Tag: Earth

New Frontier, new novel coming in early 2012

I’m currently working on the last couple of chapters of my new speculative fiction novel, which I call New Frontier. I’m expecting to be done sometime between the end of December to the end of January, barring unforseen circumstances of course.

The story originally started off with a prologue with the whole speech given by President Kennedy at Rice University in 1962 about all of our technological advances and how we’ve managed to come so far in such a short amount of time. I decided to cut that down, to the one paragraph everyone remembers him saying, which is:

“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…”

I’m not going to reveal any spoilers from this particular sub-plot, because I plan on having a 2nd book in this to make a series to explain why what happens in the prologue happens the way it does.

After this, I begin with a what-if Ronald Reagan became President in 1976 instead of 1980? Well, he has the US continue with the Moon landings and eventually building a Base on the moon, and even declaring that we’ll have people on Mars before 1989.

The Soviets decide to one-up the Americans, and decide to build a starship that would leave the solar system. Their attitude is basically, why do we need to piddle around the Sol System when there’s other solar systems out there to be conquered. The 2nd book will explore what happens to the Soviet ship, which, of course, will be after the Americans eventually send their own ship in the 2nd novel.

There is a storyline that follows the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis, but this time it ends in a completely different fashion. I have Osama bin Laden as a young apprentice to Khomeini, and he goes off on his own to form Al Qaeda (this is alternate history after all). In his first foray into terrorism, he makes a big statement that affects American politics in a big way. The US hunts him down and captures him (I was actually writing that when Osama was killed by the Seals, which de-railed my writing of this novel for a couple of weeks). He is taken care of in a way most ancient by people he hates.

In the meantime, we now have a base on the moon, a space station in orbit, and I re-write what happens with the Teacher in Space program by having Christa McAuliffe travel to the Moon to teach from there for a week. This time, the Challenger doesn’t blow up due to engineers discovering a problem, even though she’s not on that shuttle, and she gets to the Moon.

The US announces the team that will travel to Mars to establish a base there, and the Soviets use this opportunity to ask that two of their cosmonauts could go. The new POTUS tells the Soviet Premier no, as long as Eastern Europe was under the boot of communism. Weeks later, the Berlin Wall falls as does the Iron Curtain, and the US and USSR agree to let two cosmonauts go to Mars.

Terrorism raises its ugly head once again when the space station is attacked by remnants of Al Qaeda, and it also occurs to the Mars mission….

Near the end of the novel, colonists land on Mars, including Christa McAuliffe and her family. It’s the beginning of human colonization of the rest of the solar system.

At the end, the US and Russia announce a joint mission to explore the rest of the galaxy, and part of the mission is to find the missing Soviet starship, which will lead us back to what’s happening in the prologue when part of their mission goes awry.

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 Kindle.

Second review of Don’t Mess With Earth

Author Cliff Ball draws on his considerable knowledge of history, folklore and Christianity to craft a convincing retelling of humanity’s time on Earth.

Told mostly from the point of view of a newly sworn-in U.S. President, we learn that Earth has existed under the shadow of secrets and lies for thousands of years. As Noah was building his wooden ark to escape the flood, a highly developed race of people called Terrans was designing starships and planning to leave the earth entirely.

The Terrans travel to an Earth-like planet and set up a colony, naming it Terra. They explore their new system and meet many friendly cultures. They also meet the Ragnor, a race obsessed with military conquest. The Ragnor attack Terran ships relentlessly and without cause.

Soon the Terrans return to Earth to see if their human cousins have advanced. They find Egypt at the time of the Pharaohs and decide the earth humans are far too primitive to help Terra fight the Ragnor.

Some Terrans decide to interfere with human development and pose as Earth people. From the times of King Arthur to Genghis Khan, Terrans make their mark on history.

Centuries later, a spy base is set up on Mars. From Mars, the Terrans watch as the Great War explodes in Europe and later as World War Two engulfs the entire planet.

The Ragnor visit Earth in cloaked ships and begin abducting and experimenting on humans. Tales of abduction and UFOs spread around the globe. A Ragnor scout ship crashes in New Mexico in 1947. The Americans develop the Area 51 program at Roswell. The project’s mandate is to use the technology from the downed alien craft to defend the United States against her enemies.

Sixty years later, a secret starship is ready, the crew trained, and the newly elected Present must address the nation and the world. He orders the ship to attack Earth’s alien foe. Is one advanced ship enough to match the combined fleets of both Terra and Ragnor? Is America on the brink of its greatest military victory since D-Day? Or is it doomed to fail like no other combat mission in history?

Ball has written an intriguing new take on history. He keeps the pages turning, explaining historical events in his own unique style. The story builds to an explosive climax that won’t leave you disappointed.

I recommend Don’t Mess With Earth to Sci-Fi and alternative history fans.

Reviewed by WR Potter for Reader’s Choice Reviews.

What I’m writing next

I just thought I’d take the time to post what I’m writing about next, since I don’t blog as much as I should. I’m currently working on a re-write of my novella Out of Time. Since I published it last year, after working on it for what seemed like an eternity, so I had it published even though it wasn’t what it should have been. After about a year or so, I realize it needs more in depth characterization of more than one character, and a lot more details. Those that have read it have told me it’s a good story, but, I it could be so much more. So, watch for a re-release some day after I write the next two that I’m also working on.

The next novel I working on is a sequel to my science fiction novel Don’t Mess With Earth. I always intended Don’t Mess With Earth to have a sequel, because I intentionally made a misleading title because while you’re reading this current novel, you think Earth is going to win in the end. Once you get to the ending, I hope everyone wonders what happens next, so the next title is tentatively called Shattered Earth . *Spoilers ahead* So far, those survivors on Earth who the Ragnor didn’t find, decide to build a fleet of starships with Area 51 technology, armed to the teeth with every conceivable weapon available. They also get aided by another alien species who have tried to stay out of the conflict between the Terrans, Ragnor, and Earthlings, but the remaining Ragnor go on a rampage throughout the Milky Way. An epic battle will ensue, but, who remains standing will be currently undecided.

The third novel I’m writing isn’t science fiction at all. It’s about the United States being taken over by a dictator(I leave the political persuasion up to the reader), who dissolves the military, creates a Civilian Defense Force, has them assassinate the previous president, try to silence through the Fairness Doctrine and then try to kill the main opposition who happens to be a talk radio show host. The president decides that Christians, the 3+ day a week kind, are also the enemy(along with members of the opposition party), and he creates “Re-Education Centers.” States like Texas and Oklahoma secede, taking over the old military bases and the weapons on those bases, while the President tries to force those States back into the Union, causing a civil war in the process. The main character is part of the CDF, is really apathetic about politics and everything in general, that is until his family is rounded up and sent to re-education centers. Once he learns the truth, he makes it his mission to stop the President. Will it be too late?

Galileo in Don’t Mess with Earth

In my novel, “Don’t Mess With Earth,” Galileo Galilei is a Terran astronomer who decides to go to to Earth to convince the powers-that-be that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around. In real life, he was a normal human who tried the exact same thing and was punished for his opposing views to official doctrine from the “Church.” My story goes almost the same way….

In this, Galileo meets Michelangelo who is painting the Sistine Chapel, but had also somehow gotten his hands on drawings for a glider. This interests Galileo, so he helps Michelangelo build the glider. They build it, and decide to present the glider flying to the Pope and the powers-that-be. The flight is successful, but the Pope comes to Galileo and tells him that if “men were supposed to fly, he would’ve given us wings.” Galileo tells the Pope what he thinks of him the Swiss guards then beat down the scientist, and then they burn the glider and tell Michelangelo that he is in danger of being a heretic, but, if he creates something new for the Church, he may be forgiven, so the artist caring only about his name in history, agrees and creates the Statue of David.

Galileo gets dragged down to a dungeon and beaten by the Swiss guards. Word reaches Terra that their scientist is in trouble, so a covert team is sent in to extract him. They extract him, blow up the building housing the dungeon/prison, causing a massive fire that sweeps up most of Rome, and the Pope vows to find him, even if they have to search all over the New World for the scientist. On Terra, Galileo is banned from ever leaving the planet again.