"I've always loved the idea of passage between worlds," says author Becca Mills. "Stepping through a wardrobe into Narnia, flying to Neverland ... these are the stories I loved as a kid. But I always used to ask myself, 'How did that other-world come into being?' When I decided to write my own book, I imagined an other-world generated by the desires of Earth's creatures -- not just human beings, but everything from algae on up. What would it look like? Not a single, smooth realm, I realized, but countless, overlapping layers, connected but unique." Mills laughs. "Sort of like phyllo dough! It made sense to me. After all, why should people have all the fun? Why shouldn't earthworms have an other-world, too? Why shouldn't dinosaurs?"
You can catch Becca Mills on her blog, The Active Voice.
Nolander Synopsis:
Of all the beings that have lived on Earth, what if just a few had the power to make new realities, according to their desires? What would they create? The Second Emanation. A shadow world where ancient creatures persist, where humanity's dominance is far less certain, where wonder competes with horror. A world like an autumn forest, its realities as multiple and layered as fallen leaves. The world that gives us our gods.
In Nolander, the Second Emanation crosses paths with a seemingly ordinary young woman from the American Midwest. It'll never be the same again.
Amateur photographer Beth Ryder sees plenty wrong with her life. At twenty-three, she feels trapped in her small Wisconsin town. The guy she's been seeing lately wants nothing more to do with her, and her sister-in-law is doing her best to push Beth out of the family.
Then one day, Beth takes a picture no one can explain. Her quest for answers leads her far from her small-town roots and opens her eyes to the unseen world around her. Sucked into a dangerous organization responsible for policing visitors from Earth's shadow world, Beth discovers that humanity is far from alone, and that its fellow creatures, many endowed with disturbing abilities, do not wish it well.
As events spin out of her control, Beth must leave her restrictive but safe life behind. Thrown into a frightening new world, she struggles not to surrender more than she can bear to lose, and not to become something she can't bear to be.
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Reviewers have given this book a 4.7-star average. Nolander is available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Nolander-Emanations-ebook/dp/B007R6PPZA/