Cliff Ball's Blog, page 18

Featured on Excuse Me, Miss blog

I am featured on the Excuse Me Miss website, and it has a scene from the novel, The Usurper. I have a bunch of scenes I could've used, but I went with this one:

Scene: The one aircraft that everyone was searching for was still in the air, and flying over Pennsylvania. Some of the passengers called their relatives from the jetliner, while the hijackers were still trying to turn Flight 93 around, so that the hijackers could fly into either the Capital, or the White House, the passengers on board were doing their best to take back the airplane with the help of the remaining flight crew. One of the men managed to get through to his wife in New Jersey, and said to her, "Hey, Diane, this is Jeff. Our plane has been hijacked; do you know what's going on?"

"Thank God you're all right. We had two terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and one on the Pentagon. There are reports that your plane is missing. What's happening up there?"

"Some Arabic men killed the pilot and co-pilot, and then took over flying the plane. Those of us on board have decided to rush them, and try to wrestle control of the aircraft back from them. Can you call the City, or the State, to tell them what we're doing and they can inform the Feds. Hopefully, the Air Force won't shoot us down if they're looking for us."

"Ok, I can do that. I'll pray for you. I love you. Good luck, Jeff."

"Love you too."

Jeff hung up his cell phone, and saw that the other men on board the plane were ready to take on the terrorists. They snuck up on the three that were guarding some of the passengers, smashed them on the head hard enough for the terrorists to pass out, and the three flight attendants helped to tie up, and gag the terrorists. Jeff and the others stormed the cabin. They began beating on the terrorists, pulling them out of their seats, while one of the Americans sat down in the pilot's seat, and started flying the jet. Once they got the terrorists tied up, and gagged, Jeff sat in the co-pilot's seat, and said to the new pilot while shaking his hand, "I'm glad that's over with. My name is Jeff Harper by the way."

"Nice to meet you too, Jeff. I'm Frank Childress, retired Air Force fighter jock. I have never actually flown a commercial airliner before, but, I'm certainly going to try. I turned the transponder back on, and Jeff, do you think you can work the radio?"

Jeff put on the earphones, and heard one of the control towers at one of the airports trying to contact them. He keyed the mike, and said, "This is United Flight 93. We have a situation here, over,"

"Flight 93? It's good to hear your voice. This is Pittsburgh International Airport; I believe you're just east of us. Is this the Captain?"

"No, this is Jeff Harper, I'm a passenger, and Frank Childress is currently flying the plane, but, he isn't the pilot. We had some terrorists try to hijack this aircraft, but, we overpowered them, and now we're in control. We'd like some instructions."

"We were afraid that you guys had crashed. Have you heard about the terrorist attacks in New York and in Washington?"

"Yes, we have. Most of us called our loved ones before we took control of the airplane, and they told us. Are there any other hijacked airplanes out there we should know about?" asked Jeff.

"That's a negative, Flight 93, all commercial aircraft in US airspace has been grounded. There are Air Force jets that are looking for you, and we'll inform them that you've been found. We can guide you in for a landing here, there isn't any airborne traffic now, so you'll be able to land immediately. In ten minutes, you should be safely on the ground. We'll have the FBI, Police, and whatever else we need, get here as fast as they can. Let me talk to Mr. Childress, so we can guide him in."

The Usurper on Amazon

The prologue to my next novel

I decided to add a prologue to my next novel, since its an alternate history about the US continuing with the moon landings after the Presidential Elections of 1976, and going even further than we are at currently. The prologue is the speech President Kennedy gave at Rice University in 1962, and I thought it might be a good way to start off the novel:

President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley, and Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen:

I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor, and I will assure you that my first lecture will be very brief.

I am delighted to be here and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion.

We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a state noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.

Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation's own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension.

No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the 50,000 years of man's recorded history in a time span of but a half-century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first 40 years, except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about 10 years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this year, and then less than two months ago, during this whole 50-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power. Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.

This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward.

So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this state of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward–and so will space.

William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.

If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space.

Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolution, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it–we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding.

Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in science and industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation.

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency.

In the last 24 hours we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man's history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1 booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to 10,000 automobiles with their accelerators on the floor. We have seen the site where five F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile, assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral as tall as a 48 story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two lengths of this field.

Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were made in the United States of America and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union.

The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the 40-yard lines.

Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs.

We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.

To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead.

The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school. Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains.

And finally, the space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already created a great number of new companies, and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and skilled personnel, and this city and this state, and this region, will share greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space. Houston, your city of Houston, with its Manned Spacecraft Center, will become the heart of a large scientific and engineering community. During the next 5 years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area, to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses to $60 million a year; to invest some $200 million in plant and laboratory facilities; and to direct or contract for new space efforts over $1 billion from this center in this city.

To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year's space budget is three times what it was in January 1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined. That budget now stands at $5,400 million a year–a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. Space expenditures will soon rise some more, from 40 cents per person per week to more than 50 cents a week for every man, woman and child in the United States, for we have given this program a high national priority–even though I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us. But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun–almost as hot as it is here today–and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out–then we must be bold.

I'm the one who is doing all the work, so we just want you to stay cool for a minute. [laughter]

However, I think we're going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the Sixties. It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. It will be done during the terms of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform. But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this decade.

And I am delighted that this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of the United States of America.

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there."

Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.

Thank you.

President John F. Kennedy – September 12, 1962.

Mentioned on J.A. Konrath's blog

My novel, The Usurper, was mentioned, along with quite a few other Indie authors, on mega Indie author J.A. Konrath's blog, here: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2010/11/with-little-help.html Check out all the novels listed. All these authors would like to have more people read their novels, including myself.

I am very appreciative of the fact that Indie authors generally help each other out, and try to get each other recognized. From sharing posts about someone's work on Facebook or Twitter, to learning from other, more successful indie authors on message boards or through books they have published about how to be a successful independent author. Being an Indie author is challenging, but rewarding, and through all the hard work you do through promotion, you can see it pay off through all the sales you may get. Being an indie also has the benefit of doing things your way, and you have nobody telling you what to do or how to write your stories.

Traditional publishers, like the old media, may hate having things get out of their control, but, with the internet, everything is now in the people's hands. A person can publish on Kindle, Nook, or Smashwords fairly easily, and the paperback copy of the novel can be released a week later on Amazon if you publish it on Createspace. No more waiting around for months and months after you query a traditional publisher, and then getting rejected. Welcome to the 21st century where you can bypass the old media completely.

Interview on Kip Poe's Blog

Interview with Kip Poe's Blog

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

I would have to say that my most productive time of day to write is between 10 am and 3 pm. I don't know why that is, but, it seems like that is when I'm at my most disciplined and focused.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

I usually start out with pen and paper, because I find it easier to sit with a spiral notebook on my couch just writing out by hand whatever idea I have. When I feel the story is established enough, I go on the computer to finish the project. This goes for novels, essays, research papers, pretty much anything I write.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

I'm pretty much inspired by the fact that as an Indie author, I can write what I want, when I want, and I have no deadlines.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

I don't really set a goal of word count when I sit down to write. Most of the time, I write for as long as I have that idea fresh in my mind for that day, and then I quit. Sometimes, that's an hour, and other times, its three or four hours.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

Self published author. With my first two novels, I took whatever cover iUniverse and Virtualbookworm.com gave me, they gave me 4 templates to pick from. With The Usurper, I created my own cover with a combination of Gimp and Paint.net, since I was publishing that through Createspace. I took a picture of a fire from when I went camping earlier this year, then downloaded a US flag and a pair of eyes, and that's that cover. I recently re-did Out of Time and downloaded a public domain picture from NASA, then just added the title and author name. Eventually, I plan on buying something like Book Cover Pro to come up with better covers.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

It's kind of something that I've always wanted to be involved in since I was in elementary school, but, as of right now, I'd say it was more of a hobby than a career.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

Not currently, but, I'd really like to have a Kindle.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

Some of my favorite authors are Harry Turtledove, Eric Flint, S.M. Stirling, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, for example. I'm currently trying to read Color Me Grey by JC Phelps and Draculas by Konrath and his co-horts, when I don't have to read college textbooks, since I'm pursuing a 2nd BA.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

I have two book trailers. One was done for me to advertise Out of Time and Don't Mess With Earth, while I created my own with The Usurper. I think there are some pretty cool book trailers out there, like the Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, for instance. But, I don't think they improve sales all that much, at least not for me, and it's probably just another gimmick someone came up with, and then convinced everyone it was a good idea.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

The Usurper is about the USSR wanting to take down the US from within no matter what, so, their inside man "usurps" the Constitution, Congress, and the States when he finally gets into power. So, the title "The Usurper" seemed to make sense to me, even though it was probably the third idea I had for the title, but, once I settled on it, it seemed to be a good title.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

I'm working on another two science fiction novels. One is an almost total re-write of Don't Mess With Earth, after a lot of feedback I had that it had too much exposition, and some complained about my version of history at the beginning. So, I re-wrote the beginning, added a lot more dialogue, and the sequel I had planned for it, is now part of the novel, which is making it a full length 80K novel now, instead of around 50K. It'll be re-titled, since it's practically a different novel now. The other novel is an alternate history novel that begins with the 1976 Presidential Election, where the new President declares the US will have a moon base by 1979 and a Mars Base by 1989. The Russians decide to one-up the Americans, so they build an interstellar starship. What happens beyond that, well, I'm still working on it.

Interview with Kip Poe's Blog1: What is the most product...

Interview with Kip Poe's Blog

1: What is the most productive time of the day for you to write?

I would have to say that my most productive time of day to write is between 10 am and 3 pm. I don't know why that is, but, it seems like that is when I'm at my most disciplined and focused.

2: Do you start your projects writing with paper and pen or is it all on the computer?

I usually start out with pen and paper, because I find it easier to sit with a spiral notebook on my couch just writing out by hand whatever idea I have. When I feel the story is established enough, I go on the computer to finish the project. This goes for novels, essays, research papers, pretty much anything I write.

3: What do you draw inspiration from?

I'm pretty much inspired by the fact that as an Indie author, I can write what I want, when I want, and I have no deadlines.

4: Do you set goals for yourself when you sit down to write such as word count?

I don't really set a goal of word count when I sit down to write. Most of the time, I write for as long as I have that idea fresh in my mind for that day, and then I quit. Sometimes, that's an hour, and other times, its three or four hours.

5: Are you a published or a self published author and how do you come up with your cover art?

Self published author. With my first two novels, I took whatever cover iUniverse and Virtualbookworm.com gave me, they gave me 4 templates to pick from. With The Usurper, I created my own cover with a combination of Gimp and Paint.net, since I was publishing that through Createspace. I took a picture of a fire from when I went camping earlier this year, then downloaded a US flag and a pair of eyes, and that's that cover. I recently re-did Out of Time and downloaded a public domain picture from NASA, then just added the title and author name. Eventually, I plan on buying something like Book Cover Pro to come up with better covers.

6: What drives you to choose the career of being a writer?

It's kind of something that I've always wanted to be involved in since I was in elementary school, but, as of right now, I'd say it was more of a hobby than a career.

7: Do you own an ebook reading device?

Not currently, but, I'd really like to have a Kindle.

8: Who are some of your favorite authors and What are you reading now?

Some of my favorite authors are Harry Turtledove, Eric Flint, S.M. Stirling, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, for example. I'm currently trying to read Color Me Grey by JC Phelps and Draculas by Konrath and his co-horts, when I don't have to read college textbooks, since I'm pursuing a 2nd BA.

9: What do you think of book trailers and do you have any plans to have any?

I have two book trailers. One was done for me to advertise Out of Time and Don't Mess With Earth, while I created my own with The Usurper. I think there are some pretty cool book trailers out there, like the Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, for instance. But, I don't think they improve sales all that much, at least not for me, and it's probably just another gimmick someone came up with, and then convinced everyone it was a good idea.

10: How did you come up with the title of your latest book?

The Usurper is about the USSR wanting to take down the US from within no matter what, so, their inside man "usurps" the Constitution, Congress, and the States when he finally gets into power. So, the title "The Usurper" seemed to make sense to me, even though it was probably the third idea I had for the title, but, once I settled on it, it seemed to be a good title.

11: What are you working on now that you can talk about?

I'm working on another two science fiction novels. One is an almost total re-write of Don't Mess With Earth, after a lot of feedback I had that it had too much exposition, and some complained about my version of history at the beginning. So, I re-wrote the beginning, added a lot more dialogue, and the sequel I had planned for it, is now part of the novel, which is making it a full length 80K novel now, instead of around 50K. It'll be re-titled, since it's practically a different novel now. The other novel is an alternate history novel that begins with the 1976 Presidential Election, where the new President declares the US will have a moon base by 1979 and a Mars Base by 1989. The Russians decide to one-up the Americans, so they build an interstellar starship. What happens beyond that, well, I'm still working on it.

Announcing Shattered Earth, a science fiction novel

Shattered Earth is my fourth novel.

What it's about:

Advanced humans, called Terrans, leave Earth when its threatened by a massive meteor. The remaining humans on Earth fall back into primitiveness. The advanced humans, and a group of aliens, the Ragnor, involve Earth in an interstellar war. Thousands of years later, the humans of Earth decide to do something about this. Interstellar politics will never be the same again once Earth is done with their revenge.

These Terrans involve themselves throughout human history. Some play as King Arthur and Merlin. Another is a scientist, whose name is Galileo, and he gets into all sorts of trouble for challenging official orthodoxy about the sun, the Earth, and which one is revolving around the other. Then, we have Amelia Earhart, who has a very valid reason for disappearing. When an alien spaceship gets shot down over Roswell in 1947, President Truman orders the creation of Area 51, Project Blue Book and Sign, and has the United States embark on a plan that will culminate 60 years in the future. Nothing will ever be the same again when the United States gets involved in interstellar politics. But, the whole plan backfires when Earth ends up the worse for wear over it. Other species find out what Earth did, since no one else was bold enough to even try, so they want to help bring down the Ragnor once and for all. The new President of the United States imagines a galactic federation or a republic, but, none of the other species wants anything to do with it. Once they destroy the Ragnor's technology, they leave the Ragnor to ponder why all the other species hated them enough to attack them. Will the galaxy remain at peace?

Currently can be found as an e-book on Smashwords, Barnes and Noble's Nook, and coming soon on Kindle.

Bargain eBooks and Kindleboards Book of the Day

As of 10/23/2010, all three of my novels are featured on the Bargain eBooks website. Please check it out!

On Sunday and Monday, the 24th and 25th, The Usurper will be the Kindleboards Book of the Day.  Here is the thread for the novel. Please check that out. Thanks!

New cover to Out of Time

I decided to update the paperback, and uploaded it to Createspace, which should be available soon. The original was published through iUniverse in 2008, but, I've updated it since then, and its been the newer version in e-book form for a little over a year. Here is the brand new cover. Stay tuned for updates!

The story behind "Out of Time"

This was posted two years ago when I published Out of Time, and I thought I'd re-post it, and share it with everyone. Next after this will be Don't Mess With Earth

So, you're probably wondering how I came up with the story of Out of Time.

I started out with thinking the whole US government-alien UFO landing conspiracy theories would make a good story. Then, I saw the movie Titanic in 1997 and thought it would be cool if I could include it, so it turned into a time travel story. My villain, at first, was a guy who turned traitor, and sold technology secrets to a terrorist organization. I had him hijack the timeship, but he thought he was going to 1941 to help Japan attack Pearl Harbor, instead he ends up in Roswell 1947. I didn't think this character worked too well as the main antagonist, so I created a bigger bad guy, who pulled the strings from 50 years further in the future.

This antagonist ends up going back in time himself, and impersonates J. Edgar Hoover. I have Hoover stay in control of the FBI because he knows where all the bodies are buried and what skeletons all the politicians have in their closets since he is from the future. He uses his knowledge to try and stop the time travelers, by sending teams of his own to where Hawking and the others are supposed to be. Eventually, it's discovered that this Hoover had a hand in trying to assassinate JFK. At the end, you find out just why Hoover is determined to stop Hawking.

Other chapters deal with Anne Frank and the time travelers attempt to keep her from dying in the Concentration Camp she ends up in. I have my time travelers visit JFK because I was into the whole conspiracy about there being more than one shooter in Dallas that November day. I still think there is more to the whole assassination of the President than the government will ever let us know, but then again, maybe it was Oswald by himself who did it.

I have my time travelers even attempt to fix Apollo 13 and the Challenger shuttle. The only problem is, that when they return to their present, they discover changes they never imagined. I have them debate about whether they should fix the mistakes or just leave it alone. The message here being, should time travel ever be attempted and what about the grandfather paradox?

I'm really into American history, so that's why I chose certain times in US history to start with. One of these days, when I'm a much better novelist, I will add more chapters or just add more to the chapters that are in the novella already, because I think it needs more meat to the story. Of course, I could just write a bunch of sequels, I don't know yet. I just know that my next novel won't take me ten plus years to finish, because I just nitpicked this one to death, and decided to publish it because I was just tired of looking at it and messing with it. From the various people who have read it so far, who knew how I wrote in high school, have been pleasently surprised by how well the story flows and how interesting it is. Hopefully, that translates into a lot of people wanting to buy a copy.

I'm currently working on another novel that I once submitted to the Writer's of the Future contest as a short story. Stay tuned for that, once I have it completely written, I will post what that novel is about.

The perfect blurb for The Usurper

I've been struggling with coming up with the perfect blurb for The Usurper. My other two novels, since they were science fiction, were fairly easy to come up with a description. I've gone through 4, maybe 5 different product descriptions/blurbs for this novel, mainly because I'm not really happy with any of them. I'm posting the ones I've put up, and if anyone who reads this has a suggestion, or a favorite blurb, then please leave a comment.

First Blurb, which has had three different variations of this, but is essentially the same as this one below:

Ever wonder what would happen if our worst fears were realized and we elected someone who was willing to destroy the USA, even if he was destroyed himself? The Usurper is that novel.

The Usurper is a fictional account of what would happen if the Soviet Union and KGB were given the chance to take down the United States from within. They use the American political system, education system, terrorism, and commit environmental disasters to achieve these goals.

The Soviet Union and the KGB refuse to let the purging of communists in the United States government by Senator Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee deter them. Soviet Premier Khrushchev authorizes the KGB to embark on an ambitious, decades long plan to destroy the United States from within through the corruption of American politicians, the American education system, terrorism, and environmental disasters.

Gary Jackson, the main character, is the fulfillment of the KGB plan to destroy the United States from within. They raise him from birth to hate everything about the United States, indoctrinate him, and introduce him to terrorists across the world, where the KGB dictates all terrorist attacks. When Gary is a teenager, he is sent to the United States, with his fake birth certificate, to assimilate and begin his mission. Nothing will deter his goals of completely and utterly destroying the United States. When the Soviet Union dissolves, he is given a choice, and he decides to continue with the mission. A terrorist organization ends up filling in the gap left by the absent KGB, and they, together with Gary, conspire to destroy everyone in the United States who doesn't agree with them.

2nd Blurb, which was done by http://www.conservativemonitor.com/bl...

A new novel by Cliff Ball, The Usurper has an interesting premise. What if the Soviet KGB had been undermining American society for years by destroying our education system, creating environmental disasters, and corrupting our politicians?

Sounds like communist conspiracy theory? Well, it does make good fiction. It is interesting that fiction, in order to hold our interest must have a viable, tangible plot that relates well with reality. It is kind of like the old saw that a good joke must contain a grain of truth.

Cliff Ball's premise contains a whole lot of possibility for conjecture. There is little doubt that the Soviets were actively working for years to affect U.S. politics. Perhaps they succeeded better than they knew. Exporting communist ideology has definitely had a negative effect on Western society, undermining the work ethic and destroying free markets – resulting in a decline in prosperity for the majority. It is like the Rush used to say, the best way to defeat our economic enemies is to export liberalism to them. The Soviets did that to us.

Yes, the Soviets were defeated by the U.S. economic juggernaut. However, the old Soviets may get the last laugh yet.

3rd blurb and most current version:

The KGB and the USSR embarks on a plan to take down the US from within through the use of terrorism. No matter what the terrorists believe, as long as they have a problem with the Western powers and the United States, the KGB backs them, along with a super rich Spaniard who can't stand the USA. Once the Soviet Union dissolves, Al Qaeda fills in that power vacuum and the inside man that the KGB has who will eventually bring down the US, sides with them, and the US ends up never being the same again. A small group of resistance fighters, led by one of the passengers of United Flight 93(who survive in this novel), aim to take down the now President of the United States.

What do you think? Which one is the best? Any good suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!