A Lowell Story: the science fiction/fantasy trilogy set in Lowell, Massachusetts
Volume 1: Release (Liberação)
For Beatrisa DeSouza, life as an undocumented immigrant in a small New England mill city is a daily struggle. But her challenges are raised to an entirely different level when she saves a young man from a savage beating. For this man has traveled through time to draw Beatrisa into a battle whose origins lie millions of years in the past, and which has secretly shaped the history of the city and the entire region. A creature with terrible power is imprisoned here, plotting its escape. Its release would mean the end of all life on Earth. Beatrisa learns that she is the only one who can stop it, and put an end to the ancient threat
Volume 2: Survival (Sobrevivência)
Survival: forward or backward?
Although Beatrisa de Souza has destroyed a terrible demon in the canals of Lowell, Massachusetts (Volume 1, Release), her trials are far from over. A powerful conspiracy plans to save the Earth by wiping out most of the human race, leaving only a small primitive population living in ecological balance.
But Beatrisa also has a plan: to bring about a giant step in human evolution, which will bring an end to disease, poverty and war. Although humanity, as it is, spells disaster for the world, Beatrisa has recognized that the galaxy is a dangerous place. And humanity, as it could be, is the planet's only protection against terrible threats looming on the horizon.
Will she be able to implement her ambitious plan before the conspiracy acts and removes all hope? Nothing less than survival is at stake: for the human race, the planet, and beyond. And the issue, once again, will be decided in a small mill city in New England.
Volume 3: Purpose (Propósito)
To Eric Price Baker, a private investigator in Silicon Valley, the case seemed straightforward: an entrepreneur’s wife had gone missing. But his investigation has quickly drawn him and Claudia Carter into the center of a struggle for survival on a cosmic scale.
An ancient civilization at the center of the galaxy seeks to eliminate life on every other planet, viewing them as potential threats. Their armada is approaching Earth with a vast array of exotic weapons capable of rendering the Earth as barren as the Moon. To survive this threat, a radical step forward in human evolution is required. This has been happening behind the scenes all over the world, orchestrated by Beatrisa De Souza, who rose from obscurity as a Brazilian immigrant in Lowell, MA and has already saved the world several times over (see Volume 1 “Release” and Volume 2 “Survival”).
Eric and Claudia must infiltrate the enemy planet to try and prevent the worst of their weapons from being fired. But nothing about this battle is what it appears to be: the enemy, the weapon itself, even the true nature of the threat. The attack is driven by a powerful sense of purpose, and only a greater purpose, beyond the mere survival of life on Earth, can prevail against it.
About Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell is probably best known nowadays for three things: the childhood home of the artist James MacNeil Whistler, the birthplace of Beat writer Jack Kerouac, and the 2010 movie The Fighter starring Mark Wahlberg. But, historically, the city's strongest claim to fame is as the site of the first large-scale industrial campus in the United States. This arose in the 1820s due to the abundant supply of water power from Pawtucket Falls, a 32-foot drop in the Merrimack River.
The Avalonian plate splits (400million years BC)
About the time of the Cambrian mass extinction, the Avalonian tectonic plate split into two pieces. The eastern portion underlies the British Isles, and parts of Spain and Portugal. The western portion now consists of eastern Massachusetts, along with parts of Connecticut and Rhode Island. The plate boundary can be traced in a series of lakes and marshes, and also follows the course of the Merrimack River between Lowell and the Atlantic Ocean.
The Merrimack River changes course (14,000 years BC)
There is strong evidence that, prior to the last glacial period, the Merrimack River took a different path from Lowell: roughly southeast toward Boston Harbor. Although that ancient course can still be traced, it was blocked by several mounds of debris dropped by the retreating ice sheet, mounds which are now hills in Billerica, Chelmsford and Lowell.
Chelmsford, John Eliot and the "praying Indians" (1653)
When the town of Chelmsford, Massachusetts was founded in 1653, its territory included what is now the city of Lowell. However, at the request of the minister John Eliot, this area was set aside for a community of Wamesit people who had adopted Christianity. This spanned the area between Pawtucket Falls and the confluence of the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.
A canal to transport lumber for shipbuilding
In 1796, the Pawtucket Canal was completed, to bypass the falls for lumber being transported from New Hampshire to the shipyards at Newburyport. The Wamesit people had moved away soon after King Philip's War, and the territory had now been settled by Chelmsford farmers.
Industrial espionage (1815)
In 1815, Francis Cabot Lowell toured the textile mills of Lancashire, England. Although all visitors were prohibited from carrying writing materials into the mills, Lowell committed the equipment designs to memory, and recreated and improved upon them in a small mill in Waltham. The Charles River did not provide sufficient power for the type of industrial establishment that Lowell and his associates envisioned, and they settled on the Merrimack River and Pawtucket Falls as the most promising site.
A canal repurposed (1826)
By the time Lowell's associates came on the scene, the Pawtucket Canal was in disuse, having been superseded by the Middlesex Canal, which brought timber from the Merrimack River directly to Boston. The Pawtucket canal, restored and reinforced, served as the backbone for an increasingly elaborate network of canals supplying power for many large textile mills in the same territory that had once been set aside for the "praying Indians".
A challenge to the British textile industry
Lowell's challenge to the dominant British textile industry was not only commercial, but moral as well (at the beginning, at least). In contrast to the brutal exploitation of workers in the Lancashire mills, the Lowell mills were staffed by young women drawn from the local farming communities. The new companies built boardinghouses for these "mill girls", which can still be seen today in the city.
Waves of immigrants
After the first few decades, commercial pressure eroded the mill owners' resolve to treat their workers humanely. By stages, the "mill girls" were replaced by workers from successive waves of immigrants: first Irish, then French Canadian, then from Portugal and Greece. These immigrants would work for much lower wages than the children of local farmers would.
Industry goes south
From the 1920's to the 1950's, Lowell experienced a period of economic decline, as one textile company after another moved its operations to the southern United States, in seach of still lower wages and operating costs. The mill buildings lay dormant, with no economic activity that would have motivated their demolition.
Mills repurposed
In the 1970's, the National Park Service established the Lowell National Historical Park, to preserve the sites and artifacts of the textile industry of the 19th century. This became the focal point for the renovation of mill buildings, for use as apartment buildings, offices, and other purposes. A new concept at the time, the renovation and repurposing of abandoned mill buildings has become a common practice throughout New England.