Friday, January 1, 2016

New Siqdor by Stephen J. Carter - Exclusive Excerpt and Giveaway


This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Stephen will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner, and a Digital copy of New Siqdor from Amazon to another randomly drawn winner; both prizes via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The environmental stilling on the planet of Nebura escalates, threatening to advance even beyond the world-girding storm ring. Meanwhile, Levrok's plan to arm a resurgent Siqdori Empire with a tulvar arsenal nears completion, and his departure off-world is imminent. Two survivors' groups join forces as events spiral out of control.

"NEW SIQDOR" is the 2nd book in the “Zero Point Light” SF series, and delivers a thrill ride of untold mayhem, hair-raising escapes, space colonization gone awry, and a descent to the ocean floor and beyond!

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt:

Aleesha turned to Turok. “How did your hunt for hidden crystals go?”

“It didn’t,” he said.

She turned to Mick. “You still want to establish a base on Polarica?”

Mick nodded. “Sending a beacon really is our only shot at being rescued.”

“A virtual beacon, of sorts,” Franklin added. “The planetarium gave us the idea.”

Mick smiled. “It was entirely Franklin’s idea, and we’ve since built on it.”

“We can deploy a holofield satellite,” Franklin said. “Then we’d send out a digital signal that the satellite should transmit as an FTL beacon.”

Mick shrugged. “Even after deployment, it’s not a sure thing. Hopefully it’ll be intercepted.”

“But all of this is moot unless we get to Polarica. And that depends on finding crystals, doesn’t it?” Carmen said, ever the realist.

“That’s true, there are no crystals,” Turok said. “But we may have found an alternative.” He was grinning.

“Oh?” Mick smiled.

“A nuclear sub.”

“You can’t mean,” Carmen asked, “an old nuclear-powered sub?”

“The very same.” Turok had folded his arms.

“Tell us again about the crystals,” Carmen said, smiling.

Thomas emptied his cooled coffee into a soup bowl and poured himself a fresh cup. “There are no crystals, period. But Turok’s hybrid nuclear sub should serve our purpose.”

Mick laughed. “I’m bursting to know what a nuke sub is doing in Oceangate, but first – can you get it running?”

“Absolutely!” Turok said, beaming.

“The odds are good,” Thomas said, qualifying Turok’s enthusiasm.

“I hate to be a spoilsport –” Carmen began.

“No you don’t!” Turok laughed.

Carmen scowled. “Maybe we should keep looking for crystals? After all, isn’t all the power here in Watyra from crystals? There must be some way –”

“True, the power here is from crystals,” Thomas said. “But they’re also embedded in the landline stations. There’s no way to adapt those into portable crystals.”

“You’re sure?”

He nodded.

Mick turned to Turok. “You’re serious about this?”

“We found a pallet of arc components for its circulation reactor. It looks like we have everything we need.”

“We accessed the ship’s emergency power node and did a quick start-up test,” Thomas added. “All systems worked fine.”

“This is great,” Mick said as he sat back down. “We have to assume Rainer was right, that Polarica remains unaffected by the stilling, for now. That’s one reason to go. A second is to deploy this holobeacon.”

“Assuming we find a way to do it,” Thomas added.

“In the record there’s a facility near the Pole where it should be possible,” Mick said.

“It’s certainly worth a try,” Franklin added.

“Well, how soon do we need the sub up and running?” Turok asked.

“The sooner the better,” Mick said, glancing quickly at Carmen.

About the Author:
Stephen J Carter is a Canadian writer living in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He completed a PhD in Social and Political Thought at York University in Toronto in 1997. This led to an 8-year period of teaching at universities in South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. In 2006 he settled in northern Thailand, and began writing fiction full-time in 2007.

In his early years he made several short-term forays into film and video production while involved full-time in academia. Along the way he tried his hand at writing non-fiction in and out of academia, and 8 years ago finally committed full-time to writing fiction.

For Stephen there is something about this northern Thai city that makes it a perfect place to write. His preferred genres to date have been horror and science fiction. On the one hand, he sets his horror novels in Thailand because Thais have such vivid customs that touch the supernatural. On the other hand, disheartened by the cultural Marxism that dominates social discourse now in the West, he feels drawn to writing science fiction for the rational optimism over possible futures it affords. Approaching SF formerly as pure escapism, he finds in it now a source of hope and forward thinking that can be very inspiring.

Stephen looks forward to writing several more novels in his two current series, Zero Point Light and Z Inferno.

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-J-Carter/e/B00IUPJIP0
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/872381.Stephen_J_Carter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephenscifi
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephenjcarterauthor?fref=nf
Website: http://www.stephenjcarter.com/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

17 comments:

  1. Thanks to 'It's Raining Books' blog for hosting my book. Plus a shout-out of welcome to all site visitors. Enjoy! and Happy New Year!

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  2. Enjoyed the excerpt.

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    1. Hi Becky, thanks! I have many, maybe too many, scenes like this, where they're talking over what to do next. LOL All the best in 2016!

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  3. What motivates you to work hard?

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    1. Hi Mai, thanks for this question. It's not money or celebrity or needing to see the a work finished. It's like if I'm entirely alone on a dying planet, with no possible audience ever. Then it's like a song you can't forget, the tune keeps playing over in your mind. You feel a joy & need & peace in humming the tune, seeing in your mind the story the lyrics tell, feeling the emotions of the tune. Writing a story is like that, you enjoy the language, are intrigued by the events, feel the emotions in both together, like humming a song. So you keep doing it till it's finished. The song (story) is finished and you move on. It doesn't matter there's no audience. All the best!

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  4. Thanks for the visits and comments. And thanks to 'It's Raining Books' for hosting me. Cheers & Happy New Year!

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  5. Really loved the unique excerpt and plot.

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  6. I loved the excerpt!
    Thanks for the chance to win!

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  7. Replies
    1. The antagonist, Levrok, is reviving the proscribed tulvar weaponry to bring back the Siqdori Empire. He wants to build a New Siqdor. Happy 2016 to you!

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  8. What is the hardest part of writing a book for you?

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    1. Planning the sequence of 80 or so scenes to tell the story. It's hard b/c the story needs a gripping inciting incident at the start that overturns the hero's life.

      Then the story has to build that slowly with the hero making new decisions as the antagonist keeps coming after him. Things go from bad to worse for the hero until the closing crisis when he/she makes an unexpected final decision and struggles through, resolving in the crisis/climax the original problem from the inciting incident.

      Once I have that 80-scene plan in place it becomes almost fun writing the scenes, 1 by 1.

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So... inquiring minds want to know: what do you think?