Cosmic Monopole Magnetises Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Feb. 25, 2012 - PRLog -- After ten years of work, the first volume of Coventry author Wyken Seagrave’s epic series “Time Crystal” was published in November 2011. Now the author’s efforts have been rewarded by having his first novel accepted into the second stage of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2012. Wyken is keen to get reader’s reviews and the publisher is offering free copies of the book in return for a short review.

“Winning any sort of award is a great benefit to a new author,” Wyken says, “and the Amazon Award will not only bring a publishing contract from Penguin but the sort of publicity an author desperately needs to stand out from the crowd.”

But how do you write a novel which covers the whole history of the universe? How do you make it credible that the characters can travel back in time to the Big Bang? How could they survive before the Earth was formed? How do they interact with things as small as atomic particles and as big as galaxies? These were the challenges which Wyken set himself ten years ago. And why did he want to undertake such a huge task?

“I am passionate about bringing the history of the universe to the widest possible audience,” Wyken says. “I believe people have a right to know where we came from. We did not suddenly arrive here from nowhere. We are children of the universe and understanding how we got here is part of our cultural heritage. It allows us to see how we fit in with the rest of creation.”

Wyken has demonstrated this passion by writing the hugely successful website “History of the Universe” (www.historyoftheuniverse.com), a mini-encyclopaedia of history and science. Obviously he knows the scientific facts, but the challenge which Wyken set himself was to appeal to a wider audience by re-telling the story as a work of fiction. It took him two years to work out how to tell the story and a further eight to complete the plot and write the first two volumes.

“I tried many different scenarios but eventually decided the story must be set in CERN, near Geneva,” Wyken explains. “A particle from outer space called a Cosmic Monopole is trapped by the incredibly strong magnetic fields inside one of the giant particle detectors there. It is then transformed into a black hole which absorbs a scientist and a visitor to CERN. Soon afterwards, time stops everywhere except near fragments of mysterious blue crystal which come out of the black hole: Time Crystal.”

The Cosmic Monopole is available as an eBook. “Ebooks are so much more environmentally friendly, cheaper and convenient than paper books that at present we have no plans to produce it in print,” says Philip Brown, publisher at Penny Press who has produced Wyken’s first book. “The ebook market is growing as the paper book market is shrinking.”

Penny Press are offering free copies of the ebook to anyone who would like to write a review. Interested readers should contact philip@pennypress.co.uk stating what format they would like.

When asked whether the events of his story could really happen, Wyken says: “Strangely enough, the risk of CERN capturing a cosmic monopole has never been assessed by any scientist. They have done risk assessments on lots of other possible scenarios but not this one, perhaps because a monopole is only a theoretical particle. So nobody knows if it could happen. I just hope not.”

ENDS

Information for Editors

Wyken Seagrave

Wyken Seagrave is a British author who was born and still lives in Coventry. After gaining a degree in physics and mathematics at the University of Nottingham, he spent several years in Cambridge studying the wide range of subjects required to write the history of the Universe. Since then he has been a teacher, university lecturer, IT consultant, science communicator and is now a professional author.

Wyken’s Contact Details

Wyken Seagrave
Office: +44(0)1-223-969-333
Mobile: +44(0)7-808-294-844
Email: wyken@pennypress.co.uk

Wyken’s Websites

History of the Universe: www.historyoftheuniverse.com
Blog: wykenseagrave.co.uk
Penny Press: www.pennypress.co.uk

Wykens’s Portrait

http://wykenseagrave.co.uk/images/WS-2541x3124.jpg

Time Crystal

The Time Crystal series will extend to about ten volumes, to be written over the next few years. The Cosmic Monopole is the first volume of the series.
Time Crystal: www.timecrystal.co.uk

The Cosmic Monopole

In The Cosmic Monopole (first volume in the Time Crystal Series) the universe is a Cosmic Egg, part of the life cycle of Entroilians, bee-like creatures who live in the multiverse. The monopole is its seed. Trapped by a magnetic field in CERN, the monopole is transformed into a black hole which carries schoolteacher Sam and eccentric scientist Michael, out into the multiverse. Michael breaks the Cosmic Egg’s crystalline shell, fragments of which fall into the universe. Time stops everywhere except near fragments of Time Crystal.  

Fourteen year old Catriona came to CERN with Sam and her diplomat mother to solve the mystery of her scientist-father’s death, and she finds a Time Crystal fragment. Through it she can talk to her step-father Sam, who tells her to go down the Time Tunnel and collect Crystals so Michael can restart time. He does not reveal that Michael has become an Entroilian with god-like knowledge.

As she flies back in time to the Big Bang, Catriona will have to search for lost fragments of Crystal in the mouths of dinosaurs and of volcanoes; in living cells and in atoms; in stars and galaxies. Along the way she must cope with the turmoil of falling in love while battling with Argolaths, enemies of Entroilians, who have entered the universe searching for human women to mate with.

Meanwhile Catriona’s mother, and others left on Earth who possess Crystals, will battle over how the timeless world should organise itself. Catriona will have to compete with those who descend the Time Tunnel, mining history for more Crystals.

The Cosmic Monopole includes not only the whole history of the universe, but accurate details of the science which shaped the story. Catriona’s adventure will beguile the reader, introducing a wide range of science as she lives through the creation of stars and planets, of continents and life, of the very universe itself.

The Cosmic Monopole is available for the Kindle from Amazon USA at
www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Monopole-Time-Crystal-ebook/dp/B006A8S0YE/
and from Amazon UK at
www.amazon.co.uk/Cosmic-Monopole-Time-Crystal-ebook/dp/B006A8S0YE/

Samples are available from
www.cosmicmonopole.co.uk

The cover of the Cosmic Monopole is available at:
http://timecrystal.co.uk/images/Cosmic-Monopole-900x1200.jpg

Penny Press Ltd

British independent publishing house Penny Press www.pennypress.co.uk) was founded in Coventry in 1998. It publishes information about the history of the Universe, develops websites, produces eBooks and creates IT systems through its subsidiary Penny Systems www.pennysystems.co.uk

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Penny Press publish of books, podcasts, on-line games and websites connected with the history of the Universe and introductions to basic science.
We passionately believe we should all know where we came from and how we relate to the Universe around us.