Peter
About me. There’s not too much that’s actually that interesting beyond my love of science and writing. Being an author is a privilege I don’t take lightly. I try to keep my stories science-positive in this age of disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Interests
- science and science fiction
- walking in the forest
- yoga (my wife has converted me)
- reading a wide variety of genres to avoid tunnel vision as a science fiction writer
- looking up stuff on the internet and trying to wrap my head around it all…
Favourite Movies
- Reign of Fire
- Monsters
- Frequently Asked Questions for Time Travellers
- Gravity
- Interstellar
Favourite Music
- Dire Straits
- Monte Montgomery
- Billy Joel
- David Bowie
- U2
- Elton John
- Bob Dylan
- Maroon Five
- Norah Jones
- Ed Sheeran
Favourite TV Shows
- Battlestar Galactica
- Dr Who (at times)
- Fringe
- Dirk Gently
- Sherlock Holmes/Elementary
- State of Origin (Rugby League)
- The Blacklist
- QI (Quite Interesting)
Top Ten Books
- On the Origin of Species/Descent of Man
- 1984/Animal Farm
- All the Trouble in the World – P J O’Rourke
- The Lucifer Effect
- A Devil’s Chaplain (plus pretty much all of Dawkins books)
- Is God a Mathematician?
- Cosmos – Carl Sagan
- Riding Rockets
- Sphere
- Dracula/Frankenstein/War of the Worlds/I am Legend/Who Goes There? (I love the classics)
OK top ten-ish books… but how could anyone limit themselves to just ten?
Twenty years from now
you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do
than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines,
sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain
___________________________________________________________
The web isn’t the only thing that’s moved on to version 2.0…
THINKING SCI-FI 
Just the let you know that I just finished “The Anomaly” and I liked it very much; thanks! Is there a sequel ithe works? I intend to read your blog. It seems full of goodies!
Best,
ORP
Thanks for taking the time to read Anomaly. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it. There’s no sequel just yet, but there are a few ideas floating around. Feel free to add your thoughts on this novel to the reviews at Amazon.
So… it’s now 2021 I read Anomaly a second time as I had forgotten how it started and ended… now I’m curious to know: did a sequel happened ?
Hi Alex, depending on when you originally read Anomaly, you may find there’s a different ending (it’s had three over the years). I toyed with a sequel, but a lot of those ideas have gone into other books like Wherever Seeds May Fall, etc
Hi Peter,
Thanks for your comment today. I moved it over to 101 and replied to it. The post crashed earlier in the week and the settings changed when I resaved it.
Anyway, congratulations on reaching #2! If you’d like to do a guest post on my blog, email me and we can arrange a topic and date etc.
Olsen …
Hi Peter, I just posted my first ever book review on Amazon for Anomaly. I was inspired to do so after reading your afterword. I like the way you think. We need more positive spins on things. I read a book every day or two. I read a LOT of Sci Fi, always have. But lately I have been trying to be more positive in my life, so I usually skip the violent depressing books. This one actually made me think, laugh, cringe, and …..write a review! Thank you. I am now going to read Out Of Time.
Keep writing!
Darlene
Darlene,
Thank you for your kind encouragement. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed Anomaly. It was a lot of fun to write, and I really appreciate you taking the time to provide a review on Amazon. Also, I had a look at your blog and, in particular, really enjoyed your photography. You’ve got a real eye for photo composition, something I’m aware of but never seem to be able to capture. You make it look easy.
Out of Time is my first novel. I don’t think it’s as mature as Anomaly, but there are some great themes within it so I hope you enjoy it and would like to hear your thoughts on it.
Kind regards
Peter
So, I found the ebook “The Road to Hell” the a while back while browsing around. I just got to it on my -to read list- and it was fantastic. I went back to look it up again by title, looking for other books by you and I couldn’t find it anywhere, only your newer books by searching under your name.
Why in the world is this book not sitting right next to your newer work? The stories within the book are as real to life and relevant as anyone could find in today’s world; and the storytelling itself was as good as any I’ve read in a long time.
I look forward to reading Anomaly and Out of Time. If they’re half as good as The Road to Hell, then I’ll be in for a great reading experience.
Barry,
Thank you for your enthusiasm and encouragement. Out of Time is The Road to Hell rebadged: same book, different title, different cover. Anomaly has been very popular, selling over 500 copies in the first month, while the Road sold 10 copies in two months, so, at the suggestion of a close friend, I changed the title to something a little more enticing, a little more neutral. I’m somewhat baffled at the difference in how the two books have been received so if you do read Anomaly, I would be extremely interested in your comparison of the two. Also, please feel free to add your comments to Amazon or Goodreads.
Kind regards,
Peter
Hi,
I just finished Anomaly. I enjoyed it. “non-violent geek sci- fi” Great!
One suggestion. Watch the scientists’ dialogue. Highly educated people would use grammar correctly.
When we first meet Mason, he says ” Hang out with young Susan and I for a bit.”
Later he says “.a private conversation between myself and Mr. Teller..”
He would be more believable as a leading expert in his field if he spoke properly.
Kate Dean
Kate,
Glad to hear you enjoyed the novel. One of the nice things about eBooks is that they’re not static like the print version. I recently updated Anomaly with US spelling and US terminology, at least, in those areas where I’m aware of the differences. I’ll be conducting another review this weekend and will look more closely at the dialogue as well, so thank you for the feedback.
Kind regards,
Peter
I also enjoyed Out of Time, read it yesterday
. You may want to pick through that one as well. The word statue shows up as “statute” a few times. “We’re” shows up as “were”.on one occasion, Brie cheese is not “bree”.
Great plot,
Found them… thanks
i enjoyed your book and am interested in your future books. As a reader of science fiction I appreciate the impact that exploration of alternate points of view or explanation for the seemingly normal can have on both the individual and society. By continually confronting the fact that our perceptions of what constitutes normality and factual data are filtered by our preconceived belief systems, we are forced to confront the possibility that our interpretation of the facts are based on inaccurate or faulty preconceptions.
James, thank you for the feedback. As you’ve noted, history is resplendent with unexpected changes based on scientific progress. Fiction helps anticipate the challenges of the future by acting now as a thought-experiment that asks, “what if?”
FYI, I’m working on a sequel to Anomaly called Anomalous, set 10 years beyond the first book, focusing on biology rather than chemistry, and working in greater depth of character.
Thanks for the kind encouragement.
Cheers,
Peter
Anomaly was an easy read, which is high praise! Proper hi-tech sifi, which is a rarity these days. Well done.
Begs for a squel!
Glad to see you have other kindle publications.
Can you tell me how you got self published and on kindle?
Thanks. Tim
Tim,
Thank you for the feedback. Nice to hear you enjoyed Anomaly. I recommend caution with your first foray into self-publishing. There’s a bit of a learning curve you want to go through before you publish with Kindle. The best place to start is with Smashwords, where you can iron out any bugs in your document format. Smashwords will tell you how to ‘nuke’ your document if it doesn’t publish properly. It’s a nasty process, but is sometimes necessary. Also, Smashwords is supportive of emerging writers, providing an ISDN and managing distribution to Sony, Apple, Kobo, etc.
All the best with your writing
Kind regards,
Peter
I just read Anomaly. I have to say it has been a long while since a book grabbed me like this. Really clean book from an angle you don’t see very often. Nice to find a protagonist who is more comfortable with words than guns, to the point of being rescued by Cathy. As for a sequel it would really depend. You covered some very heavy philosophical ground in the book and I really liked the way that you tied it all up. A sequel would have to have a pretty good reason to rip that open and dive back in.
Alec, you’re absolutely spot on… I’ve got a sequel in mind, but am pursuing other stories at the moment for exactly the reason you describe. If a sequel is to come off, it has to be a better story and a better quality of writing, so I’ll give myself some time on that one. Thank you for your feedback.
Kind regards,
Peter
If you don’t mind, I’d like to include your books (Anomaly and Out of Time) on my book blog. I really enjoyed both of them. I’m a writer myself and I love to read. If you don’t mind, I’d like to show the covers and link the books if it’s okay, but wanted to ask before posting them.
Sure. I’d be honoured.
Peter. I finished Anomaly a couple of days ago and did a mini book review on my blog without giving away any of the details. I loved the book and am looking forward to reading your other materials. What a concept!
Thanks,
Jim Pointere http://www.onbeingdifferent.wordpress.com
Thanks for the Kindlegraph!
p.s. Nice 50 foot shot to tie up with France.
With the time difference, we miss a lot of the Olympics, and they only ever replay the wins, but I did see a highlight of the long-range shot that took the women’s basketball into overtime, and read about the game. Sounds like it was a nail bitter.
same here in the states, they are 5-8 hours ahead of us, so any morning competitions held early day are always tape delayed.
Found a nice slow-mo video of the shot… and I love the look on the French coach’s face afterwards… classic
really one of those future instant classic moments that will be replayed forever.
After “Anomaly” you ask, “Where is the brainy, non-violent science fiction?” Let me call your attention to “The Day Everything Changed.” It describes a peaceful, cooperative relationship between humans and advanced aliens. You can read the Book Description in Amazon.com by searching for “Bower The Day Everything Changed”. Brainy? Well, the plot involves gravitons and the Higgs field, and details an original method for producing electricity from hydrogen fusion. I hope it’s what you’re looking for.
Thanks for the tip. I grabbed the sample from Amazon and will take a look
I just wrote a review of your book “Anomaly” on my blog. I thought you’d like to know so you can check it out (and even comment, if you’d like).
I think you might like Cloud Atlas. I thought it was the best book I had ever read. However, you have to make it through the first 50 pages first, and you won;t understand why it’s written the way it is until you get to the last 50 pages. There’s a movie out soon, but read the book first!
Thanks for the tip… I’d just downloaded it
Hi Peter!
I just wanted to let you know how much i enjoyed Anomaly and the Galactic Exploration novellas.
As a 19 year old student, the size of your books make for a perfect read in my schedule,
something that is not always easy to find.
I can’t wait to read Monsters and all of your future books!
Greetings from the USA,
Sterling
Sterling,
Thanks for your kind comments. What are you studying?
Glad to hear you’re enjoying the books. MONSTERS is a more generalist book (ie, not hard science), but a lot of fun. Hope you like it.
Cheers,
Peter
Hey,
I am actually studying to become a high-school Physics and Astronomy teacher
out here in Chicago. I guess that explains why i like reading Sci-Fi, haha.
Good luck on your future projects,
Sterling
that’s awesome…
Sterling,
Thought you’d like to know that MONSTERS is out now and on special at 99c. As someone studying to become a teacher, I think you’ll particularly enjoy it. If you do read MONSTERS, be sure to leave a review on Amazon.
Cheers,
Peter
Hi Peter,
Thanks for remembering me! I just purchased Monsters and am very much looking forward
to reading it!
Thanks again,
Sterling
I’ve just finished Anomaly, with the revised ending. There’s hardly anything I can add to the much praise above, it’s among the best sci-fi novels I’ve read in the past few years. And I agree with you in that a sci-fi novel needn’t be violent. Actually, I’m fed up with the torrent of “military sci-fi” on the market. Sci-fi is not primarily about action and violence after all, your book is proof.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you for the feedback, it’s humbly received.
I suspect so much of our entertainment revolves around violence because in Western society we’re so sheltered from it in daily life. It’s nice to write something that has plenty of action but doesn’t glorify violence.
If you’re interested in a very different take on military scifi (again with a non-violent protagonist) check out Xenophobia, which launched last month. IMHO it proposes the only plausible reason for aliens to ever visit Earth (and it’s not to steal our water!)
Hello Peter, I read Anomaly on the strength of John Walker’s review: http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/reading_list/?book=836 . I enjoyed it quite a lot. I saw that John reviewed your new book Xenophobia, so I headed right over to Smashwords to get the ePub version — but it’s not there. Where can I get the ePub version please?
Hi Rob,
Thank you for supporting independent science fiction. Great to hear you enjoyed Anomaly.
Xenophobia is exclusive to Amazon until October 30th. It will then be available through Smashwords, Google Play, Kobo, Apple iBooks, etc.
Kind regards,
Peter
Hi There! I’m a student in the United States & I just wanted to let you know that I am currently reading through your entire bibliography and enjoying every story! You are quickly becoming one of my favorite spec-fi authors! Thank you for the great work(s)!
Nate,
Thank you for your kind support. It’s deeply appreciated. I’m excited to announce a new book and a new novella will be launched in Feb 2016, so keep your eyes out for Welcome to the Occupied States of America and another story called Starship Mine. Also, be sure to sign up for my email list as there’s always promos and free stuff on there.
Cheers,
Peter
Hi,
My name is Louis Willcox and i’m currently studying at University in the UK and I’m wondering if you’d be good enough to help me by answering a few questions. I’m writing a thesis on Sci-Fi inspired inventions and their impact and am in need of an expert opinion. I was first introduced introduced to your work via my father and am currently reading “Anomaly” and i’m enjoying it thoroughly!
I look forward to any form of reply
Thanks
Good day to you Sir,
I just finished Mars Endeavour, which I came across while surfing Amazon’s space exploration sci-fi category… Your elegant, precise writing style flows so effortlessly that for a few hours each day I was completely transported to the Red Planet (and away from my own problems)… so thank you for that! The greatest conundrum I now face is which of your books to read next? 🙂
Cheers,
Suzana Leventic
Zagreb, Croatia
Suzana,
Thank you for your kind support. It’s very much appreciated. Hello from Australia! If you liked Mars Endeavour, I’d highly recommend Welcome to the Occupied States of America, which also came out this year
Cheers,
Peter
Hi Peter
I found out about your work via Amazon’s recommendation engine. It suggested Mars Endeavour and, having read the synopsis, I ordered the Kindle edition. Thoroughly enjoyed it and this has been quickly followed by Feedback and Anomaly. I have downloaded most of your other titles now and will enjoy working my way through them.
Like you I am an independent author with well over 50 books. I write non-fiction (although some might call it fiction!) including technology and sport. I write and publish the things myself. I an Englishman based in Sydney, and I think like you have a full-time job as well. It’s hard work!
Loved the books so far and I have put some reviews up on Amazon.
Regards, Bruce
Wow… I love your books… oh, that I had time to devour them. I work as a performance tester, ServiceNow developer (Angular, Javascript), and Splunker for a company called JDS Australia. We’ve got a few super-nerds that are into Raspberry Pis. I’d love to have a play, but alas my spare time is spent being a husband, a dad, and a scifi writer 🙂 I did have a crack at feeding NASA’s Kepler data into Splunk over Christmas and found an exoplanet in orbit around another star. You can see it here on Twitter.
I may be down in Sydney on business in Feb/Mar, if that happens, I’ll drop you a line and perhaps we can catch up. Cheers, Peter
Just checked the link, really interesting! Will have a delve a bit further at the weekend. (I let my PC over to SETI research when I’m not working so maybe I’ll discover Little Green Men or Alien Tentacle Porn someday!) Would enjoy meeting if you are in town – drop me your email at “bruce@brucesmith.info” or via the website and I’ll send you my contact numbers and an ebook or two. I’m starting a book on 64-bit ARM Assembler which I don’t think anyone has tackled before. Would be good to discuss book marketing techniques too! Regards, Bruce.
Sounds good 🙂
just finished reading anomaly and my sweet satan. two enjoyable reads, so much that I downloaded hello world. Ever think about a sequel for my sweet satam? I would be interested in what happens when jazz gets home.
Hi Charley,
Hey, thanks for taking a chance on independent science fiction… yes, I have thought about what happens to Jazz, and have mapped out a story that converges with Mars Endeavour, as the two stories are set in the same fictional universe and occur at the same time (just playing out in different locations). Originally, the idea was to write a sequel that combines the two stories. Since then, Mars Endeavour has been picked up by John Joseph Adams Books for publication this September as Retrograde. I’d still like to do a sequel, but the challenge is… Retrograde is likely/hopefully going to be considerably more popular than My Sweet Satan, so I’m debating how closely to tie the two stories in a sequel (as a lot of people may never get to My Sweet Satan)… Still mulling that over… Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter or to follow me on Twitter if you want to hear of updates.
Hello World is more lighthearted/soft scifi than hard scifi like Anomaly and My Sweet Satan. It’s a short story about how social media might be trawled by an alien intelligence wanting to understand us. If you’re looking for something a little dark and thriller-like, check out Little Green Men. If you like success-against-the-odds, be sure to read Welcome to the Occupied States of America—-I’d love to see that one made into a movie.
All the best,
Peter
I have a longish (4 page) critique of your story, “Anomaly”. I would like to offer it to you as constructive criticism on how to improve your writing skills. Contact me through my email if interested. Otherwise, I will just say you show a lot of promise as an author and also as of your novel, “Anomaly” a fundamental flaw. The critique addresses that flaw, not a lot of nitpicking details. I would love for you to improve your story mechanics to create a more satisfying novel. Good luck in the future.
Hey there, Suzana from Croatia again, I just started on Nosferatu, and I see once again the main character is a woman 🙂 Am curious as to the reason behind you (as a man) writing from the female perspective? In other words, what do you personally find so intriguing about women’s POV that they feature more prominently in your works than with other male authors?
Cheers & hope it’s not too cold on your side of the planet 🙂
Hi Suzana, both of my latest stories, Nosferatu and Maelstrom, switch point of view (POV), alternating between male and female characters, which is unusual for a novel as they generally set a POV and stay with it, so I hope it works for you. Reading (and writing) allows us to see the world through a different pair of eyes, and live vicariously. I enjoy the challenge of observing others, and thinking about the challenges they might face in various situations, wondering how they would respond. Perhaps the toughest story I’ve written along these lines is Starship Mine, written from the perspective of a gay accountant in the homophobic US Bible Belt. I recently received a review of Starship where a woman said she cried twice. I told her, me too. I’d like to think adopting unfamiliar POV helps draw the best out of me as a writer. Thanks again for your kind support.
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I can’t seem to keep a copy of Anomaly because lately whenever I have family from out of town visiting they read it, say how much they love it, and I give them my copy.
My niece was just here and we were watching an alien movie which prompted the seemingly required conversation that goes with alien movies about what would happen if some ever came to Earth. Well, you can guess what I recommended that she read and I gave her my latest copy.
How do I get a signed copy? Maybe then I wouldn’t give it away so easily. 🙂
Adam, you’ve reminded me to order some book plates (large stickers I can sign and send out to place inside books). Let me get onto that and come back to you. Cheers, Peter
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I enjoyed Anomaly, especially since I also wrote a thoughtful, science-based, non-violent SF story about communication across the vastness of space: Starseeds (self-published, available on Amazon, iBooks, etc.). I plan on reading your other books as well. Thank you for bringing some real science into enjoyable fiction.
Hey Lou, thanks for the feedback. Yeah, writing’s a tough gig, but one unexpected side benefit has been to connect with people from all around the world. There’s a lot of fantasy in scifi, so it’s nice to meet someone else who enjoys injecting actual science into their writing. It’s all make-believe, at the end of the day, and a bit of a lark, but it’s good to promote sound thinking along scientific lines, as that’s sorely needed in today’s political environment. All the best, Peter.
Hi
Hit on your work by luck and now binge reading it.
I have been reading SF for 7 decades, you have a really good different way about yours. Your tech backgrown shows through and lapses are minor. The i found your are from Brisbane. Not the part of here you expect a SF writer to be from, so I had to say Hi.
Thank you for taking a chance on independent science fiction. Binge-reading an author’s works is quite the compliment, you’re compressing the last decade of my life & growth as a writer into a very short period of time. Although I’ve grown a lot as an author, it’s (surprisingly) my earlier works that are the most popular. I’m not sure if that’s simply because they’ve been around long enough to gain momentum or if I hit the sweet spot better back then, but I love the challenge of writing novels and like to make science the quiet hero wandering somewhere in the background. Thanks again for your kind words. Cheers, Peter.
Well, I hit on it more by being a cheapskate, than taking a chance on it.
When i finish with the Unlimited stuff, i will have to buy some.
Be sure to subscribe if you want to stay in touch as I have an anthology coming out next month
https://wordpress.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=38ce2c9dfccf04083623d9fda&id=66420df0d0
Just read Losing Mars and left a review as Pleiades if you see the connection to the name i used here.
Though i think audio would still be converted to digital for transmission, and maybe the momentum would still do a lot of damage in a crash even in low or micro gravity.
Yes, I’ve often admired the Subaru car manufacturer’s logo as a beautiful depiction of the Pleiades
In regards to audio-to-digital. That certainly could be the case. Equally, there are things lost in such a conversion, as there’s no ability to read emotion or intent behind words, etc, also garbled words might be better heard than typed, etc. We live in an analog world 🙂
When it comes to the crash, gravity is incredibly slight on Phobos, but acceleration will compound. That along with the engines firing, makes it really hard to determine quite what would happen, and after several spreadsheets with calculations set over time, I settled on the version you read 🙂
Cheers, Peter
I reckon you only live in a analogue world these days if you still use only LP’s and have only wall clocks.
The crash is only a small shark to jump, but my own mental picture has it as an elastic collision and the Kinetic Energy has to go into distorting the structure. It is not speed that kills but the momentum change.
Though my mental picture of the real world does have some faulty pixels. In this case i am not sure what would actually happen and I do not intend to do any spreadsheets.
Howdy from Southern California. I ran across “Galactic Exploration” and found the stories interesting. I noticed it was declared to be (First Contact). I suppose that means it’s a genre not a series of related stories in a story arc. I dug around and discovered this site to confirm that. And I started reading.
I noticed one of your first few articles was about creationism. While I agree with you in a quiet way I cannot match your vehemence. I simply cannot find a single proof that there is no “something or other” conventionally called a God and given many silly and spurious attributes. I make myself rather persona non grata to many religious sorts and to many atheists with a simple argument. Postulate a something as far beyond us as we are beyond the amoeba and more. Postulate as you will whether it is a singular thing of its kind or not. All it needs to be is sufficiently powerful to create this universe in which we find ourselves. Now, it could have kicked it off, perhaps more literally than I intend, about 13.5 billion years ago with a bias towards becoming what we see now. But, if the being is powerful enough could it not have created everything last Tuesday at 1253 and 7.03761 seconds on his cosmic UTC clock with everything in place as if it had started about 13.5 billion years ago? There’s nothing sacred about 6000 years ago other than fixations in human minds that have existed a few days rather than 6000 years or 13.5 billion years. Yes, it’s silly. But, nothing you or I can do would prove the falsehood of that premise. After all, it was setup to look preposterous, wasn’t it?
In other words, it’s not something worth bothering about. If it gives some people comfort to believe in a God and they do not impose it or attempt to impose it on others what harm is there? How can their belief in God invalidate any beliefs I may have in God’s attributes such as existence, omnipotence, or whatever else? So I don’t worry about it except to get door to door proselytizers upset when they presume on my time.
I also noticed your discussion of “Climate Change”. Climate has been changing on this planet for maybe 4.5ish billion years. (Or at least it looks that way to researchers.) I feel it is extreme hubris to think that anything humans can do can freeze the climate into one single simple salubrious pattern whether or not something we did set off the current climate drift. I have a lesser hubris problem. I believe it is within our technological grasp to cope with the changes without killing all but a relatively few humans in the process. A good model for this is the Netherlands. They had an economic incentive, more land less flood, and rose to the challenge. I’m reasonably sure that a puny 1% change in our CO2 emissions will do anything other than microscopically slow down the climate change we may (or may not) have driven.
Ask the questions nobody else is asking when a problem looks impossible to solve. Keep asking questions once a solution is proposed. And don’t try to drive a solution with government incentives. That leads to perverse incentives. Build that wind farm, we’ll subsidize it. Once it pays it’s installation cost what happens next? If it costs $X to generate power until the next maintenance period which costs $Y what happens when Y is larger than the X for the period until the next maintenance past this one? We see dead wind farms. We’ve wasted value we could have used ot cope and created a bigger problem. These questions need to be asked before a proposal is put into effect. Think first, solve the problem, then have the screaming meemies all you want.
{^_-}
Thank you for taking a chance on my books and for dropping by my blog. Galactic Exploration was a lot of fun to write. There were some really interesting concepts to delve into. In all, I’ve now written eleven novels about First Contact (with a 12th on the way), so it’s certainly a subject I enjoy. Perhaps one day, First Contact will no longer be fiction 🙂
That would be nice – one hopes. About the only “sure thing” that mitigates against such a meeting is what some wags have called “God’s quarantine regulation”, the speed of light. Similar questions exist about time travel, tile line travel, and the like. “Where are they?” If these were feasible as opposed to impossible or theoretically possible, we’d be seeing these travelers and their artifacts all over the place. H. Beam Piper, for example, had his alternate time lines. They were good readable stories; but, the exclusivity of the technology to one one of a very large but not infinite number of time lines was a huge stretch of the imagination.
“Where are they” is coming closer to “how few are there” as we learn of the increasingly improbable series of events that led to intelligent life on this planet. Planets are plentiful. Planets with the evolution drivers and salubrious conditions we have are much less plentiful. On the other paw, if “they” are out there and come to visit, would they follow through or hold their metaphorical noses and throw up a quarantine around us.
One of the more intriguing observations I’ve read about involves the Earth’s path around the Milky Way galaxy. Apparently it bobs up and down out of its home ring periodically subjecting the Earth to enhanced intergalactic radiation exposure. We are thought to be on the rising radiation path and may have an evolution storm coming. Of course, the disclaimer “Not in the puny human life time,” applies.
And I’ll probably be finding more of your books soon. I am scheduled to use up some of my backlog tomorrow. Power is being shut off for power line maintenance and coupling in a disgraceful pile of basically tenement homes South of us. We have low crime so the California government requires us to install homes for likely miscreants (low cost housing) nearby. Sigh! It’s not “PC” to notice that statistically likely event – about as likely as getting hit by a car on a freeway you are crossing with your eyes closed.
{^_^}
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Don’t underestimate the sheer size of the universe when considering life elsewhere. If there was only, on average, one civilisation per galaxy, meaning we’re alone in the Milky Way, there would still be 200 billion civilisations out there, just so far away we could never contact them, and would struggle to detect them.
Indeed, size assures existence of intelligence, many times one presumes. But the potential brevity of the existence of intelligence and vast distances in time and space the likelihood of two concurrent cases within communications range of each other seems remarkably unlikely. Um, and note there are galaxies that are about to drift out of range for even light speed travel if expansion is indeed accelerating.
The calculations almost verge on the sins involved in proving 1 equals 2. The dynamic range of the numbers one must play with is depressingly large (says she who works in two fields that play with very large dynamic ranges – radios/audio and computers.)
But, we can all dream. And maybe in that dreaming we learn some way to live together despite great differences leaving room for each other.
{^_-}
Sorry, I missed your message for several YEARS… yes, the expansion of the universe makes the existence of intelligence that cannot reach others all the more frustrating
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Hi Pete – I work for a management production company called Circle of Confusion. One of our managers was hoping to reach out to you. Could you give me a call at 310-691-7023 at your convenience
Thomas, sorry I missed your message way back in 2019. Please let me know if you still want to chat
I read your book Mars Endeavour in my Kindle a couple of years ago.Then recently I bought Retrograde and Reentry…. and then I realized I know this plot and indeed I discovered that Mars Endeavour and Retrograde are in fact the same book !!! So my question is : Why the same book is being sold with two names ??
Josef, Sorry about that. The confusion wasn’t intentional. Mars Endeavour was picked up by HMH Publishing. The original book was unpublished and revised to become Retrograde (there was a big discussion about whether to keep the same name, I forget all the details, but in the end a decision was made to take the book in a different direction with a new name, but yes, it is essentially the same story — different edition). I hope you enjoyed the way the story tied into Reentry, as without the support of the publisher that book would have never been written (I rarely do sequels).
Loved Anomaly and will be leaving 5 star reviews. One correction: on page 262 you reference a 50mm machine gun mounted on a military vehicle. This is probably a 50 caliber (a common machine gun mounted on american military vehicles) and later you reference M16 machine guns when they are more appropriately termed an M16 rifle (and in modern times elite unites would be carrying M4).
Again, LOVED the book and I will look into your other works. Keep up the good work.
Jeremy, thank you for taking the time to make these suggestions (I’ve updated both references). Thanks for supporting independent science fiction. If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter if you’d like to hear about upcoming releases. Cheers, Peter
Dear Mr Cawdron
I’ve read probably half a dozen of your books via kindle. just finished Maelstrom.
May I say that your books give me as much pleasure and enjoyment as I got from all the Isaac Asimov books I read so long ago. You have a great talent for writing.
Please give up your day job!
Pete
(Engineer – retired)
Hi Peter.
Thank you for your kind words of encouragement. I went full-time as an author last year. Here’s to remaining full-time 🙂
Maelstrom was a slow-burn story. In particular, I really enjoyed developing the last section with the alien spaceship manipulating time. Playing around with that concept was a lot of fun.
If you’re interested, I just launched my latest novel today! It’s called Wherever Seeds May Fall.
Take care
Unsolicited advice: You should think about maybe releasing your blog posts as an old-school low-fi audio podcast and maybe also read fiction excerpts sometimes. I think a lot of the new science-fiction audiodrama podcasts that are so popular now share something with your work. That audience might enjoy your writing as much as I do. I recommend your work every chance I get! Thank you for your work.
Hi Dana, thank you for the suggestion. I’m currently thinking about a YouTube channel where I review books, but a podcast of the blog posts is a good idea as well. At the moment, my focus is on writing, but the books aren’t doing that well, so I’m open to other ideas
Peter,
I just read 3zekiel and enjoyed it very much. I will look for some of your other books.
However, you did say at the end of your book that you try to keep things “realistic”. I would like to point out that your calculations for gravity maybe accurate, but the effects on weight are not. Remember they are spinning around the earth ultimately ending up in “orbit” in the asteroid. They will be completely weightless inside any orbiting object. I have more to say on what the trip up the elevator might be like, if you are interested.
Curtis, I try to walk a fine line between realism and info-dumping in stories. I forget the exact metrics I referred to when writing the story. A space elevator is not technically in orbit as it’s held in place by the tension in the centrifugal force of the cable (cut the cable and it’ll fly off into space, it won’t remain in orbit where it is). This force isn’t negligible and would be felt by anyone up there. Up/down are tricky concepts in space, but in the book I describe a microgravity environment where they have a semblance of up/down (technically they’re in a pseudo microgravity environment as the force being felt is centrifugal). Also, there’s the gravity of the asteroid in question to consider. In the story, the cable is cut at the base, but it takes time for that to propagate upward. Ultimately, it’s fiction. I’m trying to dance between plausible concepts as the story unfolds 🙂
This link might help explain the various forces acting on a space elevator better than I can
https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/344705/gravitational-centrifugal-effects-felt-in-a-space-elevator
Cheers, Peter
Peter,
Your work is fantastic. I finished reading Cold Eyes last night, and I have moved on to Clowns.
A couple of things regarding statements relating to firearms that are erroneous in the latter. First, loading 17 rounds into the standard Glock 17 magazine isn’t extraordinarily difficult. Therefore, it would not be rare for an individual’s magazine to be loaded to full capacity. (Not sure how Breezy would have known it was a 17, rather than a Glock 22, or a 31 pistol, since the three are nearly identical in appearance, and really only differ in caliber. Only three internal parts are not interchangeable. Four parts, if you count the magazine.) Second, bullet weight is measured in grains, not grams. Third, the general rule is that lighter bullets in a given caliber produce greater recoil than their heavier counterparts. E.g., a 115 grain 9mm Luger round will most often produce greater recoil than a 147 grain round.
I appreciate the knowledge you have imparted to me through your work thus far, and wanted to return the favor. Don’t hesitate to reach out in the future if you need an unofficial volunteer firearms expert to run things by.
Back to reading!
Thank you for the insights. As much as I’d love to be published in a traditional bookstore by one of the big-name publishers, the nice thing about independent publishing is that I can make changes quickly and easily. I’ll jump in and correct this and have it republished by the end of the day 🙂
Thank you for supporting independent science fiction.
Peter,
My pleasure. Thank you for providing me with an opportunity to learn from you, while keeping me entertained, through your work. I am glad I found a new author with the type of talent you possess. There is no question in my mind that your exceptional storytelling abilities warrant wider distribution!
I just finished Tempest and I loved it. One of the things that makes all of your first contact books so enjoyable is that a single person has been able to come up with so many varied scenarios for first contact. It makes even the one story that is less likely than the others still enjoyable because the reader knows that this is just one direction your rich imagination took.
I very much look forward to your future books.
Thank you for your kind support of independent science fiction. I’m currently working on Apothecary, which is set in 15th Century England, os that will be yet another varied scenario for you to consider. Cheers, Peter
Hey, I’m in the UK and have a Kobo reader, their store is missing lots of your books and wondered if you could somehow nudge them to add them as I’d like to read them!
Alternatively is there a way to buy an ebook version for non-kindle readers?
Lawrence,
Unfortunately, no.
Please let me explain. Most of my books are in Kindle Unlimited, which is like Spotify but for books, meaning readers pay an annual subscription and then can read anything they like. For an obscure author like me, it’s a godsend as it means readers will take a chance on an unknown author. Often, they then go on to read everything I’ve written. So for me, it is a great way of being discovered. Although I earn less per book by being in this library, I earn far more from being in the library than I do from ebook sales alone. It looks something like this… 70% of reads come from KU, 28% are actual ebook sales and 2% are physical books. The one downside is to be in Kindle Unlimited, my books need to be exclusive with Amazon (hence why you can’t find all of them on Kobo).
Without Kindle Unlimted, I would not be a fulltime author. And without being a fulltime author, my books would be mediocre. Since I went fulltime—right when the pandemic hit—my writing ability, style, characterisation and plotting has grown exponentially. I’m thankful for readers like you that make it possible for me to write. I’d love it if I was a big name author like Andy Wier (who Amazon will allow to be in KU and also on Kobo), but that’s a loooong way off.
You will find some of my books on Kobo, but not all of them
https://www.kobo.com/au/en/search?query=cawdron
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, congratulations on going full time as a writer, I’ve really enjoyed your work.
Totally understand, shame Amazon forces you to make that choice
Like everyone else here, I am a big fan of your stories. A question I have wanted to ask: Other than the stories that take place off world, most of them take place in the US, at least the ones I have read so far. Why not New Zealand or Australia, which are closer to your stomping grounds as it were?
On another subject: I enjoyed “Mr. Fluffy Bunny,” but I kept wondering when the aliens were going to show up, which of course, didn’t happen, much to my surprise. I gave it 5 Stars on Amazon, by the way.
Hi Andrew, thank you for your kind support of independent science fiction.
Easily 90% of my audience is in the US, so I tend to focus on US-centric stories (as I lived there for four years). I do weave other cultures in, though. Apothecary is set in London (1558 & current day), while in Jury Duty, the protagonist, Nick, has a significant point of character growth while onboard the Te Kaha (an actual NZ frigate). And the Maori character was modelled after someone I knew growing up who, tragically, passed away about a decade ago. So that was my quiet tribute to a fallen friend. My latest novel, The Art of War (coming out on June 30) has characters from China and India, with a significant portion of the book occurring in India. I think my novels will always be US-centric as it was US science fiction that shaped my love for the genre, but I try to keep a global feel to the stories.
I’m glad you enjoyed Mister Fluffy Bunny. That was the result of me challenging myself to write a character-centric story without any of the usual props/tropes of science fiction, such as aliens and lasers, etc, so for me it was a lot of fun to develop.
Thank you again for supporting independent science fiction. It really is deeply appreciated. Each novel you read is an investment in the next one as it allows me to continue to write.
Haha, spent 1973 in Vietnam on the Blue Ridge doing the daily briefings for the joint task force. I don’t think it will be sacrificial for a few years yet to come.
Joseph, I got to tour the USS Blue Ridge when it was in port here in Brisbane back in (roughly) 2005. It’s a magnificent ship. In my mind, The Art of War occurs some time around 2030. Sorry for sinking the Blue Ridge. I think I was drawn to it because I’d walk its deck and explored some of the living spaces.
With regard to helicopter combat approaches to ships…
Before the Blue Ridge I spent a year on the Providence (CRUDESPAC Flagship). One night Adm. Robinson (COMCRUDESGRUSEVENTHFLEET) and his staff were returning from a coordination meeting in advance of Operation Pocket Money – the raid on/mining of Haiphong Harbor. Per his habit, the Admiral and his staff erre unbuckled from their seats and standing by the door for the landing. Unfortunately it was rough seas and the engine stalled just as they got down to the last few feet from the deck. At the same time a big wave threw the stern up and the the Sea King hit the side of the stern. I and others were standing there when the helo impacted and the rotor promptly disintegrated into a head-height whirl of shrapnel. I dove behind one of the middle ejectors as everyone sought what cover they could. A couple of the aviation deck crew dove for the nets around the fantail and one went overboard. The Admiral and two of his staff were killed because they weren’t strapped into their seats for that landing. The flight crew and two staff officers survived, the Admiral’s body was recovered, the overboard sailor found the next day by a destroyer, and two staff officers lost at sea..
Oh, wow, that’s terrifying… helicopters are astonishing feats of engineering, but when something goes wrong, they’re unforgiving
Hi Peter,
I have really enjoyed your diverse range of first contact books. Just a suggestion- the one in which you use the Te Mana frigate. Well my son is an engineer on a UK frigate and Te Mana would not be getting 30knots on her diesels. She would be using her gas turbines and she would only reach 30 knots in smooth seas.
Hi Graham, thanks for the tip. I’ll update Jury Duty to read 25 knots. As they have roughly a thousand kilometers to cover, I was trying to squeeze plausibility as the whole trip is on fast forward 🙂
I’ve now read or listened to 4 of your books and I’m about to start the 5th – I absolutely love them. I just finished listening to But the Stars. There was one part where the book says that Alnitak is a quadruple star system (I listened to it twice to verify) but it’s a triple star system. Is that an error in the audiobook, was it intentional, or did I mishear that?
Thanks!
Congratulations! You are the ONLY person that has ever found this little Easter egg and asked about Alnitak! It is indeed a three star system. There is some speculation that there’s a fourth star (magnitude 9) but astronomers aren’t sure if it is simply a line-of-sight illusion (meaning it’s either in front of or behind Alnitak and so looks like it’s part of the system but isn’t). For the sake of the story, which is set in the future, I decided this was (then/now) settled as being the fourth star, as this is something they would know with certainty in the future. Thank you for your kind support of independent science fiction (and your keen eye). Cheers, Peter
PS. be sure to subscribe to my newsletter if you’re interested in new releases https://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/subscribe-to-my-newsletter/
Hi Peter,
Don’t know whether this is the right place to suggest something like this, but here goes:
I know that your work is available both as eBooks as well as audiobooks. I like both. Audiobooks when I do routine work like sanding, painting or whatever and eBooks when I have time to relax and can actually sit down somewhere.
I have long been looking for something like Amazon’s Whispersync, where you can switch seamlessly between listening, reading and back again. My wife is enjoying it all the time with a Chinese system by WeRead (part ow WeChat), but they mostly have only Chinese language books on that platform and that makes listening and especially reading it a bit difficult for me.
Yesterday I finally stumbled across an EPUB3 audiobook-eBook, installed the Thorium Reader on my Windows 10 PC and was amazed how well it works. Apparently there aren’t all that many ePub3 eBooks with media overlays yet, but I am pretty sure that there will be in the future.
I have learned from you, so that now me and several of my friends offer their books on Kindle Unlimited. As an independent author, wouldn’t it be interesting to offer your work as eBooks, as audiobooks as well as ePub3 eBooks with media overlays? You already have the first two right there and I guess it would not be too cumbersome to combine the two into ePub3 eBooks with media overlays.
What do you think?
Best,
KrautHolg
Hi KrautHolg. First, thank you for taking a chance on independent science fiction. In answer to your question, as an indie, I don’t have a publishing agent or a traditional publisher, so I’m dependent on Amazon (I know, I know, that’s contradicts being independent, but I still have to reach readers somehow). Amazon are moving away from their traditional formatting to epub, so they might be looking at things like media overlays, but it’s not something I can rush ahead with myself. I’d love to make more of my books into audiobooks, but it is a vicious market dominated by pirates (as I wrote about here https://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/2023/08/06/walk-the-plank/ ), but I know Amazon is experimenting with something called Virtual Voice, which is an AI generated audiobook on-the-fly. It’s still in the beta-phase, and I have mixed feelings about it as AI is a leech on creativity, but I suspect this is their replacement for whispersync. The audiobooks I have had developed by Podium Audio have all been outstanding in terms of narration, really bringing stories to life, but it is more costly and time consuming. It will be interesting to see what comes out in this space over the next year or so. Cheers, Peter
Thank you very much! I had no idea. I thought that you can simply (more or less) combine the eBook and the audiobook into an EPUB3 and that’s it. We’ll have to wait and see then how the audiobook-eBook combination develops.
Hi – I’m a Reference Librarian at the Worcester Public Library (Worcester, MA, USA) and I lead our science fiction book club. Our February book is your novel Retrograde. We’ll be discussing it via Zoom on 2/20/2024 at 1:00pm Eastern time.
Would you like to join us? We’ve had Robert J. Sawyer, John Scalzi, Elizabeth Moon, Walter Hunt, Mira Grant, and other great authors join us when we discussed their books, and we hope you can join the fun too! My work email is mfriedenthal@mywpl.org and I’m looking forward to your reply.