#protolith

Hi! I'm Alyssa (she/her). I'm a scientist, artist, and writer. I've decided to throw my writing into the void and see what happens!

I'm educated as a scientist, but I spend my free time drawing, painting, writing, and playing music. I've been writing my whole life, but I first shared my work on Wattpad. I started writing consistently again a few months ago. I primarily write science fiction/fantasy with a touch of romance.

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My current WIP is titled "The Protolith."

[Stock credits: Cathleen Tarawhiti, Faestock, Digital Curio, Phoenix Rising on DeviantArt]

This novel follows Charlotte, a biracial medical student and noblewoman who seeks to bring honor back to her disgraced family. This second world fantasy takes place in a world scarred by an ancient, unexplored meteorite, in an Empire where the traditional theocracy and sexually liberated culture are constantly at odds. Follow Charlotte as she faces unexplained magicks while haunted by past, romantic affairs.

I'd love to meet other authors! Pls reach out if you have similar interests so we can be friends : )

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The Protolith

Posts:

WIP Intro

Blurb

Book Cover

The OCs & Character Intros

Thoughts on "Representation in Fantasy Settings": 1 2 3

Part 1 Playlist for Chapters 1-6, 7-12, 13-19

Chapters:

The Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Excerpts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (not chronological)

[I only post the first scene from each chapter, so please click the "read more!" link to read the entire chapter]

book ask meme

9. Did you get into any new genres?

hmmmm not really? reading (especially fiction) was a big challenge for me this year, so anything that caught my eye that i thought might hold my interest, i read. it ended up being more nonfiction and het romance than i feel i typically read.

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

my favourite fiction was Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer (1933), which was such a blast. the protagonist is just a bitch of a man, every person who speaks to him tells him to his face that he sucks and yet he manages to be just charming enough to carry it off. it's a wonderful entry in heyer's mysteries and i loved it. (fyi i wrote about all the heyers i read here)

my fave nonfiction was Merlin Tuttle's memoir, The Secret Lives of Bats (2015), which was wonderful if you love bats and want to read about a man repeatedly almost dying in pursuit of them

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

The Rama Schist

This is another part of the complex of twisted, bent, metamorphosed, nearly 2 billion year old rocks that sit at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and make up some of the oldest, deepest rocks exposed anywhere in the western U.S.

The other parts of the schist we’ve seen, the Vishnu Schist and the Brahma Schist, look a lot like metamorphosed parts of the ocean, metamorphosed sedimentary rocks and metamorphosed basaltic rocks. Those sit in contact with granites that look like an island arc that slammed into North America about 1.7 billion years ago.

These rocks fit into that same story. The Rama schist is a third component in the mixture of schists; more felsic, quartz and plagioclase rich metamorphosed rocks.

These rocks have the chemistry of volcanic rocks erupted close to the Earth’s surface, as happens often in island arcs. The rocks may have been faulted or moved around prior to running into the growing continent, but they were pulled into the same mountain building and metamorphic event as the surrounding sediments and basalts.

These rocks were probably volcaniclastic before they were metamorphosed, produced by explosive volcanic eruptions. Some of the layering is even maintained in the second image. Based on those details, the protolith of these rocks (what they were before metamorphism) was probably a tuff.

In other words, it would be fully accurate to call this rock a tuff schist. You’re welcome.

-JBB