Hi lovelies! It gives me
great pleasure today to host David Allan Hamilton and his new book, “The Crying
of Ross 128”! For other stops on his
Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of
the images in this post.
Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $50
Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!! Also,
come back daily to interact with David and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping by!
Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous giveaway!
The Crying of Ross 128
by David Allan Hamilton
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GENRE: Science Fiction
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BLURB:
America
has splintered into various independent republics after a brutal civil war.
Against this backdrop, space exploration is on the cusp of new technological
breakthroughs. Jim Atteberry, a mid-30s English professor at City College in
San Francisco, spends his free time listening for alien signals on the amateur
radio astronomy bands. His life as a single parent to his precocious daughter
is turned upside-down when he hears an intelligent cry for help from the Ross
128 system and realizes we are not alone. This signal unleashes a chain of
events pitting Jim and his brilliant, mysterious colleague Kate against a
power-hungry scientist with his own secret agenda. Jim must learn the truth
about the signal, the strange disappearance of his wife Janet, and the meaning
of true love before it’s too late in this first contact thriller.
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EXCERPT ONE:
"How
long does it take a subspace signal to travel from Ross 128 to Earth?" he
asked.
The
machine responded verbally. “Twenty-two minutes, 13.4 seconds with current
subspace technology.”
Atteberry
recorded the time on his notepad, then looked at the screen. “Is there any
history of alien signals coming from Ross 128?”
“Negative.
Although in 2017, unknown signals from that system were received at the
University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. They were later dismissed as Terran
satellites.”
Ghost
signals. That happened sometimes due to the multitude of satellites orbiting Earth
back then, and now around the moon and Mars. Signals would bounce and echo off
them all the time, like ripples in a pond bouncing off rocks and plants.
“Speculate
as to the origin of this signal if it’s a ghost.”
“Ready.”
“Proceed.”
“If
the signal is a ghost, it is most likely an artifact of the Second American
Civil War circa 2070. The Northern Democratic States and the Confederate States
often used ghost signals as decoys to confuse enemy communications.”
So
that’s it, Atteberry thought, he’s been chasing old civil war ghosts. Yet the
question of subspace remained, and, as far as he knew, neither side in the
civil war used the emerging FTL technology. It wasn’t sufficiently developed
until after the new republics separated.
“What
is the likelihood that these Ross 128 signals are satellite ghosts?”
“0.02
percent.”
“What’s
the probability the true source is the Ross 128 system itself?”
“74.8
percent.”
Atteberry
leaned forward on his workbench and realized the results were inconclusive.
“What’s the probability that these signals are naturally occurring... a pulsar
or a quasar for example?”
“Zero
percent. The signals are artificially produced with slight variations in
pattern frequency, suggesting unknown transmission methodology.”
“Human?”
“Improbable.
There are no known humans in the Ross 128 space.”
Atteberry
feared asking the next question; he swallowed hard. “Alien?”
“99.8
percent probable.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUEST POST:
The Crying of Ross 128: A Backgrounder
Behind
every story is a thought...something that triggered the grand “What if...?” and
propelled the writer on a whirlwind creative tour.
I
suppose this is one such example as well, so let me share a bit of the
background to my novel The Crying of Ross 128, and I’ll attempt to do so
without spoiling the plot for anyone.
The
story takes place in the year 2085. America as we know it today no longer
exists. In the mid-2070s, the nation underwent a second civil war, this time as
before, along geographic and political lines. The country is now divided into
the Northern Democratic Union, the United Confederate States, and three
independent republics in California, Washington, and Oregon.
Against
this backdrop, the world is on the cusp of major technological breakthroughs in
the area of space exploration, colonization and travel. The issue for the Earth
is whether it can survive its violent history and current instability to
achieve great new ambitions.
That’s
the setting.
But
the idea for the story actually came from a real-life story that happened in
2017. In March of that year, scientists at the Arecibo radio astronomy center
with the University of Puerto Rico, detected what they thought was an
extraterrestrial signal. Indeed, that’s what this large antenna array is all
about: finding life elsewhere in the universe. So there was much excitement
over this as you can imagine.
Unfortunately,
they determined a short time later that the signal was not from E.T. or any
other bug-eyed alien: it was of human origin.
For
me, that sparked an idea. What if a future radio astronomer detected an alien
signal, a cry for help from somewhere out there? What would we do?
In
fact, there are international protocols in place for dealing with alien
signals, right up to alien contact, and there are definitely two schools of
thought. One group believes we should immediately try contacting the aliens,
that it’s our duty and responsibility as citizens of the universe. The other
group says no, let’s keep quiet and not advertise the fact that we’re here
until we know what their intentions are. This latter group is the “play it
safe” group.
So if
you google protocols for alien encounters, you’ll come across a whole list of
things we’re supposed to do. These protocols, however, are only suggestions. No
one could actually enforce them.
Which
brings me to my protagonist, Jim Atteberry. He’s an English teacher at City
College in San Francisco. One night, he’s listening in on the amateur radio
astronomy bands—a hobby of his—wondering if he might detect an alien signal
somewhere. He happens to be using a new type of filter that can pull signal patterns
out of apparent random noise. Well, this is exactly what happens. He does here
a signal and, after verifying its origin and trying to figure out what it says,
he determines it is an alien cry for help from the Ross 128 dwarf star system.
Atteberry
is in that group that believes all information should be shared with everyone.
He’s completely open source. But one particular scientist at the Terran Science
Academy is not. Dr. Marshall Whitt believes we must keep this quiet, at least
until we confirm what the alien’s intention is.
I
said earlier that I don’t want to spoil the plot for anyone, so I won’t say
more than this other than to leave you with a quote from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of
War”.
“All
warfare is based on deception. Hence, when
we
are able to attack, we must seem unable; when
using
our forces, we must appear inactive; when
we
are near, we must make the enemy believe we
are
far away; when far away, we must make him
believe
we are near.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO:
David Allan Hamilton is a teacher, writer, and
multipotentialite. He is a graduate of Laurentian University (BSc. Applied
Physics) and The University of Western Ontario (MSc. Geophysics). He lives in
Ottawa where he facilitates writing workshops and teaches. When not writing,
David enjoys riding his bike long distances, painting, and knitting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONNECT WITH DAVID:
Website:
Email:
davidallanhamilton00@gmail.com
Facebook:
Twitter:
Instagram:
LinkedIn:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle:
Amazon Paperback:
Amazon Hardcover:
Barnes and Noble:
Kobo:
The Book Depository Paperback:
BAM! Books-A-Million Paperback:
BAM! Books-A-Million Hardcover:
Indigo Paperback:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
David will be awarding a $50 Amazon or B/N GC to
a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just
helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored
by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish
Promotions. Prizes are given away by the
sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish
Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your hosting!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the tour and thank you for the opportunity to read about another great book. With so many readers in my family, always great to hear about more choices I think they'd enjoy reading.
ReplyDeleteThanks James!
DeleteI liked the excerpt.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rita and Victoria. If you like the excerpt, you'll love the book
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing :)
ReplyDelete