Title: Power of Three
The novel of a whale, a woman, and an alien child
Author: Cathy Parker
Publisher: Booktrope
A beluga whale longs for freedom from the cruel confines of
her small blue pool.
Two powerful other-worldly beings seek to plunder our world,
destroying our people and our resources.
In this fast-paced, science fiction thrill ride, it falls to
the fiercely independent bystander, Shannon Kendrick, attorney and seaquarium
volunteer, to return the child Essi to her world. To find a way to free the
desperate beluga, Juneau. To defeat the ancient aliens. On the upside, with the
arrival of Essi, Shannon is startled to find not only that her physical
appearance changes dramatically, but also that she now possesses useful, almost
magical, traits, which will help her with insurmountable barriers.
But Shannon soon learns the most terrible threat comes from
within: a bizarre lavender lightning strike has caused the minds of the beluga
and child to be one with Shannon’s. Their presence consumes many more calories
than Shannon can possibly take in. They are killing her.
In a desperate attempt to outrace her own death, Shannon
enlists the help of her friends in battles to the death. Not everyone will
survive.
And . . . who or what is the other dark force that Shannon
discovers lurking in the shadows with the alien invaders?
Cathy Parker graduated from the Northwest Institute of
Literary Arts in 2015 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. She
reports that while there, aliens surprised her by wandering into her writing
without invitation, thereby letting her know that her genre must be speculative
fiction. She also came in contact with a wonderful community of writers and
scholars that she vows she will never leave. In perhaps the seminal experience
of her life, Cathy volunteered for eight years as a zoo keeper and became well
acquainted with one sometimes obstreperous female beluga whale, the model for
Juneau, one of the heroes of this book. Cathy holds a law degree and practiced
as an attorney in both the public and private sectors for many years. She
values her time as legal counsel to her city’s Fire Department above all other
legal work she’s done. “Where could I find a workplace with a better mission —
saving lives and property and giving comfort to the lost and hurt?” Before law
she enjoyed a career in journalism, at one time the sole staff
editor-reporter-photographer-columnist-and gofer for a rural newspaper in
Wyoming. She climbed oil rigs and went on cattle drives, shoveled her car out
of many snow banks, and calls it a grand time. Cathy is fascinated by animals
of all kinds, especially cetaceans and primates, and has scrimped and saved to
go see them in the far reaches of the world. She posts matters of interest on
these and other topics on her website,