Hello! Welcome to our party! I am thrilled to have you here as we celebrate International Women’s day and the success of my ATBBoostR crowd funding campaign. This is a zoom party and we need to take full advantage! I hope you brought some yummy treats! I have coconut cream pie.
Please talk to one another in the chat, privately and corporately. I like my people to know each other!
I would like to introduce my team - the people you see in the slide show. They helped get the crowd funding platform off the ground and they helped keep my feet on the ground when I threated to float away. A very special thank you goes to Colleen, Anna, Dianne, Rob, Bea and Marcia for all your efforts for Leoshine. 
A great huge thank you goes to all the people who boosted the campaign both officially and unofficially. You are helping me put Leoshine into her readers’ hands and hearts and I couldn’t do it without you! We are celebrating your generosity and kindness!
I’d like to set the scene for this party. Imagine we are all together in an elegantly decorated large room, like a ballroom in a palace. Imagine there is a long table full of Avramian Myxolidian delicacies that you can eat without worry. I’ll leave it up to you to say what the treats taste like. Imagine we are all wearing Avramian Myxolidian party clothes. What do you think they look like? How do we wear our hair?
Lastly, imagine the room is filled with vases of fresh flowers because Avram’s mother, Iliana, has a rooftop garden on her palace and she is our queen mother hostess. 
Now I can introduce you to our guests of honour, who make this party possible from the very first.
We meet Leoshine first. She is beautiful. I hesitate to describe her because I want to enter into your concept of beauty. If you thought you were beautiful (I think you are) what would you look like?
Leoshine is the youngest daughter of the mayor of Myxolidia - the town that holds the last bit of civilisation under the Dome - the generated atmosphere. Her father disappeared for part of her childhood and when he returned, he was full of strange ideas. Her mother and siblings (she has two sisters and two brothers) despised the new ideas, but Leoshine listened and it’s a good thing she did because one day a stranger shows up at the town gate.
Father is excited but mother panics and bundles her daughters and other palace women into the wilderness. They are captured by savages that inhabit all the rest of the Dome. Leoshine is carried in a sack and dumped at the feet of our next guest of honour.
Avram is the leader of the Aeolian mission to regenerate Myxolidia. The Dome needs attention after about 200 years of neglect. You see, Aeolia established the Myxolidian Dome as per protocol extending all the way back to mythical earth. One Dome sets up the next and the next, to relieve population density.
About 200 years ago, there was an intergalactic accident that convinced the Myxolidians that contact with Aeolia was too dangerous. They decided they could do better by themselves. The Aeolians are back to rescue them.
Avram is highly intelligent and creative and has extreme tactile sensitivity. He hardly ever sleeps and he’s a bit of a mama’s boy, as an only child. He recognises this tendency and fights against it with interesting results. 
He has a servant called Resham who is his valet and takes care of everything mundane. Resham is also chief of security, royal physician and priest. And confessor. And punching bag.
Resham was kidnapped from Myxolidia to Aeolia as a child. He is a savage indoctrinated by Iliana into the Aeolian way and his two sides are at war.
I think Leoshine is a suitable read for anyone who is stretched between two or more cultures. I recently learned about Third Culture Kids. I am one! And Covid has thrown us all into this arena.
The culture we had cannot remain. We need to create a “third culture” out of the best parts of what we had, and what we can imagine to be even better. That’s exactly what Leoshine does and shows us how to do! 

Early morning Calgary time is mid afternoon in Niger! Anna Pederson joined me for a zoom chat and time was no issue at all!

Thanks Anna for being so candid and free with you exciting ideas! 

Watch the video to hear about Anna, her art and her plans for the cover painting of Leoshine, Princess Oracle! 

Share the link of this campaign with anyone who enjoys Sci Fi / Fantasy Adventure! ! 

Mark your calendars! Sunday March 7th 5pm MST! 

Use this link to RSVP https://siretona.ck.page/leoshineoracle

We are getting together on zoom to celebrate International Women's Day and the final day of our successful ATBBoostR campaign! 

Colleen McCubbin will speak on her role in Leoshine's development, and on being a woman entrepreneur.

Travis Williams will tell us how he developed the unique, gorgeous Tassanara Typeface for the Leoshine series. 

I'll say a few words of gratitude to my wonderful sponsors. (Still time for you to be included!)

And we will launch the International Women's Day Internet Treasure Hunt! 

Get on the A list today! Come and celebrate with us. Make sure you bring some treats!

This is from when Leoshine first lands (literally) at Avram's feet. Resham immediately takes her into his care.

Hands gripped her. Her instinct shivered at the meaning of the men’s laughter. A mattress absorbed her body like liquid into a sponge.
 

She lay as though the sponge had frozen, breathing through her fingers.
 

Colours blazed in her eyes. Loud voices and a slamming door jarred her nerves. 

Oversized, warm hands smoothed back her hair from her cheek and raised her shoulders until they almost touched her knees.
 

The pores of a man’s nose filled her vision as he wiped her hands and face with a cloth softer than Mother could weave, soaked in water warmer than tears.
 

His eyes blinked green and hazel with many black specks below lowered brows. His mouth twisted up on the right side. A black, red and silver shell encased his neck and chest.
 

For a moment Leoshine’s senses groped in an empty space.
 

Before she could think further the hazel eyes returned with a voice like underground caverns opening. “Drink.”

Leoshine’s eyes widened as the man placed a steaming cup in her hands. Her tongue demanded the liquid as she blinked.
 

He turned his head. Sounds unlike speech came from his full, hairless lips. Leoshine’s instinct curled against another presence in the room that seemed to answer.
 

He turned back and lifted the cup that warmed her hands. His other hand reached behind her head. Before he touched her, she tipped the rim to her cracked lips. Herbs and vegetables danced in her nose and in no time her hunger lay in ruins.
 

The man lost his edges in the swelling fog. She felt his hands moving her limbs and body to lie down, then covering her.
 

Blanket. The word teased from a far distance. Listless, weightless, she drifted beyond her fear.

Great News! Now you can have your name in a printed book! Choose the Acknowledgement Reward and I'll put your name in the Acknowlegement section of Leoshine Princess Oracle. 

You will be remembered for your generosity and belief in promoting the arts! You will be recognised as a leader along with other creative minds who help good stories get into the hands of eager readers.