Star Fall: Volume one of the Star Stone Trilogy.An iron meteorite destroys a village during Neolithic times. The shaman of the tribe has an arm-ring made from the iron. He has visions and hears voices. Eight more rings are made for the sister tribes of his clan. Billy, eleven, from London, hears sounds in his head when he finds an ancient iron bracelet on a Canterbury bombsite in 1942. He tells his parents and his local Catholic priest about the Latin words sung by monks. The priest tries the bracelet and dies. Symes, MI5, finds out and wants the bracelet's power for the war effort. Doric, a novice druid in 595, wears the ceremonial bracelet at the Sarum Stones. He is visited by twins from his future, a boy and girl. The Twins need to know the bracelet's origin which Doric has deep within his racial memory. Monsignor Patrick, an exorcist from Dublin, discovers a bracelet in the Vatican - it is 1938. He knows its power and wants another for himself. Records show there is one in Canterbury ... which leads him to Billy. Gail, thirteen, finds the bracelet in a derelict building. The year is 2795. Her Synthetic Intelligence machines help her understand the capability of the bracelet. Gail speaks mind to mind with Billy. The seeds of their love are planted across the centuries. MI5 takes control of the bracelet. Billy and family are taken to a secure facility to discover its properties. The Star Miners, makers of the exotic meteoric iron, have a selfish and horrific use for it ... and who, or what, is the Task Giver? Star Stone is a science fiction trilogy set against a background of the Dark Ages, World War Two, a future unstable sun and Humankind's search for new home planets.
About the Author: Richard was born in South London, in the first wave of the Baby Boomers. His playground was the rubble of WWII. At age eleven, his teacher told him he had his 'head in the clouds'. He took it as a compliment - it's still there. After a Student Apprenticeship in Cheltenham and two engineering degrees from the University of Bradford, he had a satisfying career in various industries, designing and building control and instrumentation systems. In 1999, he felt the need to write fiction and joined an evening class in Wantage to see what 'creative writing' was all about. In 2005, he won a monthly competition on the Arts Council funded website, www.pulp.net, with a Sci-fi short story: "Collapse". He is a member of the Catchword writing group who meet weekly in Cirencester. Richard is married, lives in Gloucestershire and has three daughters and two granddaughters, who keep him busy. He is an active member of his local parish church, regularly sings in the choir and, with his wife, produces the monthly parish magazine.