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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A Bold, Timely Allegory in a World of Portent

Fort Lauderdale, April 2009:  Lately, more and more people have been finding the need to escape harsh reality and visit a realm of imagination. Video and role-playing games and movies each provide a respite from our times of economic crisis, terrorist threat, and uncertainty. They give us a chance to vanish into a world of enchantment, adventure, and hope, with companions of merit and great inner strength. In his new book, Evergreen: A Space-Time Odyssey, author A.S. Ziner invites us into a world with tribulations that appear far from our own.  Yet, on closer examination, Evergreen’s relevance and tenacity in the face of incivility and modern urban problems might help us just the same.

“Evergreen takes a serious problem…and places it in a context that makes it understandable for the entire family…a rich, hopeful and  imaginative tale that highlights the importance of civility, belief, caring, perseverance, and imagination in ameliorating social problems…Evergreen will become an instant classic…” 

                             -- Kathleen A. Tiemann, Executive Editor, Humanity & Society

 Evergreen, a bold, spirited allegory on dominion for the entire family, is set in a lush, Bunyanesque world where prophecy and legend are on a collision course with Kaleija – a cosmic, millennial event that triggers the awakening of a great planetary force called the Golem. Foreseeing natural disaster and cultural peril, the Golem delivers a soul-stirring warning to tribal leaders and one modern-day traveler, hidden from the natives.  Hope is given when the Golem offers a gift – an enchanted chrysalis named Gaia (“Guy-ah”) – and a prophecy: “Only when three worlds combine into one will balance be restored across the land.”

 In this series-launching journey, we accompany Gaia and her colorful escorts on an unforgettable odyssey. We share her fears when confronted by vicious  marauders, discover her extraordinary powers triggered by the incivility of each new foe, and feel the exhilaration as her metamorphosis unfolds in the heat of battle. We also learn that to carry out the Golem’s prophecy, Gaia must undergo one more physical change – a rebirth, with revolutionary consequences. 

The core of Evergreen's refreshingly principled optimism, witty and fun-loving characters, and intense imagery is an evolving supernatural and science fiction foundation where moral development and technological innovation, cultural conflict and cosmic upheaval, and full-scale inter-species war have profound implications for the world of Evergreen – and, perhaps, our own.

 A.S. Ziner is an applied sociologist, college professor and futurist.  He has taught across the social sciences since 1986 when he earned his Ph.D. at the University of North Texas.  Evergreen: A Space-Time Odyssey is a product of his teaching and research interests.  As a former national leader in applied sociology and a practitioner for over twenty years, his solution-centered career has focused on investigating community-based problems raised by clients, developing strategies to address their problems, and offering opportunities to implement the solutions he proposes.  The Evergreen series is created to accomplish this process vicariously through an unearthly civil odyssey to transform the hearts and minds of our next generation of movers and shakers.