When growing up in my birth town of Stockport in the North-West of England, I was an avid reader of Science Fiction [this was well before the advent of Speculative Fiction, though Fantasy may have been around in various guises]. Birthday and Christmas presents at that time were usually in the form of books or Meccano sets - no such thing as Lego existed. Nice to see that Meccano is still around today. Both activities kept my active mind busy and exploring what could be, or, quite often, what could not be.
I was lucky enough to attend grammar school and university in an era when such things were virtually free. The most extravagant expenditure was on a pair of football boots, and new football socks if I was lucky. What on Earth had happened to societies these days where you even have to pay to be educated and walking to school appears to be a rare event? Sad, I think.
Having graduated, I worked in aerospace design and research, a pastime that sheltered, fed, and clothed me for several years, and gave me wonderful opportunities to travel the world. Thanks to the effective partial globalization of the industry, I worked in and visited quite a few countries: UK, USA, France, Germany, Indonesia and Australia. They were good times and busy times with not many hours available for writing, which for the most part, had to be put on the back burner.
As retirement approached though, I began to wonder if I could actually pen enough words together to produce not a short story, or a novella, but an actual novel - something well over 50,000 words. And more to the point - could I make it exciting and interesting enough to satisfy readers?
Writing science fiction is not as easy as it may sound. Sure, you can set your story anywhere in the universe, or even closer at home on Earth or the Moon. A story about going to Mars sounds great, but can you weave an intriguing tale around it?
And then there was the challenge of current technology. The advent of computers came late in my aerospace career and that of the internet even later. To say it was a steep learning curve would be a gross understatement. And where were the places that sell books: the corner store, my local library, huge book stores on main street? Of course not. It was mostly all on line.
So I decided to be an Indie. Or to those who are not quite sure what that means - I wrote, published and marketed all on my own - joining the ranks of many thousands [or more accurately millions] of other authors around the world. What fun!
And what hard work!!
I did produce that first book, and others followed. Six in all to date. And all being well, another early next year. I just love linking the paranormal [the unexplained normal] with scientific advances and unashamedly allow some divergences into the universal mystery of which we are all a part.
After all, no human knows the full truth of what we observe around us, either close by or light years away.
It is all a challenge, a welcome one, and takes me on many startling journeys. I hope you have the fortitude to join me.
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Title: Milijun
Author: Clayton Graham
Genre: Science Fiction
Book Blurb:
Prepare for a mind-bending journey as a momentous First Contact event looms on the horizon…
Laura and Jason Sinclair are on vacation when they are thrust into an unimaginable ordeal as ethereal beings descend upon Earth under the cover of darkness. Their world is shattered, leaving them frightened and disoriented, caught in the midst of a shadowy clash between covert Earth factions and the enigmatic alien wave. As reality begins to unravel, they find themselves ensnared in a web of mystery and uncertainty.
But not everything is as it seems. Could these extraterrestrial visitors harbor ulterior motives? And does Jason hold a pivotal role in their mysterious mission? With the fate of humanity hanging in the balance, the world finds itself standing on the precipice of an interstellar revelation, whether it is prepared or not.
Milijun, the gripping debut novel in an electrifying alien interaction series by Clayton Graham, will transport you to the heart of a mystical cosmic encounter. For fans of Close Encounters, Contact, and Arrival, this thrilling narrative will captivate your imagination, immersing you in a world where the boundaries of possibility are shattered.
Excerpt
Suddenly, the winged alien was outside her, standing two metres away, observing with its head on one side. She sensed an instantaneous chill invade her body as the creature emerged but, once free of it, Janice felt warmer and strangely fearless. No words or other communication passed but Janice felt its mind boring into hers, trying to understand her emotions. At least she thought she did. She didn’t really want to see it anymore, was not interested in it at all, and wished it was light-years away.
“I’m sorry, Daniel,” she said to the motionless body of her partner. “I’m so sorry. I really could not help it.”
A tangle of meaningless images ran through her mind, and she turned to face her symbiotic disciple from another world. Something passed between them, intangible and outside her scope of logical thought. She asked the question anyway.
“What do you want from me? What do you want from us?”
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Author Biography:
As a youngster Clayton Graham read a lot of science fiction. He loved the ‘old-school’ masters such as HG Wells, Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, and John Wyndham. As he left those formative years behind, he penned short stories when he could find a rare quiet moment amidst life’s usual distractions.
A retired aerospace engineer who worked in structural design and research, Clayton has always had an interest in science fiction and where it places humankind within a universe we are only just starting to understand. Clayton loves animals, including well-behaved pets, and all the natural world, and is a member of Australian Geographic. He has won many book awards including Author’s Show ‘50 great writers you should be reading’, Readers’ Favorite International Award finalist, and Book Excellence Awards finalist.
Combining future science with the paranormal is his passion. Milijun, his first novel, was published in 2016 and is the exciting prequel to Amidst Alien Stars and Alien Whispers: Conflict and Communion.
Space Opera novel, Saving Paludis, was published in 2018 and won a Readers’ Favorite International Book Award.
His books may be light years from each other but share the future exploits of mankind in an expansive universe as a common theme. In between novels Clayton has also published highly rated short story collections Silently in the Night and Looking for Life, where, among many other adventures, you can sympathize with a doomed husband, connect with an altruistic robot, explore an isolated Scottish isle and touch down on a far-flung asteroid.
He hopes you can share the journeys.
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Title: Amidst Alien Stars
Author: Clayton Graham
Genre: Science Fiction
Book Blurb:
An unbidden journey to a new world. A mind-bending search for intergalactic empathy. Will mankind ever understand the true meaning of the alien interactions with Earth?
Following their terrifying capture from their home planet, Laura Sinclair and son, Jason, lead a group of desperate humans in a bid to forge their own future, and that of the entire human race.
Aboard an alien space station, orbiting a mysterious planet in a strange new galaxy, they find themselves as collaborators in a breathtaking scheme of cosmic survival—for aliens and humans alike. But who can they really trust as they struggle to understand the challenging and hostile environment that holds them in a grip of iron?
To succeed, they must solve the puzzle of extraterrestrial races in the throes of a perplexing and historic conflict. But will that be a bridge too far?
Excerpt
Dawn found Laura studying the growth tanks again. It seemed like she came here every morning, watching the children grow to maturity, one tank for each woman spirited away by the Gliezans. And the DNA of her son, Jason, imprinted in each and every one of them!
Despite being just forty-two years old, she was grandmother to each, and the beholden guardian of them all. She was also their mentor, albeit via the alien technology that currently grew their bodies at almost forty times the normal rate. They looked human enough if you could ignore the alabaster skin with a tinge of green around the cheeks and the clusters of red hair floating above the small, flat ears, contrasting with what she thought of as their normal brown hair. And, of course, their bright, steely eyes!
Small noses, of course, but at least the lips were human. Laura thought that was important. She didn’t know why; it just was.
And already so tall! Perhaps half a head taller than Jason.
They looked about sixteen years old now and, like she and Jason and the other abducted humans, had been circling around Glieze for just under five Earth-months. Simon Cordell, had mentioned in one of his more lucid moments that the alien chemistry was silicon-based, not carbon-based like that of humans. How could she believe that, for Jason’s DNA to combine with such creatures?
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Title: Alien Whispers: Conflict and Communion
Author: Clayton Graham
Genre: Science Fiction
Book Blurb:
The battle for the hearts and minds of humans is on…
When Laura Sinclair returns to Earth on a mission to find out what happened to her long-lost husband, she finds the planet in turmoil. Following the Spectrum Wars, the Tellurians have grasped power and are intent upon confining humans to the surface of their world.
Together with her alien allies from the secretive Martian base, and members of Earth’s tenacious Underground, Laura must help to overturn the authoritarian regime on her home planet and pave the way to freeing global conflict survivors from brutal oppression. But there is a problem.
Weapons of Mass Destruction have been forbidden on the planet for a century, but there are disturbing activities on the moon that fill Laura with fear and threaten both Earth and Mars. The stage is set for a conflict that will decide the future of mankind and its expansion into the Universe. But how will they defeat the might of the Tellurian Empire?
Alien Whispers Conflict and Communion is the third book in the highly rated Milijun series. Join the crusade to save Earth from a fate that is gradually crushing the planet’s willpower to survive.
Excerpt
Laura stood there for a full minute, her flashlight catching dust motes in the air. What she really wanted was some evidence of Nomi’s long-ago presence; some unwritten signature that she may have unwittingly left behind. Nomi was, after all, the keeper of the secrets of Milijun. Had no doubt used them to push for alien collaboration on Mars. And she had succeeded, for the Martian base was named after her.
Laura recalled her remembrance plaque on Mars:
In commemoration of the founding of Millison
Colonel Norma Millison, known as Nomi
Gracious founder and leader
May she find peace among the stars
Came to us: 2160 Left us: 2256
She estimated that Nomi would have reached the rank of colonel over a period of twenty years or more, somewhere around 2200, and that would likely have been around the time she had been given the authority to plan for Mars. But from Eucla or elsewhere?
The more Laura thought about it, the more she realized that Nomi had probably left here long before the base’s closure. But where had she gone to?
Laura pursed her lips. She didn’t want to spend much longer in this dismal, old military bastion, but she thought a survey of the officers’ headquarters was worth undertaking. If she found nothing, then nothing was lost.
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https://www.bookbub.com/books/alien-whispers-conflict-and-communion-milijun-book-3-by-clayton-graham
Title: Saving Paludis
Author: Clayton Graham
Genre: Science Fiction
Book Blurb:
An alien revolution forged by a timeless legacy threatens to stop mankind's galactic expansion in its tracks…
Stefan Lattanzis never expected his planet to become a battlefield, but when researchers from Paludis share a scientific breakthrough with Earth, peace escalates to the brink of war in a hurry. Adding fuel to the fire, the local aliens have a mysterious and devastating agenda of their own, and a desperate human cult has its own plans to exploit the remarkable new technology.
To save his precious home world, Stefan must team with two strangers, a botanist and a mysterious seer. They must trust in each other to prevent newly-emerged forces from destroying Paludis and creating a dystopia from which they will never return. But how can they defeat the might of Earth?
Saving Paludis is an electrifying sci-fi thrill-ride. If you like futuristic technology, alien political intrigue, and high-octane, paranormal action, then you’ll love this incredible interstellar adventure!
Excerpt
Pas-Elno stared with dark green eyes at the walls of the human’s office. The emphasis of the decor puzzled him. There appeared to be no ancestral records of any kind, and certainly there were no religious artefacts. Instead, the walls were covered with numbers and lines, with occasional colour photographs of bizarre alien animals. There were also a few strangely-shaped solid objects on one wall, which had resisted his probing fingers when he had tried to move them.
They had brought him straight to Kentucky, a day’s journey by express hovercar along West Paludis’s wide, flat roads. It was the fastest he had ever travelled, and he had sat in wondrous silence as the scenery flashed by. Rolling green hills, large shiny buildings, other road users − especially the large transporters – cane-grass plantations, expanses of inland water with white edges, weird animals in fields surrounded by high wire fences: all caught his imagination as the journey progressed.
Pas-Elno recollected his recent meeting with the Muskan grand elders. He had given them a difficult choice − either he would never cease trying to escape the peninsula in a quest to find his father, or they could arrange his official transfer to the human agent, Lattanzis. There had been a third alternative, of course, that being to imprison him indefinitely beneath the temple, but that particular course of action would have been untenable to the Muskan populace. His mother, Brel-Elno, had suffered enough as it was.
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Title: Looking for Life
Author: Clayton Graham
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Book Blurb:
Strap in, turn down the lights, and enter worlds that will stretch your imagination to the full…
From a stranded alien comedian to the darkest depths of the human psyche; from a mind-blowing galactic adventure to clandestine extraterrestrial behaviour on Earth. They’re all here in this spell-binding collection of short stories to keep you guessing at every turn.
With tales of alien invasion, deep space mystery, time travel, and dystopian future Earths, this is a collection which takes inspiration from the much respected ‘old masters’ of Science Fiction. Here be new realms to explore—can you cross the void and challenge your dreams?
Excerpt
For the most part, the other kids gave her a wide berth, especially when she started telling them about their inner secrets. It had been fun for a while, until she had gotten bored. And it was then that the Department picked her up.
It had been Mrs Heckle who had told them. She was ex-military and had carried some of her bearing into the home. She also had contacts. Julia, Mrs Heckle had written, is a very insightful teenager with a great deal of promise. She is worthy of consideration.
Julia did not see the actual missive that Mrs Heckle sent to the Department, but she had known what was in it and whom she had sent it to. She had sensed it, even before Mrs Heckle had clicked the send button. Her powers, she had realized, were growing.
And so she had been recruited, although Julia had thought it was more like being pressganged. Straight out of the group home and into the employ of the Department. There had been tests, of course—simple stuff like reading Zener cards and playing card tricks. She graduated with ease, and when she heard about the pay and conditions, she could hardly refuse the offer.
There were other recruits; she could sense them all around her, but she was not allowed to meet them. Something about them being a distraction; a negative drag on the neural circuitry of her brain. As if she cared two hoots about that.
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