VBT & #Giveaway: Alien Plague by Chris Koehler
@Archaeolibrary, @GoddessFish,
Dr Avery Hutton lives in good times. All of humanity now lives under the Global republic, a democratic government that works hard to protect the rights of their citizens, expand orbital infrastructure and explore space. The last of which is helped by the relatively new Warp Drive, allowing probes to travel to and from the nearest stars over the course of a few years.
This is part of Avery’s job, helping organize the missions form the ground, his specialty being the analysis of microorganism form other star systems. But this most recent mission will change everything. For while every return mission previously had gone well, and few issues were observed, this time one of the returning samples is a bit… nastier than any previous sample. This time something has returned that could wipe out all life on Earth.
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“It can’t be that dangerous,” said Anna. “Diseases were something that killed our ancestors, not something we deal with today.”
Dr. Foster sighed, “If we could fight it, we could have saved Nicole. Don’t you think we would have done that if we could?”
“Are you saying you’re incompetent?”
“No, I‘m saying that these pathogens can’t be dealt with by modern medicine, and we have no more ways of stopping a Beta Strain infection today, than we did when Nicole got infected.”
But I felt like a dead man in here, like this was my tomb, where I had been taken to die. That if I did not escape, I would die. I knew that was not true, that if I escaped I would either die or live with my location not mattering at all… How did Elia, the man who died on me, and so many of the others keep so calm? How did they face death so well? I wish I could be half as calm as they were… I think I understood the people who rioted… #$%$ this sucks.
How do you develop your writing ideas?
My ideas come from many places, often I take inspiration from other fiction, or from real life. There are many ways to use the said inspiration that don’t lead to you simply revisiting old ideas.
1. For fiction you could visit an idea that was only touched on.
Let’s say that you enjoy a particular work of fiction, but for whatever reason, it briefly discusses a topic you feel could be its own story. Say, for example, that the story you enjoyed has archeology of alien artifacts from a distant planet as a reason for how much of the advanced technology of the setting was developed. However aside from using it as an excuse to get humans more advanced technology, the story doesn’t explore this aspect. Now you ask questions that the story might have ignored.
Are there other species/races/cultures in this setting? If yes, do they approve of this method of technological advancement? Do any of them consider this to be grave robbing? Are any of them concerned that humanity might eclipse them technologically and try to stop this process? Are there any after-effects of this method? Are humans reliant on technology they don’t understand beyond usage and replication? Can they improve upon the technology or just build/use it? Do they know what the safety systems are, what happens when one is damaged or disabled? Are we excavating from the ruins of an extinct race, or are they still around? If so, how do they feel about this?
What about the market itself, are there dangerous gigs as archeologists push to excavate new technology? Are there fights, potential battles, and wars resulting in death, over some of these artifacts? How do you have a war over a delicate piece of ancient hardware without damaging it? Lastly what happens to all of this if someone figures out how to improve the technology without studying the artifacts, does anyone try to stop them? If there are other races/species/cultures, do they try to help or hinder this development?
2. For reality you could extrapolate off of something that is or was real.
For example, prison colonies. Do they do work with the prisoners? Do the prisoners get compensated or are they used as free labor? If they are used as free labor, do judges and police ramp up sentences and convictions to get as many prisons as much free labor as possible? What kind of location do you put your prison colony in? What if it’s not a prison colony per se but a place where you dump prisoners who have completed their sentence without letting them lose back home? A place where all the people who screwed up and committed some sort of crime can be free to start over among people like them? Does that idea work, or make everything worse?
These are just a couple of examples of ways you can take real-life or fictional inspiration. I have heard the phrase “There is nothing new under the Sun” before. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take a look at our old stuff, and make it interesting with a fresh look. So if you find yourself asking about how something works in fiction, or what if we did something in real life, go with some logical questions, and make something new.
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I am a new author and this is my first book. I started working on this story around 2016 and have been refining it ever since.
I first got interested in writing years ago, I took part in a junior writing fare, and wrote as a volunteer from a teenage perspective at a local newspaper. My parents loved Science Fiction and Fantasy and passed on that love to me.
While this is my first book, I hope it’s not my last, I hope you enjoy it!
Book available here:
https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Plague-Christopher-Koehler-ebook/dp/B09ML694GW/
https://www.audible.com/pd/B0B4V82JZH/
You can find my Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/CKoehlerAuthor
Tour hosted by: Goddess Fish Promotions
