Well, here it is, December, 2016. This year has flown by.

Of course, it is the joyous Christmas season that lights up hearth and home for my family. Though the year is coming to an end, in my home Christmas is a time of renewal; with family, friends, and life in general.

Another reason to be joyful this month is the release of my second novel, “The Battle of Broken Moon” Released today, 6 December!

I can’t start to explain how this feels. I am certainly blessed to have been guided to the great people at Fire Star. I know a great many writers, through my interactions on social media, who have been striving, some for decades, to get published. When I stop to consider all the synchronicity that transpired to get me to this point, I can only stop,  and thank Jung!

In “The Battle of Broken Moon” we will learn what happen on the lunar surface while Sergeant Hugh Pacherd and his people struggled to survive beneath the Moon’s crust in “Dark Moon Rising.”

 

We’ll start quite some time before the quake that nearly destroyed humanity’s first off world settlement. We will follow a group of dedicated young Lunar Civil Defense Detachment volunteers through their training, and suffer with them the horrifying events that overtook them before deployment to the Moon.

It is during orientation, on the Moon, at the Joint International Lunar Laboratory, JILL, that the horrific quake strikes. In the pandemonium that follows the LCDD springs into action to save as many lives as possible.

But something is amiss. Key installations, not destroyed in the quake, and necessary to the evacuation, are suffering catastrophic malfunctions, and being threatened by other calamities, placing in jeopardy the lives of all the survivors. Post concerning is the fact that there is no rational explanation for these events . A lot has been destroyed at random, but what’s happening now defies logic.

In the course of trying to preserve what is left, and to determine the reason for the enigmatic disasters, the absolutely unimaginable occurs. JILL is attacked from space, and an invasion force lands and assaults the facility.

Who are these invaders? What can they possibly hope to gain from attacking this lone human outpost?

Who will survive, The battle of Broken Moon? 

  

I hope you’ll join me in this adventure. He who reads closely will find hints to underlying truths that set future stories into motion, and will, ultimately, reveal an unsavory reality.

Book II of the Unborn Galaxy Series, “The Battle of Broken Moon” available now!

Book two of Unborn Galaxy -- The Battle of Broken Moon

THE BATTLE OF BROKEN MOON

Book two of The Unborn Galaxy series.

 First, let me acknowledge this seventy-second anniversary of the 6th Of June, 1944 — “D-Day”.

I have had the good fortune to meet and talk with Infantrymen, Artillerymen, Paratroopers, and Naval Gunners. I met Coast Guardsmen who drove the Higgin’s boats ashore that morning, and countless other heroes of that nightmarish day.

I have also met and talked with German veterans, and gotten a feel for the horrors they experienced. And I learned of their mindset from before, during, and after they survived the hellish bombardments and the fierce battle.

 War truly is all hell, as Sherman said, and thus should be avoided.

 That having been said let us all recall the terrible sacrifice suffered by the Americans, Canadians, and British on those blood soaked beaches, on this date those long years ago.

###

People who know me are quite frankly shocked to learn that my first published book is a work of Science Fiction. Given my own back story and my current position as the curator of a military history museum they were, naturally, perplexed.

“Mike,” I’m frequently asked. “A love story on the Moon, really?”

I try to explain that it’s actually an adventure. A story of the human condition, an examination of prejudice, and bias. A story of our desire to survive in the face of certain death. It is a story of treachery, and deceit, of irrational belief, and an irrepressible desire for power.

 It is the story of the human need for something that will complete us, and bring meaning to our lives.

It is the ancient story of the struggle between good and evil. It is a mirror on our past, a vista of the present, and a window to our future. 

 Humanity has always been its own yin and yang; struggling against itself. Good gives rise to evil, and evil feeds off of good. One cannot exist without the other.

 

 In fact, each thrives on the contest. Good would never be rewarded without a victory over evil. With no measure for it — what good is good?

 And what would evil be without its eternal foe? Indeed, were there no good in the universe who would recognize evil for what it is?

Of course this eternal combat is at the root of all stories. It is conflict we crave! Who among us would read a story of eternal peace and harmony? Page after endless page of beautiful spring days, birds chirping, and neighbors helping one another hand in hand. Perhaps as they prepare of the long awaited wedding between two beautiful young people in an ideal utopian community?

But — should that spring day be shattered by the grinding cacophony of the treads of a Division of Panzers blitzing toward that pastoral hamlet destroying the wedding and separating the perfect young lovers — well, now we have a story that promises adventure! A young man’s quest to rescue his beloved from the clutches of the jack booted monsters who took her, and to ink out revenge for his village and his people!

 

 

 Of course, in most cases, the boy gets the girl, or vice versa, the bad guys are defeated — this time, and our heroes ride off into the setting sun. In most cases.

I hope book two of The Unborn Galaxy will keep you riveted, I hope the twists will surprise, and the ending will please.

 

 

 Book two does not pick up where Dark Moon Rising ended. In fact, it begins two years before the events of Dark Moon. We will follow the unfortunate experience of Sergeant Mathew Strum, who, after escaping from being cut off and surrounded on a tiny island in the Battle of Oceania, becomes one of his unit’s few survivors.

 To escape the pain of being one of ‘the few’ he volunteers for duty in the most remote of locations, on the Moon as a member of the LCDD, the Lunar Civil Defense Detachment.

 His troubles begin while training for this new mission here on Earth, and finish with a tragedy of Homeric proportions before the culmination of that training.

 He returns to the land of the living an entirely new man, only to find himself on the Moon, arriving shortly before the great Moon quake that all but destroys the lunar facility.

Fighting to stabilize the collapsing Moon base, rescuing the survivors, recovering the dead, and organizing the evacuation would seem to be conflict enough, but his troubles are only just starting.

Don’t miss The Battle of Broken Moon, soon to be released by Fire Star Press.

  

 

Welcome to my second blog post, and thanks for dropping by.

As I write these words the ranking Dark Moon Rising has achieved on Amazon’s “Author Central” page is quite flattering.

Among Kindle readers DMR is ranked six thousand, one hundred and ninety-six, and the book is at eight thousand, two hundred and ninety-seven ― out of a total of near four hundred and twenty-five THOUSAND sci-fi books for sale on Amazon.

I can’t start to tell you how extraordinary this is, and just how much I appreciate all of you who have purchased and read my story.

In book two of The Unborn Galaxy series, called The Battle of Broken Moon, we will go back a couple of years before the Moon quake. We will explore the terrestrial war that rages in Oceania, and we will follow several veterans of that war who have volunteered for the Lunar Civil Defense Detachment.

Their tribulations start in northern Arizona while in training for their mission on Earth’s satellite, long before they arrive at JILL and before the Moon quake that nearly destroyed the Lunar base.

 

In the midst of the LCDDs herculean efforts to stabilize the base and evacuate its inhabitants the unimaginable happens ― JILL is attacked.

What follows is a battle inside the ruins of the base between the survivors who want desperately to live, and an enemy determined to die a martyr’s death.

Friendships will be formed and tested. Lovers will be ripped apart. Enemies and allies will turn, triumph will see the death of hope, and one man with learn the true meaning of a Pyrrhic victory.

What is it all for? And who will be the last standing in the airless ruins after The Battle of Broken Moon?

 

As the reader progresses through The Unborn Galaxy what will be obvious is that you are not following one key character. Each story has its own individual who is central to the story. In each there are characters that overlap from one or more stories to another.

The cast of characters may grow and change, and the locations might alter, but it all transpires within The Unborn Galaxy.

 The story, The Battle of Broken Moon, morphed a lot as I wrote it, as did DMR, however the changes that came into being as I wrote Broken Moon greatly influenced the fourth story and so the fifth as well.

Ultimately I am much happier with the final product than the original draft of the five stories.

I find that once sketched out on paper it is very difficult to follow the blue print I’ve laid out for myself as I sit down and start to “flesh out” the story itself. This is not always a good thing as flights of wild imaginings can lead you off into strange new places you had not intended.

On the other hand, these derivations can be a very good thing as flights of wild imaginings can lead you off into strange new places you had not intended.

I hope you who have read Dark Moon Rising will take a few minutes to review it on the site where you bought it, and on other sites like “Goodreads.Com” and if you’ll post your comments to Gonzales-scribbler@cox.net I will insure they get posted to my web site http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com .

Post a note or comment to this blog and I promise to respond.

Again, thanks to all of you who have brought my rating up so high. And rest assured, book II will be out before you know it.

Be sure to follow me on Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010275572869

 

―Mike Gonzales

 

My debut novel, "Dark Moon Rising" the first book of the "Unborn Galaxy Series".

     My first published book, "Dark Moon Rising" began life decades ago when as a child I watched with the eagerness of Christmas as men journeyed to the Moon during the Apollo missions. I sat mesmerized as Neil Armstrong took that "giant leap for mankind."
     My fascination with space and space travel never abated.

    However, I had to put my wild imaginings on hold during the twenty very serious years I spent in the Army.

     It was 1998 when I read Asimov's "I Robot" that the thought pierced my mind, "perhaps I could write a fiction story."
     Now, don't misunderstand me, I never thought I could be an Isaac Asimov, and in truth I would not want to be. I want to establish my own niche.
     Regardless, the story started off, believe it or not, as a World War Two adventure. However, when a friend of mine, also a veteran, read my first
few chapters he made an interesting observation; “People with a military background will understand you,” he said, “others will be lost.” I reread the thing and discovered I had written for a rather small audience.
     So I started over. That original story still exists. But it's saved on a floppy disk!
     A short time later I was having a discussion with a California visitor to the museum where I'm employed, and he mentioned the Earthquakes they have on the west coast. Somehow that got my imagination creaking forward. The dust and cob webs fell away and before long I started to write.
     My wife asked me: why? Did I write in the hope of publication or was I writing for my own amusement? The truth was I had no idea. I did enjoy the writing process and I was relearning a lot of what I been taught in school.

     Doing the research was time consuming, sometimes frustrating, but ultimately rewarding and always enlightening.
     The entire story is not about a single person, or a single place. It is rather the story of a time, a time in the not so distant future.
     Our science is, today, close to creating a true quantum computer. Once on line it will be capable of simulated intelligence. It could, through existing networks, take control of all aspects of human life. The worldwide power grid, food distribution, water purification and distribution, communications, everything.
     It will have the power to create its next generation of computers, smarter, faster, and build it. This new computer will build its own next generation machine. This process will continue and the machines will reproduce in greater numbers, each
smarter than the last. In thirty days’ humans could become ... obsolete.
     The only alternative is to insure those computers are … human, with a human since of morality, with human compassion, with human comprehension. And of course, human emotion.
     The self-aware thinking machine of the future must be us.
As I outlined the entire story I realized that it was longer than just one book.  So I divided it into five sections.
     As I wrote I was amazed how the story and the characters developed, morphed,
and grew. This happened with each book as I wrote. So the overall story changed as well.
     During the process I kept everything on a thumb drive; the story itself, all my notes and research, everything!
     Then it happened, as we all knew it would. I left the little drive in the pocket of my shirt and it went into the wash!
     My heart stopped as I pulled the dripping little instrument from the pocket of the shirt. There, utterly soaked, was the icon of countless hours of writing and research. Years of my life reduced to a soggy piece of plastic hardware.
     I shook it with sufficient "G" force to drive it into the floor like a
javelin - then plunged it into a bowl of rice.
     I lit a candle, fell on my knees, and prayed for my small piece of
technology.
     My prayers were answered, and the data remained intact. I then transferred everything to a new thumb drive and learned to back up my precious data on multiple devices.
     The day came when I thought I was ready to send my manuscript out to various publishers in both the US and the UK. The result is a collection of rejections from two continents.
     Then synchronicity reared its head. Carl Jung defined synchronicity as the simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related - but have no discernible causal connection.
     The mother of the assistant of the wife of a departed friend of mine was identified to me as an editor. I asked her to read my story and she did. Her suggestion was that I have it professionally edited and suggested Julie Wilcox.
     I thought editing would be an exercise in futility, after all I had already self-edited the story dozens of times over the span of several years.
     Nevertheless I swallowed my pride and sent the manuscript to Julie.
     Upon completion of her work, and the return of the manuscript, I was shocked and amazed at all I had missed, the many errors I had made, the embarrassing
misspellings, the not uncommon appearance of poorly constructed sentences. 
I cannot overstate the importance of a proper editor, it is an absolutely necessity.
     When Julie emailed my story back to me she also informed Cheryl Pierson, the
editor-in-chief and Co-owner of Prairie Rose Publications. Cheryl is the mother of the assistant of the wife of a departed friend of mine I spoke of earlier. She read the story again and to my great shock offered me a contract!
     One of the few compromises I had to make was the book's title, originally I called it, “Under Mare Insularum.” It was pointed out to me that for a large portion of the population that title means nothing. It might as well read, "Ελληνικά για μένα!" She explained that the title had to hint at the story line and entice a fan of science fiction to read the book.
     Cheryl has been in the business of publishing far longer than I have been published. As my dad used to say, "Always go with the advice of a professional."  
     Well, here I am. I am about to be a published author. My next goal is to become a successful published author.
     To that end I hope all of you will read my story, and then place a review of it on my website, http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com/http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com/, on Amazon, and all the other various outlets.
     I of course hope you will enjoy my story and so sing its praises, this will ensure the publication of the four remaining stories in the "Unborn Galaxy", and open the door for the release of my fantasies and other SF stories.
     I can now answer my wife's question, “why?”
     I hope to bring people along on the journeys that I have created. I hope, like me, they can escape the surly bonds of Earth and venture away with me to places yet unborn and to lost worlds beckoning to be discovered.
     You will have to face the great unknown, there will be danger, new and vicious creatures, evil in many forms. There will also be people of supreme dedication and loyalty among the ranks of the good who stand against evil that it does not thrive.
     There will also be love. For wherever humanity goes love always go with it, and that dear reader is the key to our success.