Karl K. Gallagher's Blog, page 6
February 4, 2017
ConDFW
My panels are:
Friday, 5pm: Indie Publishing from Ground Zero
How does an aspiring author put a book on the market? Our panelists give you one possible way of many. This will cover publishing, cover art and design, and even audiobook licensing, recording and editing.
Friday, 6pm: Preparing for a Future in Space
Popular ideas in the past of a Moonbase have faded over the years. The most recent idea is for a Mars base. But can a person safely travel there? Can the human body handle weightlessness for that long of a ride? Our scientists take a hard look at the future of space and debate our place in it.
Saturday, 12pm Autographs (Dealers Room)
Saturday, 1pm: The Logistics of Space Travel
It’s easy to dream about flying between the stars. But what do you need to stock to be able to make it back home? Somehow I think crates of MREs will get old after a while… Our panelists debate what is needed to travel the stars in traditional Space Opera…and what needs to be included when writing about it.
Saturday, 4pm: Reading
Sunday, 1pm: The Science of Space Flight
What is the state of flight these days? Pictures of possible space ships notwithstanding, lets get down to brass tacks on what can and can not be done right now. Our scientists will mull over these issues and answer questions.
Sunday, 3pm: The World of the Expanse
One of the hotter new shows to come out of the SyFy channel was “The Expanse”, based off of the novel series by James S. A. Corey. A fascinating show set in a grittier and more realistic future where war can be touched off by a misunderstanding and secrets are the key. Our panelists talk about everything Expanse, so feel free to ask questions!
November 4, 2016
Saginaw Library Authors Reception
The Saginaw, Texas Library is hosting a reception for local authors. I’ll be there with seven other authors in various genres. It’s on November 15th, 5 pm to 7:30 pm.
If you’re in DFW I’d be happy to see you there.
October 21, 2016
Cutting Room Floor: Torchship Pilot Prologue
The early drafts of Torchship Pilot had a prologue showing how the Fusion and Disconnect were moving toward the brink of war. It’s a good scene but most of those characters aren’t seen again in the story, and the information was included in the early chapters. So I cut it. I don’t regret writing it, it was a useful way to organize my thoughts about what was happening in the setting outside the view of our main characters.
For anyone wondering what you missed, here it is.
***
Bonaventure System, acceleration 0 m/s2
“Thermal signal, sir!” cried the ensign.
The commodore turned to look at the scope. “Another destroyer?” He affected a bored tone. The Fusion tried to penetrate the blockade at least once a day. The Disconnected Worlds had combined to block that regime from their space after a Fusion warship nuked a research conference on topics the Fusion considered too dangerous.
“Probably not, sir. Too strong a signal. Looks like a heavy cruiser or carrier.” Ensign Bowie glanced at his signalman, who offered a confirming nod.
“Looks like the Fusion is upping the stakes then,” said Commodore Galen. “Commo, send the blockade warning.”
“Aye-aye,” said the rating. “Signal sent, sir.” A few minutes later he reported, “They’ve answered. Text only. They claim to be traversing uncontrolled space en route to another system. No signature.”
“Consistent. Thanks, Sparks,” said the commodore.
On the thermal scope the intruder’s blip swelled, then split as two dozen fainter signals moved out. “Bogey is a carrier, sir,” reported the ensign.
The commodore merely nodded and continued watching the scope as the sensor techs tried to assess the new bogeys.
Sparks called out, “Report from Trajan. They have an angle on the fighters. They’re making at least twenty-five gravs accel.”
The ring of bogeys was slowly expanding. “Trying to by-pass us,” said Commodore Galen. “Ops, put some shadows on them.”
“Aye-aye, sir.” The lieutenant commander in charge of Operations had been updating the plan as data came in. She started issuing orders to the missile frigates. “Porcupine, stand by to execute Lake Hotel, bogeys one through seven. Yeoman, stand by to . . .” When all had acknowledged she sent the go command.
Commodore Galen had moved over to the holo display. The missiles flew out from the widely spaced frigates, timed to all synch up in a ring matching the Fusion intruders. The hologram overlaid the blips with acceleration vectors, projected courses, and a bright red ring in the middle showing where the collision would happen if nothing changed course. He checked the clock. “Two-three-five seconds from order to first launch. Nice work, Ops.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Lt. Commander Halgai. She relaxed as her team monitored the incoming telemetry.
For twenty minutes they watched the velocity vectors grow. Galen checked the thermal scope and radar screen, reminding himself the holo showed the ops techs’ predictions, not reality.
“Maneuvering!” called Ensign Bowie. The thermal scope blips brightened as the fighters pivoted, exposing more of their rocket plumes. In the holo display the red ring shifted planetward then returned to its original position as the missiles adjusted their attitude to match. More maneuvers followed, fighters varying their courses and missiles robotically tracking them.
Bowie wondered, “Why don’t they send some missiles back at us?”
“It’s too complicated,” said Halgai. “The Fusion doesn’t make missiles smart enough to make decisions. So they have these little piloted missiles.”
“How do they get anyone to fly those deathtraps?”
No one was eager to answer the ensign’s question. After a minute the commodore growled, “They get laid a lot.”
Bowie contemplated this. “Sir, you know that ceremonial cavalry unit Ground Force has for the Landing Day parade? We could—”
“No,” said the commodore.
“Five minutes to intercept,” announced Lt. Commander Halgai.
The fighters’ thrashing about had just widened the collision ring. The missiles were still on schedule.
“Sparks, any messages from the carrier?” asked Commodore Galen.
“No, sir. Some encrypted traffic synched with the fighter maneuvers. Nothing to us,” answered the commo tech.
“That’s a change.” Galen turned back to the holo display.
A couple of Ops techs were arguing, quietly but easy to hear in the tense flag bridge. “Their cannon can take out a missile.”
“They’d never get a hit closing at multiple klicks per second.”
“I heard they train for that. Could be done.”
“Even if they do they get hit by debris instead of—” He noticed the officers watching and shut up.
“Fighters have kept course steady for three minutes now,” reported Ops.
“Playing chicken,” said Commodore Galen.
The holo displayed the time to collision in red digits. At “1:50” Bowie announced another maneuver. The fighters had turned tail, accelerating back toward their carrier. The Disconnect missiles cut thrust automatically to let them escape.
With one exception. A fighter had stayed on its previous course. Its assigned missile kept playing chicken.
“Picking up a distress call,” said Sparks. “Fighter claims his control system crashed and he can’t maneuver.”
“Should we abort the missile, sir?” asked Ops. “We have twenty seconds to get the order in.”
“No.”
A few officers looked like they wanted to question that, but the window expired without more than some mutters. Now it was too late for an order to reach the missile across more than ten million klicks before the collision.
The silence after that was broken by Sparks. “Distress call continuing.”
“Still converging,” said Ensign Bowie. “And impact.” The blip flared on the thermal scope.
“So much for a bloodless blockade,” said Halgai.
A tech muttered, “There was plenty of blood at Noisy Water.”
“I’m quite certain that fighter was remote-controlled,” said the commodore. “They were checking if they we were willing to kill to enforce the blockade.”
“Message from the carrier,” said Sparks. “Declaring their intention to jump back through the Lapis gate.”
“Good. We won’t see them again until they decide they’re willing to kill to break it.”
***
If you want to know the rest of the story, check out Torchship Pilot.
September 18, 2016
Fencon 2016
I’m going to be a panelist at Fencon (9/23-25, DFW, TX) this weekend. You can find my schedule here. I’ll also have copies of Torchship and Torchship Pilot with me.
September 6, 2016
September 4, 2016
Problems In Scientific Research Podcast
If you’re curious about the trouble scientists have had with retracted papers and other problems, I’m on the Catholic Geek tonight talking about their problems and incentives.
August 30, 2016
Torchship Pilot Released
Torchship Pilot, the sequel to Torchship, is available on Amazon. The audiobook edition is in production.
WAR IS BAD FOR BUSINESS: The crew of the freighter Fives Full want to enjoy the profits of their dangerous voyage, but when war breaks out they’re pressed into service for missions a warship can’t do. Winning the war demands pilot Michigan Long act ruthlessly . . . and may cost her her conscience and her marriage.
July 31, 2016
Torchship Pilot Cover
The cover art for Torchship Pilot is lovely. The book will be released 8/30.
June 11, 2016
Soonercon and Interviews
I’ll be at Soonercon in Oklahoma City, June 24-26. My panels are:
Koffee Klatch, Sat 9am – Behold the non-morning person.
Materializing Wealth, Sat 3pm – What will replicators do to the economy?
Reading, Sun 11am – A sample of Torchship, or if it’s people who know me, Torchship Pilot.
Patent That Rascal! Sun noon – Intellectual property and how to protect it.
Space in 50 Years, Sun 2pm – Will humanity move into the solar system?
For anyone who can’t make Soonercon but would like to hear me talk, The Catholic Geek interviewed me about the science in science fiction.
The Space Opera Fans group on Goodreads also did an interview with me.
May 2, 2016
Podcasts and Awards
I’ll be appearing on two upcoming podcasts.
Tuesday evening (5:30 PDT) I’ll be on Krypton Radio’s Event Horizon show. My lovely muse and narrator Laura will be joining me to talk about books, rockets, and working together as a couple on creative projects.
The Event Horizon
Sunday evening (7:30 EDT) the Catholic Geeks have invited me to talk rocketry. I’ll discuss SpaceX, Blue Origin, and other people trying to change how we get to space.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/webuiltthatnetwork
I’m honored to announce that I won the first Planetary Award for Best Novel. I’m delighted that the voters thought Torchship was the best new book they’d read all year.
https://planetarydefensecommand.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/planetary-awards-and-dragon-awards/
