Damon Alan's Blog, page 9

Work in Progress Update

An update on book 4 of the Dark Seas series.

I have 25 chapters written in first draft, and the story is rolling along quite well. I have to be honest, I’m not always sure what directions things are going to go. Even if I do have an idea, sometimes the characters play out in such a way that the path changes.

This book has had a lot of that. I am loving writing it. I can’t wait until it’s done and you can read it. At just under 30,000 words, I’m officially 3/7ths of the way to my goal, which is generally a 70,000 word novel.

I’m still seeing about 9 books in this series. Sarah Dayson is about to get back into the game of warfare, fighting the enemy she fights so well.

I leave you with this awesome planetscape (not my work) to make you think of space and the wonders that await us.

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An elevator to the sky

This is speculative at this point, of course, but a space elevator really would change everything about who we are as a species.

A day on a box rising up a cable from the ground to geosynchronous orbit, where you would board a truly interplanetary spacecraft that never touches atmosphere. A liner, like the ocean liners of the early 20th century, but with weightlessness instead of luxuriantly decked out ballrooms.

Then you’d fly to your destination at another location, say Mars or even maybe the Moon. On Mars you’d dock with another geosynchronous station and take the Martian space elevator down to the surface for your visit or to join your new colony. On the Moon you’d simply take a shuttle down to the surface and conduct your business.

Space travel would become no more problematic than crossing the Atlantic was for steamships. And if the EM Drive actually works, the timing would become something we could live with as well.

I feel I was born two generations too early to be part of the true blossoming of the space age. But at least I get to see it born.

Elevator to the Sky

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We’ve damaged what science is.

I’ve seen an alarming trend in science lately, which is simply this. If you observe something, immediately make something up that fits the bill and run with it. It worked for the guys that “discovered” Dark Energy, they were given the Nobel Prize in physics.

But if you were to scroll through my old posts here, you would find a post from me that says, “Dark energy doesn’t exist.” The reason I said that is simply. Skepticism. Which is what science in the last 25 years seems to have lost. Global Climate Change? CHICKEN LITTLE! Supernovae 1a measurements aren’t quite right? CHICKEN LITTLE! The very universe itself is expanding in such a way that space will rip our very atomic structure apart in 20 billion years.

Nonsense.

A trillion years from now your descendants will be huddled around the dying light of the remaining red dwarf stars, trying to figure out how to fight entropy, not ripping space.

So real science does this. It, regardless of grants or politics or religious reasons searches out the truth and shares it. Galileo did real science. He opposed the Catholic church to do it. Real science has been done for millennia. But recently we have rockstar pretenders, like Bill Nye or real scientists like Neil DeGrasse Tyson who speak about things outside their fields as if they were experts.

And this is wrong.

Turns out I was very likely right about Dark Matter. And may well be on other issues that I, with a skeptical scientific mind, don’t consider proven.

Have a look, and remember, be skeptical. It’s part of what the Scientific Method is about. Look at the numbers yourself. If one “faction” for the lack of a better word is demonizing the other side, making up studies, and generally crowing about how they’re right and the matter is settled, I promise you, it’s not settled.

The Universe is JUST fine.

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Book 4 Excerpt

Book 4 of the Dark Seas series, Stennis, is about 1/3 done in first draft. Here is a sample, keep in mind it’s first draft.

___________________________________________

“I know who the traitor in your fleet is,” Alarin said.

That got her attention. She’d been prepared to let that matter drop, because there really wasn’t any way to find out who the guilty party was without a mind scanner… but then Alarin was a mind scanner in his own right.

“I’m all ears,” she said.

“I was standing at the back of the ceremony, when I caught a particularly strong emotion from the center of the crowd,” the adept began. “I focused in on that, because the feeling didn’t match the event we were attending.”

“Alarin. Who is it?”

“So I found the individual, and against all rules I explored their thoughts as they had them,” the adept continued, dodging her question for the moment. “The emotion was sorrow, regret. The person thinking it realized that a lot of people who were attending the event had lost friends and loved ones because of his actions.”

Sarah grabbed the man by his shirt. “If you don’t tell me who we’re talking about, I’m going to punch you in the nose.”

“It’s ,” Alarin said. “But he didn’t think Orson would be violent. He wasn’t aware of the monster he was sleeping with. The plan had been to force you to step down and stop any more fighting.”

“That makes no sense,” Sarah said. She punched her commlink.

“Ops.”

“This is Admiral Dayson. Send four marines to intercept at the shuttle port before he returns to . Arrest him and hold him until I say otherwise.”

“He thought he was doing the right things for the people,” Alarin said.

“There can only be one commander,” Sarah replied. “Only one. Everyone else follows that person without question. Or people die. In this case thousands died, because thought he had a better plan.”

“I see your point. Merik was of similar thought, although she tended to just burn her challengers alive toward the end, not arrest them.”

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Pix from the book signing

A few weekends ago, on October 8th, I was at a book signing. My lovely wife was with me, we both went as characters from the Dark Seas Series. She as Fleet Captain Sarah Dayson, myself as Commander Franklin Gilbert. It was a lot of fun, but the costumes were HOT. So they were temporary, sadly.

I met a lot of great people, and discussed the series with a few fans. I had a few people pick up my thriller, Serum, as well.

I learned a few things. The first is that costumes are hot. I learned that I need a better backdrop for these events. And I clearly need to drop some pounds if I’m going to pretend to be in a space navy.

 

This was a lot of fun. In time, as the series advances, we’ll make more costumes based on characters, some you’ve seen, some you haven’t yet.

See those combat boots I’m wearing? Size 14. Do you know how hard it is to find size 14 combat boots? It turns out not at all. I searched Amazon, and there they were. Normally it’s pretty ridiculous the searching for shoes I do. But I found these easy. Which was awesome.

 

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It Takes a Writer. It Takes a Reader.

I’ve been feeling empowered since I spoke to a man on the phone yesterday. Isaac. I don’t even know his last name.


 


I talked to him because he has read my space opera.


 


He told me about how he’d recommended it to his parents and friends. Told me that he wanted to do art about the spacecraft in my series, and that he scooped up each book in the series as soon as he found it available.


 


The interesting thing is he is the guy who worked on my air conditioning unit over a year ago. While he worked we chatted, and he told me he loved sci-fi. So I gave him a copy of The Anvil in print.


 


He fixed the AC, left, and I didn’t hear from him for a year. But then, as he had my number from the service call, he called me out of the blue. He told me that he wished I used less profanity in my first book as I barely used any in the following sequels. I agreed with him. He told me a myriad of things that made my head bigger than it already is.


 


I invited him to the event this weekend, in hopes of shaking his hand. We also discussed having lunch at some point.


 


The reason I’m sharing this isn’t to brag. It’s to share a lesson I just learned.


 


As authors each time we can personally touch the lives of our readers we make an impact. On them and ourselves.




 


They want to live in the universes we create. They want the excitement, or the dream, or the meaning that our characters live. They want the hope for the future, the beauty of the past, or the intensity of the moment.


 


And by respecting their desire to share in those moments, we can make lifelong fans, or maybe even friends.


 


I’m very introverted. Unhealthily so. It’s weird, I can talk to a crowd of 100,000 without so much as a flinch. But face to face, person to person with a person I don’t know is hard for me. I can moderate a group or lead a rally without issue, but getting personal with a stranger is very hard.


 


I, and if you have the same problem my fellow authors, you need to get around that problem. Because it turns out that our readers don’t just care about our stories. They want us to be part of their lives as well. And I think it’s paramount to our success that we try. Not in Stephen King’s Misery sense, always be safe. But the readers are not only the best way for us to get the word out about our books, they are the reason we create our works in the first place.


 


I care about the experience I bring to my readers. And they, so far, have seemed to sense that.


 


And it’s amazing what positive interaction from a fan can bring to your mind. I smiled like a Cheshire cat all day.


 


Let that amazement translate into more words. I wrote last night. I want to write every night I can. It has become my main calling, weaving this universe that Sarah Dayson inhabits, or the messed up world that Mica and Laura Everitt defend. And it’s reader feedback that validates it all.


 


Now if I could just get people to leave reviews on Amazon.

A missed Star Trek opportunity

So once again Star Trek has predicted the future. We now have “Alcosynth”, which is basically everything “Synthohol” was on Star Trek. All the good times, none of the hangover.

I’ll probably wait a few years before I give it a try. Because I don’t want to grow a third arm unexpectedly.

But check this out, it’s really cool.

Alcosynth

Not only that, but another group just teleported a particle several kilometers. Quantum teleportation. Not exactly the transporter, but remember, those weren’t in Enterprise. So they didn’t come around until later anyway. I’m like Bones in regard to them. I wouldn’t use one. I’m not a fan of the idea of being disassembled, then reassembled in another location. I’ll pass. But Synthohol? Heck yeah, I’ll try that out at some point.

 

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Dark Matter… or not

I have never been a fan of the Dark Matter or Dark Energy hypotheses. They both feel like a made up boogeyman to cover the fact that astronomy just doesn’t know what’s going on.

And, thankfully, here is something that’s a challenge to the dark matter theories.

Dark Matter might not be real.

I don’t think it’s real, folks. I never have. And you won’t find it in my writings.

 

 

 

I’m thinking this article explains why spiral galaxies behave as they do. Because they’re simply a lot more massive than we thought them to be. And I’d guess that’s a feature unique to spirals. That elliptical and irregular galaxies have had that halo torn away by the gravitational interaction that made them elliptical or irregular in the first place.

The Hubble Telescope is AWESOME.

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Book Signing

I’ll be at the Jmars Inc./Courtney Literary book signing on Saturday, October 8 between 11am and 2pm.

I’ll have my 5 in print books there for you to pick up if you like. And I’m always happy to discuss the genres I write or entertain any ideas you might have.

Feel free to stop by! There is a rumor there will be a bowl of chocolate on my table, and I, at least, will be having some Laughing Cat Sweet Baby Red. I might even pour you a cup if you’re nice.

Indie Author Day Book Signing

 

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Stuff in the sky

We don’t really notice things that are reasonably static. When I first moved to Colorado, I marveled at the mountains every day. Now there are days when I don’t even notice them. I thought that would never happen.

We don’t notice our Moon much either, although it’s a spectacular satellite. Other than Pluto-Charon, not other moon in the Solar System is as big relative to its planet as the Moon is to Earth.

But our system could be a lot different, and in my opinion life on Earth would still probably be here. Humans? Probably not, but it’s hard to say.

I like this video because it helps me imagine Ember in the sky over Refuge. It would be static and unmoving, because Refuge is tidally locked to the gas giant. Which makes me wonder. If I lived there, would I get to the point where I wouldn’t even see Ember in the sky? That’s a remarkable thought, isn’t it?

The film is in Russian, but it has subtitles.

 

Can you imagine that? I think Ember would be about 1/2 the size of Jupiter in the video. Because Refuge orbits three times as far from Ember as Jupiter is shown from us above, but Ember is about 40K larger in diameter.

 

That’s not all that is cool from the Russians. Here is a video of different stars in place of our Sun.

 

 

 

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