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.

*

 

Other Systems #2 has a title….

As many of you know, I’ve struggled with the title for Other Systems #2 for a long time. As it wasn’t really a sequel but a companion novel, I really shouldn’t even be referring to it as Other Systems #2.

This novel focuses on what happened to Earth after the Kiposi left the space elevators. It spans a decade as it follows Eleanor Kessler Rao as she runs away from a hastily arranged marriage and works her way across the world to be part of the building of an “utopian” colony on Luna.

I played with words that meant Other such as:

“Other Path” and  “Divergent Paths” or “Divergent”

then I worked with the words that meant elevator such as

“Lift” “Reach”  or “Across the Reach”

There were plenty that had to do with “stars” or “moon”

“Stairway to the Stars” “Reach to the Stars”

“Lunar Modification” “Lights from Luna” or
“Will We See Lights from the Lunar City?” which is actually a question posed by Ellie in the novel.

I even considered words that meant utopia:

“The Outpost of Dreams” “The Colony of Heaven” but none of them seemed to fit.  47 Titles in all. 

The other night, I was working on it again. I got somewhat frustrated so I read Dennis my list. And as I was reading the part that played with the words “Light” and “Dark”, Dennis had an inspiration. He came up with this title: The Light Side of the Moon

The colony is placed on the light side of the moon and I feel it works for the utopian dreams of the colonists as well. So I am going to stop calling it Other Systems #2 and begin to refer to it as

THE LIGHT SIDE OF THE MOON

Other Systems Virtual Book Tour!

Here is the first part of the schedule for the Other Systems Virtual Book Tour.  I hope you check out some of these great blogs.

http://caughtinasnyderwebb.blogspot.com/  PROMO STOP MAY 21st

http://candaceknoebel.wordpress.com/ INTERVIEW with Candace Knoebel MAY 24th

http://www.rosebuz.com/  GUEST POST: Writing about Technology in Science Fiction Novels  May 25th

http://booksandtales.blogspot.co.uk/ INTERVIEW July 10th

http://frankieblooding.wordpress.com/  REVIEW July 19th

 

 

PS Though not part of the official tour. YA Bookstop is having a monthlong Dystopian Novel Month so  http://yabookstop.wordpress.com/ GUEST POST: Creating and Researching Technologies in a Dystopian Setting  June 15th

 

 

Other Systems is out in Paperback!

My science fiction novel, Other Systems, is now available in paperback!

Right now you can purchase it at

Amazon

or

Barnes&Noble

Summary:

Without an influx of human DNA, the utopian colony on Kipos has eleven generations before it reaches failure. Earth is over ninety light years away. Time is short.

On the over-crowded Earth, many see opportunity in Kipos’s need. After medical, intelligence, and physiological testing, Abby and her younger siblings, Jin and Orchid, are offered transportation. Along with 750,000 other strong immigrants, they leave the safety of their family with the expectation of good jobs and the opportunity for higher education.

While the Earthlings travel to the new planet in stasis, the Kiposi, terrified the savages will taint their paradise, pass a series of indenture and adoption laws in order to assimilate them.

When Abby wakes up on Kipos, Jin cannot be found. Orchid is ripped from her arms as Abby is sold to a dull-eyed man with a sterilized wife. Indentured to breed, she is drugged and systematically coerced. To survive, Abby learns the differences in culture and language using the only thing that is truly hers on this new world: her analytical mind. In order to escape her captors, she joins a planetary survey team where she will discover yet another way of life.

• ISBN-13: 9781937546144
• Publisher: 48fourteen
• Pages: 404

If you want more information, read deleted scenes, or see other extras: check out http://other-systems.com