Monthly Archives: November 2013

November Microstory

Here is my submission for a SHORT story in the November Micro-story Contest for the Science Fiction Readers, Writers, Collectors and Artists group on LinkedIn. I made it into the final round this time. I hope you like it and will check out this great group of enthusiasts.

Stasis

Adam Jones woke and saw he was heavily bandaged and lying inside a transparent chamber. It sat on a metal platform, and reminded him of a test tube. There was a flashing green light on the glass by his left hand. He reached out and pressed it. Cold air rushed in as the top opened, making him shiver. He climbed out onto the icy cold metal floor. He saw a rack of uniforms not far away. He walked toward it while pulling off the bandages, and seeing no wounds, pulled on a uniform and zipped it. He slipped on a pair of sandals and looked around. The room was 100 feet long and 20 wide. There were dozens more tubes, but their surfaces were coated in thick frost. The only door was to his left, so he headed toward it, not knowing what to expect on the other side. He turned the knob and as it was unlocked, he pushed it open and stepped through.

This room narrowed quickly to a pointed end, where a robot was sitting at a console, pressing buttons and moving levers. Windows lining the room revealed the panorama of open space. “Hello, Major Jones,” the machine said without turning. Its voice was deep and throaty, like Adam’s father.

“What the hell are you and where are you taking me?” he growled.

The robot turned and pushed out a second chair. The robot’s face was designed to look human, but joints were visible, like a ventriloquist’s dummy. “Please join me, Major. My name is Godfrey, and I was constructed to take you to a new home.”

With no other options, Adam came forward and sat down. “I don’t want a new home, Godfrey. I want to go back to my world.”

Godfrey smiled and replied, “You’re kidding, right? Don’t you remember anything?”

“What are you talking about? I was sleeping in my bunk and you kidnapped me.”

“Doctor Watson thought this might happen,” Godfrey noted as he continued pressing buttons. A single bright star was directly ahead of them. “Long term stasis may induce amnesia,” Godfrey said in a different voice. The first voice said, “I estimated that would take 5,000 years to occur and you have been here only 1,200.”

“I’ve been in stasis for a millennium?” Adam gasped.

“Yes. It seems you have forgotten the war. You were a highly decorated soldier, Major. The West was on the verge of victory when the fight went nuclear.”

“Wait, I think I remember some of that now. The capital was obliterated along with dozens of cities around the world. We have to go back, Godfrey. We have to rebuild!”

“Sorry, Major. We can’t do that. The last message I received said the radiation level was rising and would destroy all life within days. Your planet is long dead and won’t be habitable for a million years.” Godfrey pulled two levers and pushed his control stick to the left. A small blue planet appeared as a dot on the screen.

“Is that where we’re going?” Adam asked.

“It is a final gift from President Harven. They eradicated all signs of radiation poisoning in 400 men and 400 women. Their skin rashes, like yours, were bandaged. A man and woman from each of the twenty primary races were put on starships and launched toward 20 promising exoplanets. It was Harven’s hope that at least one ship would succeed and humanity would survive.” The ship slowed and settled into a low orbit over the blue planet. “You, Major Jones, and Evelyn Carter are the Caucasians on this ship. You are the hope of your doomed planet and this planet is your gift.”

The door behind them opened and others began to come forward, many still covered in head-to-toe bandages. “Godfrey, what do we do now?”

“I will take you to the surface shortly. For now, I think you should name your new home. Mr. Harven suggested each group add a letter to the name of the home world so it would never be forgotten. This ship was the fifth to launch.”

Adam sighed heavily, overwhelmed by fear and sadness at the death of his home planet. “Well, since E is the fifth letter, I guess we will call this place Earth.”

 

Hive Giveaway Congratulations

HIVE-ebookcover (2)Congratulations to the ten winners of the second Goodreads.com giveaway of a copy of The Hive, my award winning science fiction novel about the “real” origination of humanity. The books are on their way now.

The Hive further demonstrates the awesome power of a Hive, where billions of minds are linked to move mountains, or in this case, a planet sized spaceship from our galaxy to the Andromeda Galaxy, two and one-half million light years away.

Our pal, Dave Brewster, faces more than enough challenges as he learns that people cannot escape their less-than-pure instincts and motivation to control others. Join the adventure to find out if the fledgling Free Society can survive.

A New Direction?

I have a bit of a backlog on getting new works to print. Heartstone: The Time Walker was just released on October 15, 2013. At this point, my primary concern is with my graphic designer, Ron Calica. Ron moved back to the Philippines a few months ago for financial reasons. Now he is dealing with the second major typhoon to hit the region and has dealt with the aftermath. He is a great talent and I really hope to help him find other authors who need his talents with cover design. Baruch Hashem for him to overcome the current problems and find what he needs.

Ron just sent me a new cover for my next work, entitled The Accord, which is the fifth book in the Dave Brewster Series of sci-fi novels. This novel is unique, centered on how our friend, Dave Brewster, deals with a society of cyborg planetoids out to take over our galaxy.

Following that book are two new novels, tentatively entitled The Two Doors and Prophecy, which are based in our own time. Both deal with young men who are inspired by the Divine to see the future and have to learn to deal with that knowledge of what will happen.  The Two Doors is in the can waiting for cover art and editing. Prophecy is being written as part of NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, where aspiring authors like me  are encouraged to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. Trust me, that is not a problem, however, most of my works are 80k to 110k words in length.

Do you think I’ll make the quota? After one week, I’m at 18k words?, which is more than the 50k per month pace. Please make a donation to NaNoWriMo.org to support the work of this important group. I am considering posting the new chapters of Prophecy to this website if you all think that would help get the word out. Please let me know what you think. Please comment on this thread or e-mail me at karl@karljmorgan.com with whatever you want to say.

My new books focus more closely on what I believe, as a man of faith. I am very interested in what you think of my works. Today and tomorrow are great days to say what you want me to hear. God bless you and our great country.

What a year it has been!

It looks like The Time Walker will be the last of my books to be published this year. But that’s okay! I have already finished the drafts of two more that will come out early in 2014, and a lot more ideas up my sleeve. These books were released this year:

The Dave Brewster Series

  • Second Predaxian War (book 2)
  • The Hive (book 3)
  • Tears of Gallia (book 4)

Heartstone Series

  • Sentinels of Far Sun (book 1)
  • The Time Walker (book 2)

For 2014, The Accord, book 5 of The Dave Brewster Series, will be out early. As I noted in an earlier post, I’ve taken all of craziness of NSA spying scandal and the takeover of the economy to the extreme, as the leaders of a Nan planet make themselves immortal by putting their brains inside machines. Over time, they become more machine than man and turn on the people they had sworn to protect. Now, they are planning to invade and enslave our galaxy. It will be up to Dave Brewster to stop them.

Shortly thereafter, my newest book, The Two Doors, will be released. This book will either be the start of a new series, or may stand on it’s own. It is very different from my earlier works. It is the story of a young man who graduates from college and moves to NYC to find his fortune. Peter Smith has a little problem though. He has terrible nightmares that have started to come true. The story moves very fast as the world begins to spin toward total destruction, and Pete is caught between two powerful families that seem to have unworldly powers. I’ll write more about it soon.

Finally, I would like to say how happy I am that The Hive received an Honorable Mention (tied for 3rd place) in the General Fiction category at the Southern California Book Festival. To celebrate, I’m giving away another ten copies on Goodreads.com. Go there and look for the contest and sign up. Also, all four books of The Dave Brewster Series will be test marketed at Barnes and Noble stores around the country. Thank you for joining me on this incredible adventure. Below is the link to the Goodreads.com giveaway.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17575346-the-hive