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Thursday, August 16, 2018

The Crying of Ross 128 by David Allan Hamilton - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway - Enter Daily!


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.”

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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.”

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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.

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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.

8 comments:

  1. Congrats 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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Rita and Victoria. If you like the excerpt, you'll love the book

    ReplyDelete