The beginnings of my second book came years ago while I pondered all the inventions that our society has come up with since the dawn of time that grew out of the necessity of warfare. Mankind has spent more time and money working at ways to kill our fellow man then we have on preventing disease, communication, feeding or educating people. Most advances in ships and airplanes are direct results of military applications being opened up for civilian use. Even our wonderful Internet was an outgrowth of military technology.
Now suppose that in the dawn of time, Cain didn't kill Able. What if they had found a way to get along and work together? What if man was always the dominate force and had no natural enemies and never developed the fight of flight response to dealing with things? What if the first groups to ever meet each other learned each other's languages and found common grounds to build upon to work for the best interest of all people from the start and up through the ages. This group would have had an equivalent of the Internet much sooner. Communication would be in the foremost of their technology. Their population would explode and they would be forced to find means off their planet to colonize and develop other worlds to support their population. I can't help think that they would find a way to live in closer harmony with nature and not destroy or pollute their world in the course of their development.
On the flip side of this what if a people with mankind's war like tendencies had a purely totalitarian government from the start. No personal identity, everybody was a piece of the collective to fight and conquer, to gain natural resources and space for expansion of the species. Everything supports the war effort for the simple reason of conquering, resource recovery, and expansion of the species. They didn't waste time arguing or fighting with themselves as that would be counterproductive to the species. Very basic, very primitive socially, but technologically advanced compared to Earth because of gaining technology from conquered worlds. They would have to expand to handle the population explosion and to source the empire with materials to keep it running and eating.
"No Rules Of Engagement" grew out of this thinking and the question of what would group one do when they ran into group two? In my book the Macktonics are the peaceful group and have colonized and maintain four planets, three in one solar system and one in a neighboring solar system. The Raptors, (What the Macktonics call them) are the second group. They resemble Alligators because I remember as a kid when Alligators were put on the endangered species list because they were almost hunted to extinction and then low and behold a few years later they had come back and were then considered over populated. Without mankind as an enemy they flourished greatly. What if they became the dominate species and were more of a humanoid form. Learned to walk and run on their hind legs, developed fingers with the dexterity to build and manipulate things. Naturally aggressive, fast to reproduce, and they are scary!
In my upcoming book the Macktonics can either run or fight, basically they are developing the fight or flight response. But what if you don't know how to fight? You need to learn in a hurry. So you either pack up and move the three planets you have left after your introduction to the Raptors. Or you figure out how to fight them! Where could you find help? How could you convince them to fight for you and also teach your people how to fight? Can a species that couldn't even consider conflict beyond discussion learn to defend themselves? Could they be become killers? What if they came to Earth for help? Would we help them? Should we help them?
Playing around with these questions and many more for several years gave birth to the first of three books in a series. "No Rules Of Engagement" is planned to be published on Smashwords and Amazon on September 11 this year. It will be a fast paced, exciting ride, with characters you're going to love and characters you're going to love to hate.
My goal was to not only to come up with a thrilling, fun and fast read that would be something new. I wanted something that tackles questions about values concerning warfare, time travel, weapons technology, and even religion. The first book is gritty to say the least. The language in many cases is right out of the gutter and some of the characters are brutally realistic. If you're easily offended by language or things that may make you question your values, this may not be a book for you.
In the mean time my first book "Whisper" is out and available at Smashwords and Amazon for .99 cents at either location. On Smashwords you can actually watch a video trailer for the book that my Editor created for me in her spare time. I have no idea when she found time because I don't know anybody who is as busy as my Editor, but bless her heart she did it anyway!
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/38922
Captain Wiley Randolph the main character of Whisper will be back sharing some of his earlier adventures with you, and also what happens after Whisper! Much more to come.
Posted in: Peace War rules engagement Novel Smashwords
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