Tag: aliens

Space opera!

This is a teaser from what will probably be Book 6 in the Anye Legacy series. The working title is A Habit of Providence. I’m having fun, and I thought I’d share. Enjoy!

International Space Station — Earth Orbit

The International Space Station crew crowded against a viewport, taking pictures and waving, but the mission commander was inhospitable over the radio. “We’re not supposed to talk to you.”

“I don’t know what to say to that.” Elbert tossed a token into the augmented reality workspace. “Feel free to jump in.”

Pam instantiated a virtual push-to-talk widget; it felt rubbery, rough on one side, like it was really there, a surreal artifact of the universe she’d entered. “I’m Pamela Carlson, United States Army Reserve, and we’d really like to have a conversation.”

“Miss; I have the radio. Conversation over.”

Pam nudged Elbert on the shoulder, pointing out a handwritten sign taped to the inside of the viewport, saying ‘4 bars! millietheastronaut@spacecenter.de’. “It looks like you left your cell tower emulator on.”

It took ten minutes to strike an accord with the rest of the ISS crew and get on their way.

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Thought experiment …

I wrote a 9,700 word short story, a consequence of thinking ahead to Book 6 in the Anye Legacy series. It’s now making rounds at the SciFi monthly magazines for publication.

Rendezvous at the Lazy L

In 1920s South Dakota, a small-town physician learns that a local dude ranch is a destination for offworld tourists.

Black Rock, South Dakota — 1928

Francine Suraksin dallied at the gift store’s liquor display while her husband mooned over a Winchester rifle, a rite of departure he observed each season. The concessionaire — a tough-looking ex-policeman, ethnic Anye Kopin, pelt shaved so tight you could see skin — got to the point. “Buy it. You aren’t coming next year.”

That was a fact; after seven hundred years of adventure tourism along the retracement of 84 light-years previously untraveled since the Bronze Age, a time had arrived when non-humans could no longer risk dropping into the hills for calf-roping lessons, nature hikes and steak dinners. Continue reading “Thought experiment …” →

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Naked self-promotion

My Anye Legacy eBooks are finally starting to move!

According to reviewer Josh Grant at Diabolic Shrimp, the first book is “Sci-Fi with substance” with “Great action and intrigue”. Would that Josh had read all 3 – he could have said, “Literary SF, epic plots, thoughtful storytelling for grown-ups” or something like that. Not that I would coach anybody – although if you buy the books and say nice things on Amazon, I will not be offended.

Here’s the call-to-action – I need reviews and a boost in sales ranking on Amazon, else my work will never rise in the search lists enough to be noticed.  You can help by sharing my WordPress URL. What the heck – it’s only a click, and I promise not to embarrass you. The books are written-to-inspiration, rather than written-to-market, and some people think they’re pretty good.

Thanks for reading. We need you. Keep doing it. Comments welcome.

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Goaltending – John Dyer Writes

One of my goals in writing science fiction is to promote an ambience of authenticity — which can be problematic when much of the landscape is mythological. I cover part of this ground by wrapping the fantastic in the mundane — making the story more believable in a visceral sense. Thus, in Resilient, Sattva Pala is introduced as a disembodied soul, brought across a dimensional boundary, raised in the Virtuality under a cloud of presumption that she’s an angel sent by the Gods. In counterpoint, she manifests as a complicated young woman with a confusing life and all the insecurities a person experiences from living in a real world.

In The Illusion of Gravity, a manufacturing executive invests in an emerging technology startup, but doesn’t tell his boss the project is about anti-gravity — a decision that makes sense to anyone who understands how staggeringly unimaginative senior management can be. To close the loop, I devote a lot of energy to making the science plausible — and I think seasoned SF readers will notice I’m staking out my own territory in the genre.

Continue reading “Goaltending – John Dyer Writes” →

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Back into the fray ….

Now that I have 3 books to sell, it’s time to get serious about the trimmings. Who likes this version of a story capsule for The Illusion of Gravity? Who hates it? Tell me!

Imagine what it would be like if, in a thousand years, our civilization was little changed from the way it is today. This is the condition in which the Anye find themselves, centuries after building their first nuclear power plants — a mature race still traveling about in ground cars; flying spaceplanes to orbit, but no farther; suffering from disease, war and crime, languishing in hopeful anticipation of an historic moment with the potential to change everything, a blessing that never quite arrives.

 Until, in an event overshadowed by strife and circumstance, an epochal discovery unravels the mysteries of the universe. Physics student Rivan Saraf survives an experiment gone terribly wrong — only to be pursued by foreign agents, intent on either stealing his mentor’s work or killing those involved in it. It will be at Udak, on the boundary of Vidura’s icecap, where his team transforms emerging theory into applied science, demonstrating that gravity is not what everyone thought it was.

Now the question is: Will there be enough time for the Anye to forge a new destiny before an approaching catastrophe destroys them?

Set in an exotic yet familiar world — the Anye Legacy series is a provocative and deeply textured account of a divided people confronting the possible end of their existence.

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I’m ready for my close-up.

It is seventy thousand years in the past. Vidura is three million light years from Earth. Stalled in their industrial age for centuries, the Anye are poised at the edge of space under a dying sun.

Finally, in an event overshadowed by strife and circumstance, an epochal discovery unravels the mysteries of the universe. Now it remains to be seen if there’s time for the Anye to forge a new destiny for themselves.

Vividly imagined, demonstrating finesse at wrapping the fantastic in the mundane, the Anye Legacy books venture into literary science fiction territory with strong characters and a thoughtful, well-crafted narrative.

Set in an exotic yet familiar world — a playground for adventure, romance, science, intrigue and space opera — the series is a provocative and deeply textured account of a divided people confronting the possible end of their existence.

Available now, in eBook and print, on Amazon.

Enjoy!

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Resilient is live on Amazon!

Book 3 in The Anye Legacy series – eBook edition – is available to order now.  I expect the print edition to launch tomorrow. Woo!

The final edit was less work than I feared – I threw 2 chapters away and wrote new ones to replace them, but other than that, it was mostly about finding tiny format errors. That makes 6 full editing passes from first cut to finished manuscript over a period of about a year.

Book 4 – Vacuum Forged – is in early draft with about 40,000 words, but I’ll probably finish Silken Thread first.

Here’s a shout out to my brother Mike, who read Resilient – for what must have been the third time – during the edit. It’s conceivable that I could write without his help, but the results wouldn’t be as good.

Mike says Resilient is ‘some of my finest work’ – which I might post as a review, except a) I still want you to buy the other ones, b) he’s my brother, so there could be hyperbole involved, and c) he thinks everything I’m doing is great. Yeah, Mike – I love you, too.

Later.

 

 

 

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The Third Edition is halfway published

The Illusion of Gravity – Third Edition – is available in eBook format today. You can get it on Amazon here. I uploaded the print layout this afternoon, so the paperback should pop up on their list directly. The book is now 14,000 words shorter, despite having gained more than 10,000 words of new text.

So much for getting in there to add a map and a cast of characters section. Well, it’s done … and Volume 1 of the series is a better book for it.

But, why take my word for it … did I mention you can buy it today?

Great. Keep reading. Thanks for the visit!

 

 

 

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I have no business doing this right now , but …

What I’m supposed to be doing is finishing the third edition of The Illusion of Gravity. For God’s sake, Amazon says somebody read the second edition on KU yesterday. Ock! I’m so embarrassed not to have my best work out there, and I hope they don’t give me a bad review.

But I had the strangest dream last night, which is sometimes how it starts. I wrote the idea down so I wouldn’t forget it, and if you know me at all – which probably you don’t so I’ll just tell you – I have a hard time keeping things to myself.

This might be the follow on to The Dressmaker’s Apprentice, although maybe I should finish that book before I start a second one.  No matter.

Scorch – An Eric Burton Mystery

My tale begins with me driving around St. Mary, Georgia looking for the home of Caesarus “Chet” Laikul — a physician I met at a golf course — to attend the wedding of his son.

Part of the reason I was going was to see a house known as “The Elliot” — which he described as a multi-level post-modern fantasy extravagance set in a saltwater marsh — the anchor residence in what ultimately became a failed housing development. The design, he said, was drawn up for an actor who intended to have it built in Palm Springs, but apparently that never happened. Naturally, I asked him “Which actor – Elliot Gould?”.

Continue reading “I have no business doing this right now , but …” →

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Writing is re-writing

When I scheduled Quantum Soul for pre-order on Amazon, I decided to update Book 1 in the series. There are format changes, a map of Vidura, a cast of characters and I took out a table of contents that served no purpose … but that’s not all I did.

The process required me to read the whole book again, five years after I began writing it, two years after completion, right on the cusp of publishing Books Two and Three. And wouldn’t you know that world building matures over time, and that later books have the potential of informing the content of previous ones: for instance, revealing foreshadowing opportunities and tightening up story lines.

And, in all humility, my writing is better – which it should be at this point.

If I keep my head down, a third edition of The Illusion of Gravity will debut with the release of Quantum Soul. Editing the book for the umpteenth time has been more fun than expected, and I’m very satisfied with how it’s turning out, but it’s not impossible that I’ll miss the date.

I know that some readers will be tempted to order both books at the same time, so I’m going to make a serious effort not to drop the ball. But, here’s the warning – don’t order Illusion of Gravity without making sure it’s the Third Edition. Yes, it’ll probably be listed at 99 cents during the first weeks, but take it from the author – the revision is worth waiting for.

I’ll announce the new edition here, so watch this space. Thanks for reading. We need you. Keep doing it.

 

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