Spokane: I’m going to Auntie’s Bookstore!

Looking for something to do in Spokane Tuesday Night?

I will be reading my next heart-wrenching, dystopian science fiction novel, The Light Side of the Moon, on Tuesday Night, August 18 2015 at Auntie’s Books which is located at 402 W Main Ave, Spokane, WA 99201.

The Light Side of the Moon is the second novel in the Other Systems Universe, but it is not a sequel. Fans familiar with the series know that Other Systems followed immigrants to the utopian planet, Kipos. The Light Side of the Moon is the story of those who stayed behind on Earth.

Science fiction has a long history of social commentary as humanity’s technology has advanced. Our imagination–or lack of it–can bring progress or missteps to the future of our species. The poverty shown in The Light Side of the Moon is dire, but it is also a story of redemption. And if that’s too serious…don’t worry we’ll have cookies!

Why all the politics in The Light Side of the Moon? Because we can’t escape ourselves

FYI: this is the answer to an early reader question that I received for my FAQ so this is up at the Other Systems Website too.

The Light Side of the Moon deals with serious issues that the world must decide is right or wrong.  I feel as a species, we are on a precipice of change as our electronic creations become sentient. We can choose to evolve our morals with technology or not. I look at The Light Side of the Moon as a cautionary tale if humanity chooses not to evolve. If we continue to allow adolescent greed or anger rule how we interact with people.

As the internet grows and expands, we have discovered other inventive ways to hurt eachother: trolling, swatting, revenge porn.

The internet is not the problem: we are.

Okay back to The Light Side of the Moon: some of the events that happen in the novel actually occurred when Europe sent prisoners to Australia and the Americas. (For example: women and girls attaching themselves to Correctional Officers for protection.) One might think that these events still don’t occur, but sadly they do.

Some say the adult content in the book is the sex and vulgar language, but in my opinion, the true adult content is that the world in the novel allows children to starve, refuses to pay workers a living wage, and humans still have atrocities such as child betrothal and marriage, economic slavery, and an unjust correctional system. We can go to colonize the moon, we can go to other planets, but until we face the problems we have now, they will always be with us.

That being said, even in the darkest places, there is hope for humanity, because good people exist. In my opinion, that is the story I wrote in The Light Side of the Moon. 

The Light Side of the Moon Artwork and Teaser

Since I know everyone has been waiting patiently to hear word, but I don’t have word yet, who wants a teaser for

The Light Side of the Moon?

3062

Due to overpopulation, lack of natural resources, and a surplus of political bickering, Earth is a cesspool. In Other Systems, human colonists from Kipos transported 750,000 Earthlings to inhabit their utopian planet ninety-four light years away. The Light Side of the Moon explores what happens on Earth.

Brimming with hope amid intense uncertainty and physical hardships, eleven-year-old Ella follows rumors of plentiful jobs on the moon. On roads fraught with danger, she discovers Earth is a bigger place than she ever knew. 

Lunar Colony Serenitatis as little more than a prison colony. Ella forges unlikely friendships with corrupted androids and the idealistic prison doctor, Ian Whitlatch, who champions equality and rights for inmates. She aspires to build something that the population of Earth and Luna hasn’t seen in centuries: a public school.

 

Part 1: And the Kiposians came…

Chapter 1

June 1, 3062

Spiraling, interlocked rings of ejected matter danced to a song the android could hear on the edge of her mind. Faint halos of dust extended into space from NGC 6543, also known as the Cat’s Eye Nebula. Their rhythm matched the beat of her automated heart. Harmonic knots filled her with joy.

Part 1: Illustration

A pulse invaded the android’s reverie. Radio waves assaulted her audio membranes. Garbled noise awoke her consciousness, transporting her sentience back to Earth. Background noise grew into static. She lowered the current signal, pinching off sounds. Blasts of an indistinguishable din became overlapping languages. The android sought out her native French and found “Frères et sœurs.” Brothers and sisters

She teased out more words until the message was complete. Brothers and sisters, we come in peace and in need. We have found our way home.

“The lost androids returned?” she spoke aloud. “It must be them!” All androids referred to each other as brother, sister, or sibling—whether or not they had the same programmer.

She zoomed her optics from the nebula to Earth. Her enlargement algorithms resized the sky as she flipped her crafted compound lens to a smaller setting to allow in less light. Her world was millions of pixels shifting colors. Images smoothed. She could see.

*

 

Flash Sale: Other Systems is just 99 cents this weekend…and giveaway!

If you have been thinking about checking out Other Systems, this is the weekend to do it. FRIDAY through SUNDAY, the e-book is only .99 cents on Amazon. Talk about value for your money! 460 pages for less than a dollar! AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Other-Systems-ebook/dp/B007QQDU94

Also anyone who likes either the Other Systems FB Page or my Author Page will be eligible to enter to win an OTHER SYSTEMS PRIZE PACK!

8 x 10 Cover Art Print of the new cover!
8 x 10 ORIGINAL inked drawing of Abby and Rover by me!
Button pack which has 2 1-inchbuttons: Revelation Chi and Planet Kipos!

Good Luck!

Rover, Abby, and Rockford!

Other Systems FLASH Sale and Giveaway!

If you have been thinking about checking out Other Systems, this is the weekend to do it. FRIDAY through SUNDAY, the e-book is only .99 cents. Talk about value for your money! 460 pages for less than a dollar!

Also anyone who likes either the Other Systems FB Page or my author Page will be eligible to enter to win an OTHER SYSTEMS PRIZE PACK!

Rover, Abby, and Rockford!

8 x 10 Cover Art Print of the new cover!
8 x 10 ORIGINAL inked drawing of Abby and Rover by me!
Button pack which has 2 1-inchbuttons: Revelation Chi and Planet Kipos!

Good Luck!

Pet Peeves: Writing Stupid Scientists

I am going to get this out of the way first, If you want to read a science fiction book, filled with scientists who explore planets on a survey team who act like *gasp* scientists…and FYI they NEVER put their face in a new species, take off their helmets in questionable atmosphere, or any other such nonsense… then check out Other Systems which is available on Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Kobo. Yes I just plugged my own book in the silliest way possible.

Last night, I watched When World’s Collide, 1951. It is an extremely good movie. The scientists are smart. Non-scientists get angry due to the fact that they speak in theories as they work to create a rocket before Zyra and Earth collide. It is fantastic to see them work out the problem. The characters are smart. They are determined and they are survivors.

However, the reason I have been thinking about it is because of the Martlet. I didn’t realize that I would be writing another book about the scientific process, because it is about a group of people making hypothesis and testing those hypothesis with a variety of experiments, in this case, assassins who want to live forever so they play with necromancy on the side. The main plot involves the team losing their liquidator, Eohan. Then Roark and Mira go to the underworld before he resurrects in order to claim his soul.

While that is still the plot of the novel, if I am honest, I found the plot line  lacking. Something was missing. When I reread it, I realized the draft wasn’t a book I wanted to read…so I set it aside and considered what might be missing. That was when I realized, it played out like a movie I would enjoy. The story was good, I enjoyed the characters, but it lacked the depth that I enjoy reading…I believe my readers want that too.

The battle is for knowledge and a friend’s soul. The problem was the lack of science. I admit it is psuedo-biology mixing with what we would consider alchemy and witchcraft. This group was supposed to be the best, they are supposed to be smart. So I am going back and filling in the gaps now. Mira is running all over the Realms in order to gather what she and Roark will need to make a trip into the Underworld. Kian and Roark are running experiments with life and death.  They are all stealing bodies. (Thank you, Knifeman by Wendy Moore for giving me detailed explanations on how that actually worked!) They screw up. I am a bit worried about the pacing because like Other Systems, I ended up adding a few early chapters for context in order to answer the “why” questions.

Why is Eohan important to these people?

More importantly, why do they just assume this trip to the Underworld will work? No, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is not required reading in the Assassin’s Guild.

Anyway, I realized that I hate writing stupid scientists. I also hate reading stupid scientists and seeing them in movies.

So if there is going to be scientists, I make them smart!