Thank You For A Great First Year!

It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the US of A, and I’m celebrating by spending the day with my family and giving thanks for my wonderful life. One of the greatest blessings of the past year has been to publish my first novel, eHuman Dawn, with Story Merchant books. Looking back, I can’t believe it’s been one year since I began my official journey as a published author.

Yes, it's true, on November 26, 2013, eHuman Dawn was first published as an eBook on Amazon.

TIME TO CELEBRATE!!! For the next week, in gratitude for all that’s happened and to honor this creative project, eHuman Dawn is FREE on the Kindle. That means if you haven’t read it yet, now is the time. Download and read it. Share it with others. And if you feel so inclined, write a review on Amazon. All of these things keeps the dream alive.

In the year since eHuman Dawn was first published, I’ve launched a blog, a Twitter and Facebook account, written the sequel, presented at Bay Area transhumanist conferences sponsored by the Brighter Brains Institute, joined the advisory board of the Lifeboat Foundation, made several new friends and completed a third novel that has absolutely nothing to do with eHumanity.

I’m not a best selling author yet, but the numbers are climbing. I’d say it’s been a very, very good start, and I want to thank everyone who’s supported me, whether as a reader, a reviewer, online in discussion or at the conferences. All endeavors in life take a village, and a writing career is certainly better when shared with others.

What’s on the agenda for the next year? Well, expect to see more blogging and speaking. I’ve joined the Brighter Brains speaker hub and am available to speak at technical conferences of a variety of topics. Check out my page on their site and share with those who might be interested.

I’ll also be publishing a short story in an upcoming anthology to be published by the Lifeboat Foundation and yes, it will take place in the eHuman world.

Most excitingly, the sequel to eHuman Dawn will hopefully be ready for publication in the late winter/early spring!! I’m also going to begin work on the screenplay for both novels, in hopes of bringing the true dream to life…The eHuman Trilogy on the big screen. Yes, I said trilogy, which means I’ll also begin writing the third and final installment.

And if there’s any time left, perhaps I can get my agent interested in that mysterious novel that has nothing to do with eHumanity one bit. Anything is possible.

So thanks again for all your support. This has been a great start and I owe it all to you. Did I mention eHuman Dawn is FREE on the Kindle until 12/01??? Just want to be sure you saw that.

Here’s to another great year.

Book Review: The Atlantis Gene and The Atlantis Plague by A.G. Riddle

In January of 2000, Scientific American published an article titled, "Once We Were Not Alone." The headline read, "Today we take for granted that Homo sapiens is the only hominid on Earth. Yet for at least four million years many hominid species shared the planet. What makes us different?"

It seems that archeologists have determined that about 100,000 - 70,000 years ago there were several varieties of sentient hominoids living on Earth, making tools, and creating small tribes. Then, over the next  20,000 years, all of them died off except us: Homo sapiens. And not only did the rest perish, but we, the victors, went on to advance so rapidly that in basically the blink of an evolutionary eye we had created the beginnings of civilization.

Scientists don't agree on what caused the other versions of humanity to die out. How did Homo sapiens make such advances in such a short amount of time? It's as if we simply woke up aware and ready to make war on everyone else and ready to dominate the world. There are many theories about what is often called, "The Great Leap Forward," but none can explain exactly how our genetics changed over night. Could it be that something other than natural selection took place? Could humanity have been "gifted" this sudden awareness? And if so, could the giver of such power have been from an even more powerful race than our own?

A.G. Riddle's The Origin Mystery series tackles these questions quite cleverly. Set in the present, the first two books, The Atlantis Gene and The Atlantis Plague, take the "Great Leap Forward as an extraterrestrial gift" concept and run with it, literally, through an amazing story of plot twists and turns. David Vale, a former CIA agent turned private mercenary finds himself in the position of protecting scientist Dr. Kate Warner from her own family and employers, while the world suffers from a plague worse than the Spanish Flu and the Black Death combined. These books are intense page turners filled with action. I often found myself virtually winded, wondering when things would slow down and the poor couple might have a moment of peace!

The science in these novels revolves around DNA and genetic manipulation as well as brain wiring and consciousness. Riddle has done a very good job of being as accurate as possible, while adding in his own imagination to fill in the holes in his own unique way. Often the scientists in the novels are working with the part of our DNA that our own genetic researchers have labelled "junk," the 97% of our DNA that doesn't seem to fit any known genetic code. Is it possible that the "junk" DNA holds the keys to the mystery of why some genes display, or get turned on, and others stay unactivated, lying dormant for a lifetime? Riddle uses these questions to create a very plausible, yet sometimes complicated, story about genetics and the role it plays in human evolution.

That another race, the Atlanteans in this case, could manipulate our gene pool to create a species that meets their ideals is indeed eerie and yet completely believable. We've been manipulating the genes of plants and animals for decades and the human genome is about to become a more common part of our conversation as designer babies and nano-tech solutions to cancer and other illnesses move to the forefront of our medical technology. Implanting circuits inside humans to download vaccines and genetic cures as they're created isn't too far off.

One of the other things I loved about The Atlantis Gene and The Atlantis Plague were the Author's Notes at the end, which are basically thank you letters to the readers for reading and reviewing his work. A.G. Riddle has self published The Origin Mystery series on Amazon and it's the reviewers in the eBook world who've brought his work to light. His gratitude towards his readers is wonderful, honest and refreshing. He's right, the best way to support the authors you enjoy is to write reviews on Amazon and other outlets, so that they can improve their craft and be connected to their audience.

If you love the sort of story that's high tech, fast paced and includes advanced alien technology with a ton of history thrown in, you'll love both The Atlantis Gene and The Atlantis Plague. I know I did. Now to catch up on all that sleep I missed while reading them before he releases The Atlantis World, his last book in the trilogy.

Visit www.agriddle.com for more information on the novels and the author.

NOTE: I've begun to add reviews on this blog of movies and books related to science, computing, artificial intelligence, singularity, transhumanism, big data, internet privacy and human consciousness. I'm especially interested in helping to get the word out for indie films and books. If you have a book (nonfiction is fine as well) or movie/documentary you'd like me to review in my blog, let me know! I want to know about it! Contact me on Twitter @NSallakAnderson or via email nicole.sallak.anderson@gmail.com. Thanks!