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STORIES
Kibi and the Search for Happiness
2010
Rini and the Old Slave
2010
Buna's New World
2011
First Taste of Freedom
2011
Neti's Temptation
2012
What're Friends For
2012
Sata's Strength
2012
Boro and Sata
2012
Any story in which the reader comes to love the characters, and dreads the day he or she arrives at the last page, is a great story. Unfortunately, the author cannot remember all the titles he has enjoyed during his life, so the following are only examples:
Canopus in Argos: Archives, Doris Lessing
The Stone and the Flute, Hans Bemmann
The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Memorial
Peter James, the American psychic investigator, was an inspiration to the author over a period of many years, as he fearlessly shared his perceptions of "ghosts" and other spiritual beings, without limiting himself to the cultural myths and dogmas that govern most people. Although the author did not have the honor of knowing him personally, his courage and ideas, and even the voices of one or two of his non-material friends on the Queen Mary, have crept into the NEBADOR series.
He passed away on 31 July 2007, exactly 60 years, to the day, after his beloved Queen Mary was "reborn" into her greatest period of trans-Atlantic service. Please do not confuse him with the English crime novelist, several other authors, and many other people with the same name.
Background Knowledge
Readers who are moved to dig deeper into the scientific, psychological, philosophical, or religious themes of the NEBADOR stories may find something of interest among these books:
Symbolic Logic, Irving M. Copi
On The Loose, Terry and Renny Russell
Free-Range Kids, Leonore Skenazy
Amazon USA
Intelligence Applied, Robert J. Sternberg
Instrument/Commercial Manual, Jeppesen Sanderson, Inc.
Secrets of UFO Technology, Kenneth W. Behrendt
The Urantia Book
The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran
The Long Descent, John Michael Greer
Amazon USA
Type Talk, Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen
The Elements of Reasoning, David A. Conway and Ronald Munson
Heaven Can You Hear Me?, Peter James and Gian Temperilli
Amazon USA
People
Some wonderful people throughout the author's life provided unique and irreplaceable lessons and inspirations:
Juniper Russell
Esther Smith
Vicky Ball
Dottie Frisbie
Linda Dezzutti
Martha Higgins
Jennifer Carolyn Gates
Susanne Koller
Rachael Bleich
Charleen Cox
Paula Wells
Meredith Herzog
Sarah Satterthwaite
Patricia Sharp
Ashley Riddle
Peter James
Antonya Pickard
RMS Queen Mary
The author's Queen Mary collection (mostly books) can be found on the Author page.
For a number of reasons, not all of them rational, the Royal Mail Ship Queen Mary has had a profound effect on the author. His parents crossed the Atlantic on her exactly one year before he was born, and he grew up close enough to her final resting place in Long Beach, California, to visit after she opened to the public when he was 16 years old.
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artist unknown
from the first-class Farewell Dinner menu, 5 April 1954
She is the second-largest passenger liner ever built. The largest, the RMS Queen Elizabeth, was destroyed by fire in 1972 (after retirement). The SS France was slightly longer but much lighter, and has now been scrapped. More recent ships are cruise ships, not passenger liners, and are not designed for all-year, all-weather transport.
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MacDonald Gill
oil on canvas, 23' x 15'
first-class Dining Room, R deck (originally C deck)
The Queen Mary, at 13 feet of movement per gallon of oil burned in her huge steam engines, was the ultimate gas guzzler, but she was moving 80,000 tons. She is a monument to what can be done when energy is cheap and abundant (which may never be the case again). The author sees many reasons to believe we will never again build a passenger ship so large and grand.
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Charles Cameron Baillie
marquetry panel, 57.75" x 34.5"
third-class Smoking Room, A deck
Her ghost stories piqued the author's interest in spiritual matters early in his life, and were part of his motivation to study such things much more deeply later.
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artist unknown
marquetry panel
third-class Garden Lounge, Main deck
The Queen Mary is also a museum of the art works and fine craftmanship that adorned her walls, ceilings, and floors. Some of those works were lost during her troop transport days in World War II, or during her conversion to a hotel, museum, and convention center after her ocean-going days ended in 1967. Most of the art works remain, and can be seen when touring the ship, or having Sunday brunch in the first-class Dining Room. A few, mostly those from the second-class and third-class areas, are locked away.
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Gilbert Bayes and Alfred Oakley
carved gesso panel tinted silver and gold, 12.5' x 22'
first-class Main Lounge (now Queen's Salon), Promenade deck
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Gilbert Bayes and Alfred Oakley
carved gesso panel tinted silver and gold, 12.5' x 22'
first-class Main Lounge (now Queen's Salon), Promenade deck
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Norman J. Forrest
limewood
aft transverse passageway, Promenade deck
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Anna K. Zinkeisen
oil on canvas (lost)
first-class Ballroom, Promenade deck
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Anna K. Zinkeisen
oil on canvas (lost)
first-class Ballroom, Promenade deck
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Alfred R. Thomson
oil on canvas, 19.5' x 4'
Observation Lounge, Promenade deck
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Alfred R. Thomson
oil on canvas, 19.5' x 4'
Observation Lounge, Promenade deck
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John Skeaping
gilt and silvered mohogany (lost)
Starboard Gallery, Promenade deck
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Cedric Morris
oil on canvas (lost)
Starboard Gallery, Promenade deck
"The Queen Mary, launched today, will know its greatest fame and popularity when she never sails another mile and never carries another paying passenger." -- British psychic Mabel Fortescue-Harrison, 26 September 1934
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artist unknown, imprinted "A-75" and "WBA3226TV2(7)"
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photographer unknown, wish we could credit
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2012-2013
Book by Book
Book One:
The Test
Spring 2010
Book Two:
Journey
Summer 2010
Book Three:
Selection
Fall 2010
Book Four:
Flight Training
Spring 2011
Book Five:
Back to the Stars
Fall 2011
Book Six:
Star Station
Summer 2012
Book Seven:
The Local Universe
2013
Book Eight:
Witness
2014
Book Nine:
A Cry for Help
2015
Copyright © 2009-2013
by J. Z. Colby
unless otherwise attributed