Cover design Rebecca Price

We live in a strange and curious world.

Throughout our history, people have created ways to explain the wondrous mysteries delighting and overwhelming our senses. Hands uncovered elements dug up from the ground; we used burnt wood to decorate our flesh and to adorn the cave interiors of Mother Earth. The melding of body, speech, and mind led to our creation myths, giving us a sense of belonging through the repetition of words and rituals.

As new discoveries helped tame our world, rites passed from generation to generation, giving us the sense of continuity and heritage that would become history. As the world’s population multiplied, so did the inevitable sense of otherness, intensified by ancient leaders who dogmatically separated the chosen from the unworthy.  This has become an enduringly seductive idea: We are the chosen, and they are the unworthy. They look or talk differently. They believe and think unthinkable ideas. They practice a faith that is unknown. They are weaker because they are female. They are contemptible because of who they love.

This primitive attitude is still held by people across our world in myriad ways and at varying levels—part of the status quo for too many cultures, for far too long. But what happens when those from another world not unlike our own challenge one man’s basic notion of what it means to love unconditionally?

R.E. Blakeslee explores this premise in his novel, “Origination.” When the leading council of an alien culture sends its most venerated object to Earth, a young gay man finds this sacred article and is bestowed with incredible powers. The opposing philosophies of the alien world are brought into conflict as its messiah returns with a new message for the people.

“Origination” will be released in November 2009. Right now, you can read an excerpt of the novel on R.E. Blakeslee’s site. Enter the “Litany of The Betylos” contest and become a part of literature…forever!

Please visit the Origination site now!