The Crying of Ross 128
by David Allan Hamilton
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Science Fiction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
America has splintered into various independent republics after a brutal civil war. Against this backdrop, space exploration is on the cusp of new technological breakthroughs. Jim Atteberry, a mid-30s English professor at City College in San Francisco, spends his free time listening for alien signals on the amateur radio astronomy bands. His life as a single parent to his precocious daughter is turned upside-down when he hears an intelligent cry for help from the Ross 128 system and realizes we are not alone. This signal unleashes a chain of events pitting Jim and his brilliant, mysterious colleague Kate against a power-hungry scientist with his own secret agenda. Jim must learn the truth about the signal, the strange disappearance of his wife Janet, and the meaning of true love before it’s too late in this first contact thriller.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt Three:
Atteberry understood immediately what this meant. “So everything I’ve been doing on the radio, monitoring the stars, finding the Ross signal, it’s all being seen by someone else?”
“That’s my guess. I thought the glitch could be a nasty sleeper virus, so I looked into that but, no, it’s definitely a tracer.”
Atteberry felt his heart race and his fingers shook a bit when he lifted his coffee mug and drank.
“I’ll tell you what I think, Jim.” Her notes flashed in front of the screen. “You remember that late night creeper fellow you scared away?”
“Sure.”
“Perhaps Creeper Boy came back when you were gone, broke into your house, and planted the code on your system.”
“No way, I’ve got security cameras and motion detectors everywhere. I would’ve seen something.”
“Jim,” she said calmly, “I could easily bypass your security if I wanted to. Those things are designed to dissuade teenagers and Neanderthals from arbitrarily breaking in, not those of us who know what we’re doing.”
“I see.”
“Listen, I’ll come over in a while once I’m dressed and bring my sniffer gear to clean up your radio and computers. In the meantime, you’d better check your equipment again for anything missing.”
Atteberry shook his head. A wave of anger, humiliation and fear washed over him. He kept putting Mary’s safety at risk, and Kate’s as well, and for what? Chasing an unknown signal across the sky? Time to drop this crazy business. His gut told him, however, that Marshall Whitt was behind it all, and he needed to find out why.
“Thanks, Kate, talk soon.”
He cut the link and held his face in his palms. The ripples of this event kept pushing outward into the dark corners, and there was nothing he could do to stop it’s spread.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
David Allan Hamilton is a teacher, writer, and multipotentialite. He is a graduate of Laurentian University (BSc. Applied Physics) and The University of Western Ontario (MSc. Geophysics). He lives in Ottawa where he facilitates writing workshops and teaches. When not writing, David enjoys riding his bike long distances, painting, and knitting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author Links:
Buy Links:
Amazon.com
hard cover
paper back
kindle
Barnes &Noble
hard cover
paper back
nook
Kobo
Smashwords.com
Indigo.ca
hard cover
paper back
INTERVIEW with David Allan Hamilton
What is the sweetest thing someone has done for you?
My wife Susan has done so many wonderful things for me, it’s hard to count them all. But here’s one thing she did several years ago. I’m a long distance cyclist and I frequently ride 200 – 300 km in a day. It took a while to build up to those distances, and I remember the first time I set out for 200km with the Randonneurs Ontario riding club. On these rides, there are little medals given out to those who complete the distance in the allotted time frames. However, on this ride, there were no medals given how late it was in the season.
So what Susan did, while I was out riding, is she went to a small shop and bought a key fob and had it engraved with “200 km” as my own medal for finishing the ride. It was the most thoughtful thing ever.
How would you spend ten thousand bucks?
Hm, well, nothing fancy or exciting I don’t think. I’d take some of that to spend on a winter vacation for me and my wife. It gets awfully cold in Ottawa in the winter. Then I’d probably spend the rest of it on things around the house. We want to do some renovations, so that’s likely it. I know, not exciting at all! Perhaps if it was $100,000 I’d think up more adventures to do with it!
Where do you get your best ideas?
I often get my ideas for writing and business when I’m busy doing something else. I mentioned long distance cycling above, and I can tell you when you’re on a bike for 10 – 15 hours in a day, that’s a lot of time to think about things. I find the repetitive motion of spinning the wheels really helpful to clear the mind. The other thing I do is knit and, again, the repetitive action of knitting busies the lizard part of my brain and allows me to explore all kinds of creative ideas.
What comes first, the plot or characters?
Usually the characters come first. I’ll have an idea for a story – but just an idea – and then I’ll start to map out the characters for it before I begin plotting. That said, the characters will morph along the way, so while I give them many of their individual traits, I recognize that the writing process is iterative so I make sure there’s flexibility built in.
What does your main character do that makes him/her special.
Jim Atteberry is my lead character in The Crying of Ross 128. He is a single parent to his daughter Mary, who’s 10 years old. Their relationship is amazing, not without faults mind you, but really strong and awesome. I think that makes him very special.
The other thing that differentiates him from others is that, while he teaches English at City College in San Francisco, his hobby is astronomy. So at night, he’ll watch the stars, listen for extraterrestrial signs of life, and so on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2018/07/vbt-crying-of-ross-128-by-david-allan.html
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteGreat post and I appreciate getting to find out about another great book. Thanks for all you do and for the hard work you put into this. Greatly appreciated!
ReplyDeletethanks James!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good read.
ReplyDeleteHow long do you wait after completing a book before you start writing your next one? Congrats on the release. Bernie Wallace BWallace1980(at)hotmail(d0t)com
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book! Best wishes on your tour.
ReplyDeleteI love the cover!
ReplyDelete