ON THE THRESHOLD

On the Threshold
by M. Laszlo

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GENRE: Historical Science Fiction

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BLURB:

Obsessed with learning the origins of the cosmos, the actual meaning of life, and the true purpose of civilization, a fine Scotsman named Fingal T. Smyth dedicates himself to the study of Plato’s most extraordinary ideas. Convinced of Plato’s belief that humankind possesses any and all innate knowledge deep within the collective unconscious mind, Fingal soon conducts a series of bold, pioneering occult-science experiments by which to resolve the riddle of the universe once and for all. However, Fingal forgets how violent and perilous the animal impulses that reside in the deepest recesses of the unconscious mind. And when Fingal unleashes a mysterious avatar of his innate knowledge, the entity appears as a burning man and immediately seeks to manipulate innocent and unsuspecting people everywhere into immolating themselves. Now, with little hope of returning the fiery figure into his being, Fingal must capture his nemesis before it destroys the world.

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EXCERPT

Autumn, 1907: late one morning, some kind of torrid, invisible beast seemed to wrap itself all around Fingal T. Smyth’s body. Each one of his toes twitching fiercely, he exited the castle and scanned the distant, Scottish Highlands. Go back where you came from. As the entity wrapped itself tighter all about his person, Fingal blinked back his tears. I’m melting, I am. Aye, it’s the heat of fusion.

Gradually, the beast’s heartbeat became audible—each pulsation. At the same time, too, the illusory heat of transformation emitted an odor as of oven-roasted peppercorns dissolving in a cup of burnt coffee.

Over by the gatehouse, Fräulein Wunderwaffe appeared—the little German girl wearing a plain-sewn robe and square-crown bowler. In that moment, she no longer seemed to be a sickly child of seven years: her inscrutable expression resembled that of a wise, indifferent cat.

Perhaps even some kind of lioness. Fingal cringed, and he recalled a fragment of conversation from three weeks earlier.

“She suffers from a most unnatural pathology, an anguished, maniacal obsession with cats,” Doktor Hubertus Pflug had explained. “Ever since the poor girl was a baby, she has always regarded it her fate to one day metamorphose into a glorious panther, for she believes herself to be ein Gestaltwandler. Do you know this word? It means shapeshifter and refers to someone who possesses the power to take the form of anything in nature.”

The heat radiated up and down Fingal’s spine now, and his thoughts turned back to the present. Aye, it’s a change of phase. I’m melting into a chemical compound. Despite all, he greeted the girl and willed himself to flash a grin.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

M. Laszlo is an aging recluse who lives in Bath, Ohio. Rumor holds that his pseudonym is a reference to Victor Laszlo, a character in the classic film Casablanca. On the Threshold is his first release with the acclaimed, Australian hybrid house AIA Publishing. Oddly, M. Laszlo insists that his latest work, On the Threshold, does in fact provide the correct answer to the riddle of the universe.

Buy link: https://aiapublishing.com/product/on-the-threshold-m-laszlo/

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Q & A With …

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Vanilla is best because you can microwave a candy bar and pour the melted remains over the vanilla—and in the end, it almost always tastes great.

Which mythological creature are you most like?
A humble, aged, philosophical, talking tree.

First book you remember making an indelible impression on you.
Dr. No by Ian Fleming. He was the author who made me realize that there is more to life than comic books. Thank God for Ian Fleming. And here’s a fun fact: his books are thousands of times better than the film adaptations.

How do you develop your plot and characters?
A storyteller must develop the plot with the kinds of structural elements found in all storytelling; however, character development is impossible to outline. As the story develops, the character will decide what he or she wants to do. It’s hard to describe that process, but the storyteller will just know. The character asks for certain things in the same way that a manual-transmission automobile has a way of telling the driver when to shift gears.

Describe your writing space.
It’s an empty room with a hardwood floor and three big windows. There is no furniture other than the writing table, where the computer rests. Thankfully, though, there is a great deal of built-in shelving—and because the shelves are empty, my cat always has places to climb about and to sit and to sleep and to sometimes just lay there and stare at me. The windows have big enough sills, too, so the cat can sit in the window when the sash is up. Everything works well except for when the cat leaps onto the writing table and disturbs the modem and knocks things over. That happens from time to time, but so what? Life is for living.