the sands.  “Why don’t you go play in that shipwreck over there?”  Aunt Belphœbe pointed toward a fishing schooner run aground some fifty yards to the south.

When Maygene raced off, Emmylou refused to follow.  By now the chorus of song tormented her so much that an ache had awoken all throughout her clubfoot.  Before long she dropped her walking stick and fell to the earth.  Closing her eyes, she dug both her hands into the sands and lost herself in memories of the volcano.  How could Father be gone?  Though he had often alluded to the perils of Martian vulcanology, she never imagined that someone so good and so wise could go missing.

The song of the Oceanides grew a little bit louder and increasingly dissonant.

Opening her eyes, Emmylou listened very closely.  The song sounded like the stuff of incantation, witchcraft.  And even though she could not comprehend every word, nevertheless she felt certain that the Oceanides meant to cast a spell upon some unfortunate soul.

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Author J.G. Zymbalist

J.G. Źymbalist began writing Song of the Oceanides as a child when his family summered in Castine, Maine where they rented out Robert Lowell’s house.

The author returned to the piece while working for the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society, May-September, 2005.  He completed the full draft in Ellsworth, Maine later that year.

For more information, please see http://jgzymbalist.com

NOTE:  The book is on sale for $0.99.  Free for Kindle Unlimited Members or as part of Kindle MatchBook.

LINKS: Amazon / Goodreads

Purchase On Amazon

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