Alien Plague by Chris Koehler - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hey, lovelies!!  It gives me great pleasure today to host Chris Koehler and his new book, “Alien Plague,” here on FAB!!  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 $15 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!  Also, come back daily to interact with Chris and to increase your chances of winning!!

Thanks for stopping by!!  Wishing you all lots of good luck in this fabulous giveaway!!

Alien Plague

by Chris Koehler

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE:  Science Fiction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Dr Avery Hutton lives in good times. All of humanity now lives under the Global republic, a democratic government that works hard to protect the rights of their citizens, expand orbital infrastructure and explore space. The last of which is helped by the relatively new Warp Drive, allowing probes to travel to and from the nearest stars over the course of a few years.

This is part of Avery’s job, helping organize the missions form the ground, his specialty being the analysis of microorganism form other star systems. But this most recent mission will change everything. For while every return mission previously had gone well, and few issues were observed, this time one of the returning samples is a bit… nastier than any previous sample. This time something has returned that could wipe out all life on Earth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT ONE:

“You’re worried management has gotten complacent?” I asked “And this will be the one time it matters?”

Diane nodded.

“Also, the Beta Strain does appear to be particularly tough,” added Tone.

I nodded in agreement. It took an insane amount of effort to kill Beta Strain microbes. They just don’t seem to care, still active in environments where comparable Earth microbes might try to escape with suspended animation. They survived in suspended animation where Earth microbes, or the microbes of the other strains we found, died.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GUEST POST:

World Building Alien Plague

I think world-building is an idea that I, as a writer, sort of feel is mostly background. But there are times in writing this book Alien Plague that I became aware of it. In general, I like to sort of let the world feel organic and don’t think about it too much. However, this was not something that always worked, and I found that rewrites helped in the world-building as much as any plan from the get-go.

My first goal was the world this occurs in. I wanted it to be a world that had some access to space flight, and some Faster Than Light (FTL) abilities. I wanted Earth to be under the domain of a single government, and that life was peaceful. In early versions, I had the Earth, and everything else, under the control of the United Nations. This was inspired by many works; you may recognize where such a feat was done. A similar approach is used in The Expanse. However, in editing, I decided that I did not like that, and gave control to a new agency called The Global Republic. I decided that while I liked the idea of a one-world state, as we often see in sci-fi, I wanted it to have its own name.

The Global Republic is a government that, while not perfect, is pretty good at most things, I mentioned in passing that soldiers had not seen much action in decades. Thus in the events of the Book, they were stressed out as much as anyone, as they had not expected to face such a dire situation, and were previously a glorified natural disaster response unit. I confess that this was not something I showed as much as I wanted to. I hope to do better on my second or third book. I think I was partly inspired by the first Xanth book. Where it is mentioned that soldiers hold mostly ceremonial roles. I wanted a similar feel for my own soldiers. This is a world that knew peace for a very long time, in it the military became a bit redundant.

From real life, I was inspired by Anti-vaxxers as an element for my story. Mainly as a problematic one. In this case, part of what goes wrong happens because people in this world have such good medicine that they no longer respect diseases. I feel that this is similar to Anti-vaxxers, at least back in 2016 when I was writing the first draft. They live in a world without diseases, and so are more careless when it comes to disease.

I know that there is oil in Antarctica. Inspired by real-life oil crises I figured that it might be possible that future generations may attempt to colonize Antarctica and extract its oil. From real life as well as some Sci-Fi I then introduced fusion into the equation. Oil becomes obsolete. I think that there are enough desolate cities from where business moved away to imagine what happens when a society based around the extraction of a single resource finds it becoming obsolete.

The final bit of world-building was the titular plague. Back when I was in college, a friend of mine asked how you would deal with a disease with a different genome than we had. This largely inspired the entire story. For this disease, I was inspired by many real diseases. Consider the book The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston, as my inspiration here. Give it a nasty effect or two, make it airborne, and presto.

Ultimately worldbuilding is a complicated subject. What worked for me may not work for you. But, like most authors, I was inspired by both the real world and by fiction. Combined with my own imagination and I can create a world for my story to be set in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR BIO:

I am a new author and this is my first book. I started working on this story around 2016 and have been refining it ever since.

I first got interested in writing years ago, I took part in a junior writing fare, and wrote as a volunteer from a teenage perspective at a local newspaper. My parents loved Science Fiction and Fantasy and passed on that love to me.

While this is my first book, I hope it’s not my last, I hope you enjoy it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CONNECT WITH CHRIS:

Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/CKoehlerAuthor

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16166793.Chris_Koehler

Goodreads Book Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61425934-alien-plague

Amazon Author Page:

https://amzn.to/3B5H8Jk

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BOOK BUY LINKS:

Amazon US Kindle eBook:

https://amzn.to/3Bm6Nh1

Amazon US Paperback:

https://amzn.to/3zk77v2

Amazon US Audiobook:

https://amzn.to/3RRrUNW

Amazon CA Kindle eBook:

https://www.amazon.ca/Alien-Plague-Christopher-Koehler-ebook/dp/B09ML694GW

Amazon CA Paperback:

https://www.amazon.ca/Alien-Plague-Christopher-Koehler/dp/B09QMVSD4N

Amazon CA Audiobook:

https://www.amazon.ca/Audible-Alien-Plague/dp/B0B4V47Y2J

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GIVEAWAY INFO:

Chris will be awarding a $15 Amazon OR Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner’s Choice) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is 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 fabulous community outreach projects and 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.