Greg Spry's Blog, page 4
November 5, 2014
Interview: BC9 Editor Rose Fox
This post begins a series of interviews with the people who helped me publish Beyond Cloud Nine. First up is Rose Jasper Fox (The Copymancer), the editor whose insights helped me take the book from good to great. I asked her a few questions about working on BC9, being an editor, and life in general.What was your favorite aspect of working on Beyond Cloud Nine?
I really admired the care and precision with which you (the author) approached the editing process. Your communication with me was always crystal-clear, and you obviously had a very strong vision for the book...
Continue reading this post on beyondcloudnine.com or gregspry.com.
October 23, 2014
The Female Lead Protagonist
A number of people have asked me why Beyond Cloud Nine and many of my other stories feature female main protagonists. First, I think my natural inclination toward writing about a female lead began with the boyhood crushes I had on the strong women in the shows, movies, books, and comics I immersed myself in at a young age. Read more: https://www.beyondcloudnine.com/Blog.....
Latest Giveaway Completed
My latest Beyond Cloud Nine giveaway has ended. Congratulations to the two winners! I plan to ship the books on Friday (10/24/2014). Thanks to everyone who entered. I will be doing more giveaways soon, so there will still be plenty of chances to win.Link to completed giveaway:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
Greg
October 14, 2014
Giveaway Books Shipped
I shipped an autographed copy of Beyond Cloud Nine to each of the ten winners of the BC9 Goodreads Giveaway today, Tuesday, October 14, 2014 via USPS. People in the USA should receive the book in about half a week, give or take a day. It may take closer to two weeks for the book to reach people in other countries.
If you don't receive your book within the time frames listed above, please feel free to message me on Goodreads or contact me at https://www.beyondcloudnine.com/Conta.... I'm also happy to respond to anyone who wants to discuss the book.
I would've liked to have sent a personalized congratulations message to each winner, but some readers don't care for the spam and Goodreads frowns upon doing that. So, I'll say it here. Congratulations to the winners! I really hope you enjoy the book and can find a brief moment after you're read it to post a review.
Here's a link to the completed giveaway for reference:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
If you don't receive your book within the time frames listed above, please feel free to message me on Goodreads or contact me at https://www.beyondcloudnine.com/Conta.... I'm also happy to respond to anyone who wants to discuss the book.
I would've liked to have sent a personalized congratulations message to each winner, but some readers don't care for the spam and Goodreads frowns upon doing that. So, I'll say it here. Congratulations to the winners! I really hope you enjoy the book and can find a brief moment after you're read it to post a review.
Here's a link to the completed giveaway for reference:
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
October 13, 2014
BC9 Digital Editions On Sale
As a thank you to everyone who entered the Beyond Cloud Nine Goodreads Giveaway, I've slashed the price of the Kindle and Smashwords editions of Beyond Cloud Nine to US $0.99 for a limited time only. That's $4.00 off the retail price. Head to https://www.beyondcloudnine.com/Buy.aspx to purchase your discounted electronic copy.
October 12, 2014
Author Interview Posted
Check out my first author interview on
Rachael Rippon's blog at http://rachaelrippon.blogspot.com/201.... In the post, I answer ten questions about my writing and my first published novel, Beyond Cloud Nine.
Rachael Rippon's blog at http://rachaelrippon.blogspot.com/201.... In the post, I answer ten questions about my writing and my first published novel, Beyond Cloud Nine.
October 8, 2014
The Cool Tech of Beyond Cloud Nine: Gravgel
Hello, everyone! I'm excited to begin a series of posts about a variety of interesting topics.
First up, I thought I'd talk about one piece of cool technology found in my science fiction novel Beyond Cloud Nine. One of the things I love about smart science fiction is tech that's realistically attainable in the future. I've tried my best to create things in BC9 that could really happen because real possibilities are more exciting to me than pure wishful thinking.
In BC9, our heroine, Brooke Davis, is a star fighter pilot who engages in orbital combat. As a member of UN Aerospace Defense, she gets into plenty of intense dogfights. The star fighter craft of the hypothetical twenty-third century setting are capable of much greater speeds and acceleration than 21st century fighter planes. Greater acceleration means a pilot is subjected to greater g-force on the order of hundreds of gees. Such extreme force would crush a human being without some type of advanced protection that hasn't yet been invented.
The solution I came up with is gravity gel, referred to as gravgel for short. Gravgel is based on the real, experimentally-verified notion that liquids provide cushioning against acceleration. I got the idea from the SyFy Channel show Sci-Fi Science a few years ago (I've looked everywhere for clips but I can't find one). In the show, physicist Michio Kaku, the host, visits a lab where scientists place a piece of fruit in a spinning chamber to impart g-force. In air, without any protection, the fruit explodes when subjected to a handful of gees. When placed in a container filled with water, however, the fruit can withstand an order of magnitude more acceleration force.
In the book, gravgel is a clear, viscous, lightweight, and non-stick substance that protects future fighter pilots from the force of extreme acceleration. In the 20th and 21st centuries, filling aircraft or spacecraft with water proved impractical because of weight/mass limitations. In the late 22nd century, however, a scientist invented a gelatinous substance that provided more than ten times the protection of water but with a fraction of the mass. This substance became known as gravgel. Cool, huh?
First up, I thought I'd talk about one piece of cool technology found in my science fiction novel Beyond Cloud Nine. One of the things I love about smart science fiction is tech that's realistically attainable in the future. I've tried my best to create things in BC9 that could really happen because real possibilities are more exciting to me than pure wishful thinking.
In BC9, our heroine, Brooke Davis, is a star fighter pilot who engages in orbital combat. As a member of UN Aerospace Defense, she gets into plenty of intense dogfights. The star fighter craft of the hypothetical twenty-third century setting are capable of much greater speeds and acceleration than 21st century fighter planes. Greater acceleration means a pilot is subjected to greater g-force on the order of hundreds of gees. Such extreme force would crush a human being without some type of advanced protection that hasn't yet been invented.
The solution I came up with is gravity gel, referred to as gravgel for short. Gravgel is based on the real, experimentally-verified notion that liquids provide cushioning against acceleration. I got the idea from the SyFy Channel show Sci-Fi Science a few years ago (I've looked everywhere for clips but I can't find one). In the show, physicist Michio Kaku, the host, visits a lab where scientists place a piece of fruit in a spinning chamber to impart g-force. In air, without any protection, the fruit explodes when subjected to a handful of gees. When placed in a container filled with water, however, the fruit can withstand an order of magnitude more acceleration force.
In the book, gravgel is a clear, viscous, lightweight, and non-stick substance that protects future fighter pilots from the force of extreme acceleration. In the 20th and 21st centuries, filling aircraft or spacecraft with water proved impractical because of weight/mass limitations. In the late 22nd century, however, a scientist invented a gelatinous substance that provided more than ten times the protection of water but with a fraction of the mass. This substance became known as gravgel. Cool, huh?
