Tangible Light

Raised on Earth in ignorance of the vast interstellar community to which he belongs, Prashan learns that his wealthy father has left him only one thing: a one-way ticket to a world called Polity. There Prashan discovers the fate that awaits his childhood home. But has his father sent him there to find a way to save it? Tangible Light first appeared in print in Analog: Science Fiction and Fact.
"I got the idea for Tangible Light while looking at the Tiffany mosaics in the Chicago Cultural Center. At the south end of the building is a magnificent marble double staircase. Running along the sides of the balustrades are small mosaics with a common motif: a central disk of polished semi-precious stone. Each stone is different and each is patterned in a way suggestive of geographical features, oceans, clouds, as if the disk were a satellite image of a planet. You can see several examples of these beautiful stones on the Tangible Light book cover."
--Interview with J. Timothy Bagwell, April 2014 (Earth Consulate Publications)