Aliena Too (19 page)

And what of the children of these conflicted unions? Little Maple is no person to let the winds of fate toss her helplessly about. She will grow into a self-possessed young woman who shows the way for the near-twins, Quill and Bliss. When she is 21 they will be 17, steeped in the formidable new reality of both technological and social change at around light speed, familiar with the nature of the proctors, and increasingly impatient with the old-fashioned attitudes of their parents. Who knows where that will lead? There will need to be a unifying protagonist, which was how Aliena got the part in this novel; I see Maple already eying the role. Fate only knows what she might do with it. There may indeed come to be a third novel, maybe titled
Aliena's Child
. (I think
Star Child
has already been done by another author.)

Actually, the current novel had shifts of its own. I originally titled it
Star-Man
, but later realized that this really applied only to Part 1. What title would better relate to the whole of it? Thus
Aliena Two
, or
Too
. The starfish are musical, so there needed to be music, but what music? My daughter lent me the DVD of the opera version of the
Phantom of the Opera
; I had seen a different opera version years before, and then the movie, but this was different again, and I was impressed again by the power of its music. So it entered the novel. I also wanted a lesser song, for a more personal scene; I had in mind “When You and I Were Young, Maggie,” with its wonderful closing line “And the joy we share as we tarry there none other will ever know.” Only when I spot researched it, that line wasn't in it; it was part of a religious song. Obviously reality had retroactively changed while I wasn't looking. So I had to think of another song.

Back circa 1952 I graduated from high school able to identify only one bird, the cardinal, because it was all red. My great aunt gave me a bird book, Peterson's
A Field Guide to the Birds
, and in that summer I learned the birds of backwoods Vermont by painstakingly observing and identifying the ones I saw in our forest. I still know them—and precious few others, having moved on to other interests. But this isn't about that. I loved folk songs and memorized about 50 of them; I still have my typed list of their words from memory, as that was how I learned to type, and I still sing them to myself. I never did learn how to read music, except in one case. My stepmother had a little organ with foot pedals to pump its air, and a music book. I was intrigued by the title of one, and so picked out its notes one by one in much the manner I picked out keys on the keyboard. It was “Kiss Me Quick and Go,” and that became the scene. I love the way Star accents that word “go”; she makes it evocative. And of course there was one of my favorites, “In the Gloaming.” It all dates from that summer over sixty years ago, before I became Piers Anthony. Now you know.

As for me, I am now 79 and counting, still living on my little tree farm with my wife of 57 years, still exercising, still living in the past and future, still rebelliously liberal, still writing. I wrote
Aliena
in February 2013, and
Aliena Too
in November, with other novels and stories spliced in between. It's what I do.

This novel was proofread by Scott M. Ryan, who caught about 15 errors I had missed in the first one. I wish I could type without typos, but that is not the nature of a creative writer. Leave perfection to the uncreative.

Readers who want to know more of me are welcome to visit my website www.hipiers.com, where I have background information like a list of all my 165+ published books, a monthly ornery liberal blog-type column, and maintain an ongoing candid survey of electronic publishers and related services to help writers locate the best prospects. There is also my blog site at www.piersanthonyblog.blogspot.com, and a Twitter site for my stories told in Tweets, at
www.twitter.com
/PiersAnthony. And my email, [email protected]. So you can find me if you really want me, despite my absence at conventions and book signings. In this day of virtuality, who really needs physical encounters, anyway? Just read my books, okay?

This book was completed on November 22, 2013, the sad 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the first president I voted for.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by Piers Anthony

ISBN: 978-1-4976-6283-4

This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com