Blog Tour ~ Author Guest Post

Welcome to this stop on the Persistence of Vision blog tour. Book 1 of Interchron is a debut New Adult Book. Today we welcome author Liesel K. Hill.
Liesel can be found @ the following: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads

The Science of Interchron

While Persistence of Vision and the Interchron series at large aren’t hard-core science fiction, I do base the plot on scientific principles.

Before realizing that writing was my calling, I was studying science in school. (I hated the science major’s life. I was always off in my own head making up stories. Imagine that! :D) I was continually fascinated by the information I came across. How things work, how everything in the universe fits together—I just love to think about stuff like that. I knew I wanted to write a story that had to do with weird science, and what better than Quantum Mechanics? It’s the hardest stuff to understand and the weirdest stuff to learn about.

(Word of advice: unless you love, love, LOVE math equations, don’t go into quantum mechanics. Fascinating? Yes, but also headache-inducing!)

Because I’m also a hopeless romantic, I came up with Maggie’s storyline before introducing much science into it. I really liked the story, but I felt like it was incomplete. My final semester of college, I took a literary science fiction class. I don’t remember which story it was (really wish I did) but we talked a bit about collectives. I started thinking about choice and the moment someone makes the decision to pull away from a collective. I liked the idea of a character that does this. Once I linked him to the rest of the story, everything just fell right into place. I had my plot!

In the same literary science fiction class, I first heard the term “persistence of vision.” It means when something is no longer there, but you continue to see it. In the book, I have Karl describe it using the example of staring at the sun and then shutting your eyes and seeing an after-image. That’s a great example, and this is a true scientific phenomenon that physicists encounter. It’s a universal truth that everything we encounter, everything we observe in our lives leaves an impression upon us, even if it’s a fleeting one.

I got most of the way through the writing of the book but still didn’t have a title. It wasn’t until I started going back through my science notes, looking for inspiration, that I came across the term again…and realized it was perfect! That was exactly what happened to Maggie and her memories of Marcus. The title was born!

If you want to know more about quantum physics without getting yourself neck-deep in equations and college workshops, I would suggest the book, Quantum Enigma by Bruce Rosenblum. You still have to stop every so often and think about what’s being said, but they explain it in every day English and it’s fascinating! :D

Thanks so much for hosting me here today. Have a great day and make sure to brush up on your particle physics before reading my book. Just kidding. Mostly. ;D

Goodreads: In a world where collective hives are enslaving the population and individuals have been hunted to the verge of extinction, Maggie Harper, and independent 21st Century woman, must find the strength to preserve the freedom of the future, but without the aid of her memories.

After experiencing a traumatic time loss, Maggie is plagued by a barrage of images she can't explain. When she's attacked by a creep with a spider's web tattoo, she is saved by Marcus, a man she's never met, but somehow remembers. He tells her that both he and her creepy attacker are from a future in which individuals are being murdered by collectives, and Marcus is part of the rebellion. The collectives have acquired time travel and they plan to enslave the human race throughout all of history. The flashes Maggie has been seeing are echoes of lost memories, and the information buried deep within them is instrumental in defeating the collective hives.

In order to preserve the individuality of mankind, Maggie must try to re-discover stolen memories, re-kindle friendships she has no recollection of, and wade through her feelings for the mysterious Marcus, all while dodging the tattooed assassins the collectives keep sending her way.

If Maggie can't fill the holes in her memory and find the answers to stop the collectives, the world both in her time and in all ages past and future will be doomed to enslavement in the grey, mediocre collectives. As the danger swirls around her and the collectives close in, Maggie realizes she must make a choice: stand out or fade away...