Behind the Magic: Brenda Drake Blends Science and Magic in Touching Fate

When authors write books that deals, heavily, with magic, they still need to make them logical. If they didn’t, readers would be less inclined to suspend their disbelief that either a girl – like Brenda Drake‘s Aster Layne or Leah and Kate Rooper‘s Jane Ezreal – could walk into a regular scenario and come away victorious. So, today, we’re happy to share that Brenda Drake will be stopping by to show how the magic in her novel, Touching Fate,utilizes the logical laws of physics.

Now, without further ado, here’s Brenda:

In Touching Fate, the magic behind fate changing borrows from physics. Aster’s best friend and little sister persuade her to go with them to a tarot card reader. While her friend is receiving the reading, Aster accidentally tips the table causing the cards to fall. Before one falls off, she touches it and she magically changes her friend’s fate.

To understand fate changing, it would be important to point out that fate changing is not a typical tarot reading. An Upright card is dealt with the image facing up, and the reverse card is when the image is dealt upside down. With fate changing, the person seeking their fate picks only one card. The fate is the actual meaning of the card. So the Death card upright would mean death and reversed would mean life.

When Aster touches a card, the upright and reversed images of the tarot card separates from the original, spinning in different directions. The trajectory of one image affects the other one. When touched by a fate changer the cards reverse their spin and go in the opposite direction than they were spinning, changing the fate. As in Quantum Entanglement, if two entangled particles are split, they remain connected. So, if you spin one, the other one will instantaneously spin in the opposite direction no matter how far away they are from each other.

Just like Newton’s 3rd Law, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. After Aster changes a fate, the one she changed stays with her until it finds a responsive conductor to transfer to. The contact has to be ideal for the fate to change to another person. When Aster touches someone, the fate transfers to that person. The thing is, Aster never changes a good fate for someone, because why would she? Aster only changes bad fates, causing whoever she encounters to suffer the consequences.

Reese is cursed, so his fate is unchanging. Someone cursed can’t receive a changed fate from Aster, but she can undo the curse. Though doing so causes major repercussions for her family. There is more magic at the climax of the story that borrows from science that I can’t talk about without spoiling the end.

More about fate changing will be explained in the next book, Cursing Fate, and I must say it gets darker. It follows the story of Iris and Wade. Iris is Aster’s sister and twin to Violet. As Iris tries to rekindle her relationship with Wade, she finds Aster’s cursed tarot cards. As the curse possesses Iris, she takes revenge on ex-friends by dealing them horrible fates and soon she is pitted against her twin. Together with Violet, Wade searches for a way to stop the curse before Iris becomes the cards’ final victim.

Embrace your fate, and make your own destiny.

Thank you so much to Brenda Drake for sharing your scientific novel to help sell Jane. Now, we want to share a short teaser in which the sparks start flying between Aster and Reese…oh and there’s some science thrown in for good measure:

After nearly thirty minutes searching the boardwalk, Reese straightened and adjusted his pant legs. “Shite, it’s lost—” Reese spotted Aster, Leah, and Daisy at a balloon popping game. Aster stood at the counter concentrating on the balloons, holding up the queue. He walked up to her side, ignoring the protests of those waiting for their turn. “Perhaps they should charge an hourly rate for you,” he said, startling her.

Jan sidled up to Leah and introduced himself.

“What…what are you doing? The line’s back there.” Aster nodded in the direction of the angry mob. She had a bandage wrapped around her wrist, so he couldn’t see if she had the mark.

“I thought you might need assistance,” Reese said. “You seem confused.”

Leah broke out in laughter. Jan was in full performance mode. He even had Daisy giggling.

“I don’t need assistance,” Aster said, clearly annoyed. “I’ve already figured this game out. I must consider several variables before attempting a shot. I’m just trying to decide which balloon I want to pop.”

“Variables?” He chuckled. “Just throw it hard. There isn’t a science to it.”

“Yes, there is,” she argued. “It depends on the weight of the dart, the sharpness of the tip, and the inflation of the balloon. They’re underinflated, so I’m trying to determine which ones have more air.”

“And then what?”

“And then…um…I’m going to throw it as hard as I can.” She glanced at him. “Now, will you please go?” When he didn’t move, she added, “Do you mind? I’m trying to concentrate.”

“Right then, I’ll just stand over there. When you’ve finished, perhaps we can schlep along with you ladies?” Reese backed up several paces.

“I’m not going to schlep anything with you.”

“He means hang out with us,” Leah clarified. “And we’d love it if you joined us, right, Aster?”

“No, but my bet is I don’t have a choice.” She readied a dart and paused.

Her determination impressed Reese. He couldn’t help the grin that tugged at his mouth while watching the way she bit her lip in concentration. Spending time with her might be fun, if not challenging. He chuckled again.

She tossed a glare over her shoulder at him before throwing the dart with all her might and popping a red balloon.