Around the Fire Book & Author Blog. Today's guest is Lyndi Alexander.

Oh, my! It's already the middle of September. We've had some outstanding days here in Northern NJ. The Sun has been shining and the temps perfect. Warm days and cool nights. While I know we need rain I can't help enjoying it. One of the other things I enjoy is being in the kitchen. This year I've taken to preserving the bounty of fresh foods from our local farmers. Canning and freezing tomatoes in different forms, freezing fruit and berries, corn on the cob and yesterday salsa and peppers. I think my jalepeno haul were some of the hottest I've ever had. My fingers are still burning today. Ah, well, momentary pain will lead to yummyness in the coming months. Speaking of yummy, I have a yummy series from a delightful author on today's blog. Lyndi Alexander is back and talking about her path to authorship and its ups and downs. Take it away Lyndi...

Like many other writers, I knew I wanted to tell stories since I was in grammar school. But the story of a pair of unlikely partners thrown into an accidental apocalypse seemed like it would be a story I could never tell. 
101 queries.
I sent it to agents, to editors, to anyone I could find an address for who I thought might be interested. #101 was finally a yes. The “book of my heart” became a reality, thanks to editor Liz Burton at Zumaya Publishing. She convinced me to expand the story from one to three volumes, The Color of Fear, a young adult series: WINDMILLS, DESTINATIONS, and ADVERSARIES.
 
This is the story of Lin Kwan, a young Chinese girl who finds herself caught in the middle of world-changing events after a terrorist attack wipes out much of the Caucasian population of the world. Her father sends her a request from America to bring Chinese herbs to facilitate a cure.
Kwan’s voyage to a decimated America, accompanied by her sensei Li Zhong, is traumatic, and surely would tear the heart from a lesser soul. The world she finds in San Francisco isn’t any better, but she’s determined to complete the task her father has set for her.
In San Francisco, she finds nurse’s aide Valery Paz, a Latina teen who’s survived the virus that killed her whole family, and who now works on the black market caring for patients who can’t come to the hospitals.
She also meets Xi San, a young Chinese man who’s taken on the task of guarding the Pacific Heights neighborhood in which Kwan comes to live. The streets are lawless, patrolled by roving gangs, and San, believing he has nothing else to live for, puts his life on the line every night keeping safe those who struggle to remain alive.
But the gangs aren’t the only menace to peace and peace of mind, as San discovers. A man known only as Gabriel preaches his message of hate and white supremacy on the few remaining air waves, backed up by the evidence of the terror attack.
Kwan has her own problems, as a Chinese spy tracks her to the United States, determined to stop her from giving her father the medicines she’s brought all the way from China–even if it means killing them both.
Reconnecting with Xi San by chance, Kwan and Valery join his group of diverse travelers as they cross America, headed for St. Louis, where civilization is being rebuilt. Between the caravan and safety, danger lurks—Gabriel, a self-styled religious leader and white supremacist, who has organized his army from Upper Midwest survivalist and militia followers, sweeping south, determined to take their violent revenge for the white man.
Life after the devastating biological terrorist attack is on a recovery vector as Kwan is finally able to deliver her precious cargo of herbs to her scientist father. Or is it?
The virus may be mutating, spreading to infect those previously immune. Tzu Shin and his fellow scientists—and now Kwan—are literal prisoners of the US military. The White supremacist army of the demagogue Gabriel has invaded St. Louis. And the Chinese assassin Piao finally knows where to find his targets.
Kwan and her friends, Valery, Eddie, and San, are ready to fight to the death to defend their recovering world. The question is: Are courage and determination enough? Or will the fallout of the plague overcome them at their final stand?
Video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5HtphfL7TE&t=21s
 
The political climate at the time I finished the series was such that I wondered if having a white supremacist villain had become outdated. Clearly, history has continued on a path that indicates it is not. Fighting racism is an ongoing battle, and Kwan and Xi San are heroes who demonstrate the very best.
WINDMILLS was nominated for book of the month at Long and Short Reviews; ADVERSARIES won Book of the month in April 2021.

Science Fiction/ Fantasy/ Young Adult

Windmills
Bio-terrorists release a plague in the United States that spreads to kill most of the world’s Caucasian population. As the deadly virus mutates, Tzu Shin, a renowned medical doctor and biologist, defects from China to help develop a cure. His only daughter, Lin Kwan, is left behind in Hong Kong with her aunt.
Then Kwan’s father summons her from across the sea to bring him Chinese medicinal herbs he needs to develop a cure. Lonely and missing her parents, she accepts the challenge, traveling with her sensei Li Zhong to the New World.
But a Chinese assassin is on her trail, determined to kill her and Li Zhong, and when Kwan discovers her father has disappeared, she sets out on a journey to find him and deliver her precious cargo, a quest that she may not survive.

Destinations
Xi San saved the life of a mysterious girl one night in his ravaged San Francisco neighborhood. He can’t get her out of his mind, but believes that she’s lost to him.
Lin Kwan came to America to bring her scientist father Chinese medicinal herbs, hoping to stop the virus that killed most of the world’s Caucasians before it mutates to infect the rest of the world. On her way to finding him, she meets again the man who once saved her, a man she can’t forget.
With a diverse group of fellow travelers, they head for St. Louis, where civilization is being rebuilt. Between them and safety, danger lurks—Gabriel, a self-styled religious leader and white supremacist, who has organized his army from Upper Midwest survivalist and militia followers, determined to take revenge for the white man.
But Gabriel isn’t their only enemy. Before they reach their destination, they will battle nature, prejudice and even those hidden among them who wish their destruction.

Adversaries
Life after the devastating biological terrorist attack that decimated the White population in the US is beginning to recover as Tzu Lin Kwan is finally able to deliver her precious cargo of herbs to her scientist father. Or is it?
The virus may be mutating, spreading to infect those previously immune. Tzu Shin and his fellow scientists—and now Kwan—are literal prisoners of the US military. The White supremacist army of the demagogue Gabriel has invaded St. Louis. And the Chinese assassin Piao knows where to find his targets.
Kwan and her friends Valery, Eddie, and San are ready to fight to the death to defend their recovering world. The question is: Are courage and determination enough?

Get all three Here

About the Author
Lyndi Alexander always dreamed of strange and unusual worlds and interesting alien contacts. She lives as a post-modern hippie in Asheville, North Carolina, mentoring young scientists in the EcoExplore program, fostering homeless kittens and cats, and trying to grow more than one real tomato every gardening season. She is a single mother of her last child of seven, a daughter on the autism spectrum, finding that every day feels a lot like first contact with a new species.
 
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COLOR OF FEAR page- all buy links here!
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https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4185290.Lyndi_Alexander
https://www.amazon.com/Lyndi-Alexander/e/B005GDYPU2/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
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