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    Guardian of the Lost Colony
    Guardian of the Lost Colony
    Guardian of the Lost Colony
    Ebook206 pages3 hours

    Guardian of the Lost Colony

    By Angus Brownfield

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    Guardian of the Lost Colony revisits questions that have lingered since the first Mustt Adventure, Pool of Tears: what sort of creature are the mice known as Talkers? They’re the product of inserting snippets of human DNA into the mouse genome, but the product is sentient far beyond the expectations of their creator, Dr. Eden Godwyn. They not only talk, they reason, they suffer regret and rage. Between angels and earthworms, where do they fit in?
    Matilde Abandolao, the emotionally fragile mistress of a desert oasis named Espejismo—“mirage”–where Talkers have taken up residence, doesn’t really care. They’re intelligent, they’re precious, and they’ve become her obsession.
    It’s only when Gavin MacDonald comes knocking on her door, wanting to “talk” to the mice, that she wonders how they might fit into the larger world. Believing Gavin a charlatan and a threat to the mice, she warns him off. When he ignores her warning, she shoots him as a trespasser.
    Will Gavin survive his gunshot wound? Will Matilde escape punishment for shooting a well-meaning stranger? If Matilde were imprisoned for the shooting, how would the Talkers survive?
    Behind her impulsive rifle shot comes the world “out there,” intent on forcing the inhabitants of Espejismo to grapple with cosmic questions. Should the mice form a stronger bond with the humans of the oasis? Humans are central to the life of house mice, yet humans form a very real threat as well. It was to escape a certain human, known as Jason the Butcher in mouse circles, that they trekked to this desert haven. But if they forsake humans and try to live off the land, they’re in competition with non-talking brethren and would take the food out of the mouths of kangaroo rats and pocket mice. One mouse compares it to the Europeans decimating Native Americans and degrading their cultures.
    But if they remain dependent on humans, the Talkers risk being exploited. As Talkers they’re no longer a pest, they’re potential weapons: spies, assassins, infiltrators.
    This is a real threat. Jason Ramback lost his hold on talking mice when Gavin MacDonald, in the second Mustt Adventure, The Scrivener’s Tale, spirited Dorothy Mustt away from her prison at Camp Pendleton Marine Base. Jason’s determined to get them back, to sell them to the CIA. He discovers their whereabouts by developing his own “New Talkers,” who are to the Original Talkers what slaves are to free humans.
    Can a coalition of a few right-thinking humans and a passel of talking mice beat helicopters, firearms and the combined bureaucratic might of a state university, the U.S. Marines, the CIA and an armed psychopath?
    Guardian of the Lost Colony is social satire, similar in ways to Animal Farm, but with a subtlety befitting the tiny characters populating the Lost Colony.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAngus Brownfield
    Release dateNov 13, 2011
    ISBN9781465896421
    Guardian of the Lost Colony
    Author

    Angus Brownfield

    Write what you know. I know me and I'm talking to you, reader, in the first person, not the anonymous third person, because when I write I write about me and the world that thrives around me. I wrote decent poetry in college, I couldn’t get the hang of short stories. I finished my first novel so many years ago writers were still sending their works to publishers instead of agents. My first novel was rejected by everyone I sent it to. The most useful rejection, by a Miss Kelly at Little, Brown, said something like this: “You write beautifully, but you don’t know how to tell a story.” Since then I've concentrated on learning to tell a good story. The writing isn’t quite so beautiful but it will do. Life intervened. Like the typical Berkeley graduate, I went through five careers and three marriages. Since the last I've been writing like there’s no tomorrow. I have turned out twelve novels, a smattering of short stories and a little poetry. My latest novel is the third in a series about a man who is not my alter ego, he’s pure fiction, but everyone he interacts with, including the women, are me. My title for this trilogy is The Libertine. Writers who have influenced me include Thomas Mann, Elmore Leonard, Albert Camus, Graham Greene, Kurt Vonnegut and Willa Cather. I don’t write like any of them, but I wish I did. I'm currently gearing up to pay attention to marketing. Archery isn’t complete if there’s no target. I've neglected readers because I've been compulsive about putting words down on paper. Today the balance shifts.

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