Sci-Fi Rocket Babe: Dust Storm by Stephen R. DeArman

Verna

Rocket Babe
c1.jpg

Greetings Cool SCI-FI!

Beautiful, brilliant and Earth’s best hope for survival - Rocket Babe!

I would like to announce the launch of my husband’s new sci-fi novel, Rocket Babe- Dust Storm. The first of a series, RB-DS is now available from Amazon as a paperback or on Kindle.

From the jacket:
1982. After thousands of years of alien abductions and experimentation, mankind finally has the ability to fight back via a covert branch of the U.S. military, the Deep Space Strike Force. Aboard the DSSF Flagship U.S.S. PANDORA, an elite crew of 32 men and one woman has but one mission: eliminate the alien threat to Earth once and for all. But in doing so, much like the mythical Pandora, they discover that once the box has been opened the contents cannot be returned. This time a man opened the box but it will take a beautiful intelligent woman to deal with the horrors to come. Led by Verna Starr, call sign Rocket Babe, the crew of the Pandora will raise a planet wide dust storm on Mars that may spread throughout the solar system and rage for years to come.

Prologue
As the supreme life form in the solar system, they had been visiting Earth with impunity for almost 1,000 years, all the while performing experiments on every form of life they encountered, mostly humans. And for all the time they had been observing human evolution and development they had done so without fear that one day man would dare challenge the very creatures that had tortured and used him as a lab rat. But now that day was dawning.

Occasionally visiting the air battles of World War II, their vehicles danced around the dogfights of mere humans, taunting the various militaries of Earth and allowing man to see flashes of their technological superiority. But man was advancing and would soon be going into space. The secret evil that had ruled the skies of this planet for so long would soon be directly challenged by man, but for humans to defeat them would require the bravest, strongest and most intelligent men and women mankind had to offer.

In the early 1960's the United States emerged as the nation that would lead the way to the moon and beyond and the fate of mankind would rest in the hands of the pilots, engineers, scientists and crewmen that would be sent into space to defend not just the U.S. but the planet.

While there were many brave men and women that would answer the call to duty, there was only one, Rocket Babe

Amazon has a Look Inside feature that allows you to read the first two chapters and you can also read, customer reviews.

Although RB-DS is a novel, many of the characters are based on real people and a few of them are even in the book using their real names, there is a reason for that, and we would like to invite everyone to visit our website to learn more and see bios for several of the key characters at: http://www.vernarockets.com/id42.html and find out what is really behind the book!

There is also a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RocketBabeDustStorm please stop by and Like us!

To the mods: Even though I have been a member here since 2011 this is my first post of this nature, I hope I got it right.

Verna
www.vernarockets.com
 
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To the mods: Even though I have been a member here since 2011 this is my first post of this nature, I hope I got it right.
Looks fine to me!

So is the story line set in 1982? If so, that'd be an interesting read then to see what 70's & 80's references may have made it into the writing.

If you're interested in posting the Amazon link, feel free. In appreciation to our guest authors & other creative artists who visit our community we encourage them to post whichever links they'd like to get out there the most.
 
Yes, the time frame is 1982 and there are many historical references.
Historical? I was around for that period. :P My wife & I still get depressed when we're listening to an '80s song in the car and realize that it is being played on the "oldies" station.
 
I just ordered a paperback copy; there a few Kindle devices in the family but I prefer physical books.

After reading the 'About the Author' section on the Amazon listing I just had to quote it here because, well, let's see... rockets, NASA, Von Braun, model rockets, astronomy, sci-fi... now that there is recipe for enjoying life that I think a lot of our community members would agree with.

About the Author Since age four, Randall DeArman has loved astronomy and all types of science fiction, especially about space. He grew up in the 1960's watching Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches in the classroom. Emmett DeArman, his father, worked for a NASA subcontractor in Alabama from 1962-1969. He also worked briefly with Werner Von Braun in Huntsville, Alabama. This inspired Randy to begin building and flying model rockets in 1968. He still writes, builds, and flies regularly with wife Verna, aka "Rocket Babe." Randy and Verna are members of the National Association of Rocketry and their local NAR club, the Birmingham Rocket Boys. Their website, Verna & Randy's Rockets at vernarockets.com has been on the web for 9 years. They have two monthly features: Fire & Smoke and Verna's Photo Of The Month. They are dedicated to paying forward by helping anyone who is interested begin the exciting adventure of rocketry, especially students. DeArman has been writing about hobby rocketry for almost a decade and has produced articles for several websites and forums over the years, including a feature article in NAR's Sport Rocketry Magazine. Recently he was inspired to write a sci-fi novel featuring many of his favorite things like space and rockets and his greatest love, Verna.
 
Good Monday Everyone!

With some help from Kevin (thank you very much Kevin) I finally got a few photos posted over the weekend that help to illustrate the story line of our book. Most have brief discriptions.

The space ships and missile you will see are actually model rockets that can be built and flown on black powder engines. The other photos are of me as Rocket Babe.

Enjoy!

Verna
www.vernarockets.com
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... and here is the album with the images uploaded:

http://coolscifi.com/gallery/albums/rocket-babe-dust-storm.127/

Verna found a problem that we fixed with the file sizes and I think everything is running as normal but if anybody has issues please let me know. It is now also on my To Do list to find a way of having some type of alert or preview on the front page when new gallery images are upload.

Back on topic, it's pretty cool that there is a connection between the novel and the model rockets. From a marketing perspective it acts a nice cross promotional method for both projects.
 
04acf993-52ba-4759-998e-ac8f991f6ca1_zps865876e6.jpg
So, thanks to @Verna, I have found out that if you are a geek that is roughly the size of an NFL linebacker and are reading a book at a hugely popular minor league team baseball game, you will be mocked by those around you. :P

This past weekend during a Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs game at Coca-Cola Park (Allentown, PA) I finally had a chance to get something finished from my pile of books to read. It was Rocket Babe - Dust Storm in paperback that I've had for a bit but never finding time for. Part of the mocking I received may have come from the fact that I was also wearing a retro '80s design Transformers t-shirt at the time. :D It was all in good fun though, just some ribbing among friends.

Rocket Babe is a bit of a grand unified theory on UFOs and aliens, tying together the various stories over the years and how they could actually be intertwined with each. A lot of the well known incidents and conspiracies are touched upon, or at the least, mentioned in passing. Roswell, abductions, World War II Foo Fighters, Rendelsham, the unaccounted hours during the Apollo 11 moon landing, even the movie Capricon One. Being from Pennsylvania, it would've been nice to see the Kecksburg "Bell" incident included. Maybe for the sequel.

At its heart, Rocket Babe is an alternate history story of how Earth, in particular the US government, would respond if undeniable proof of UFOs & aliens were found. It tries to present how, if some different decisions were made, a space based warship could be possible using 1980 era technology while the rest of the world thinks the NASA space shuttle program is the current state-of-the-art. Taking realistic cues as much as possible, the buildup to the ship is not sudden, it is something decades in the making. Space buffs will appreciate the details that go into explaining how a Saturn V assembly with a Apollo Command & Service Module at its nose could be modified to be become a warship carrying a submarine-like crew of 33. Secretive military contractors, "Black Ops" programs off the official books, training programs and missions that don't exist but are speculated about, even people maintaining alternate identities from their public life and their real assignments -- All of these are things combined help to easily plant the idea a shadow space program is not only feasible but likely.

It is a light reading that is surprisingly family friendly for all ages, not something you come across in most contemporary genre works. There is violence but not gore. There is a bit of romance but not sex. There is a bit of misogyny but nothing that leads to further issues. There are some flaws that I could pick at but nothing that detracts from the overall story nor that would prevent me from recommending it others.

Combined with it's strong female lead Rocket Babe is a book that I could see parents picking up as something that could be read by everybody in the family while acting as a gateway to other sci-fi works. Or, if you are the kind of person, like me, that enjoys genre books that make for easy reading on a nice Sunday afternoon in the sun, this will make a good addition to add to your reading pile.
 
Historical? I was around for that period. :P My wife & I still get depressed when we're listening to an '80s song in the car and realize that it is being played on the "oldies" station.
Frankie says,"Relax Kevin!" LOL!:D
 
04acf993-52ba-4759-998e-ac8f991f6ca1_zps865876e6.jpg
So, thanks to @Verna, I have found out that if you are a geek that is roughly the size of an NFL linebacker and are reading a book at a hugely popular minor league team baseball game, you will be mocked by those around you. :P

This past weekend during a Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs game at Coca-Cola Park (Allentown, PA) I finally had a chance to get something finished from my pile of books to read. It was Rocket Babe - Dust Storm in paperback that I've had for a bit but never finding time for. Part of the mocking I received may have come from the fact that I was also wearing a retro '80s design Transformers t-shirt at the time. :D It was all in good fun though, just some ribbing among friends.

Rocket Babe is a bit of a grand unified theory on UFOs and aliens, tying together the various stories over the years and how they could actually be intertwined with each. A lot of the well known incidents and conspiracies are touched upon, or at the least, mentioned in passing. Roswell, abductions, World War II Foo Fighters, Rendelsham, the unaccounted hours during the Apollo 11 moon landing, even the movie Capricon One. Being from Pennsylvania, it would've been nice to see the Kecksburg "Bell" incident included. Maybe for the sequel.

At its heart, Rocket Babe is an alternate history story of how Earth, in particular the US government, would respond if undeniable proof of UFOs & aliens were found. It tries to present how, if some different decisions were made, a space based warship could be possible using 1980 era technology while the rest of the world thinks the NASA space shuttle program is the current state-of-the-art. Taking realistic cues as much as possible, the buildup to the ship is not sudden, it is something decades in the making. Space buffs will appreciate the details that go into explaining how a Saturn V assembly with a Apollo Command & Service Module at its nose could be modified to be become a warship carrying a submarine-like crew of 33. Secretive military contractors, "Black Ops" programs off the official books, training programs and missions that don't exist but are speculated about, even people maintaining alternate identities from their public life and their real assignments -- All of these are things combined help to easily plant the idea a shadow space program is not only feasible but likely.

It is a light reading that is surprisingly family friendly for all ages, not something you come across in most contemporary genre works. There is violence but not gore. There is a bit of romance but not sex. There is a bit of misogyny but nothing that leads to further issues. There are some flaws that I could pick at but nothing that detracts from the overall story nor that would prevent me from recommending it others.

Combined with it's strong female lead Rocket Babe is a book that I could see parents picking up as something that could be read by everybody in the family while acting as a gateway to other sci-fi works. Or, if you are the kind of person, like me, that enjoys genre books that make for easy reading on a nice Sunday afternoon in the sun, this will make a good addition to add to your reading pile.
We find aliens all the time by the Rio-grande, LOL! Yehaw!:D;)J/K looks like a good read!!!!
 
Rocket Babe is a bit of a grand unified theory on UFOs and aliens, tying together the various stories over the years and how they could actually be intertwined with each.
Interesting

Your description reminds me of The Wold Newton Universe

The Wold Newton Family is a group of heroic and villainous literary figures that science fiction author Philip J Farmer postulated belonged to the same genetic family. Some of these characters are adventurers, some are detectives, some explorers and scientists, some espionage agents, and some are evil geniuses.

It also reminds me of the old TV show called
Connections ( 1978 )
Connections: This series explores the various paths of how technological change happens and the social effects of these changes on Western society. To illustrate this, James Burke follows various timelines of how one innovation lead to something seemingly totally unrelated in the future such as how a 17th century Dutch cargo ship design lead to development of plastic in the 20th century.

https://images.{...}/thumbs/93289_Connections_1978_77.jpg
Ended
  • Currently 4.63/5
(8 votes)
Ratings: IMDB: 9.2/10 Metascore: N/A RT: N/A
Released:
October 17, 1978
Runtime: 50 mins
Genres: Documentary History
Countries: UK
Director: Mick Jackson
Actors: James Burke

Now, I'll be watching for this book.
 
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