Book Contest

First Place

The Author with the most votes will have his or her book placed on the Barnes and Noble.com Best-Seller list, a package worth $12,000.

Second Place

The Author with the second most votes will have his or her book appear in 40 book fairs in the Salt Lake City, Utah market, a package worth $2,000.

Third Place

The Author with the third most votes receives lifetime membership to The Author Platform and a Self-Publishing in a Box Kit, a package worth $400.

Second review of Don’t Mess With Earth

Author Cliff Ball draws on his considerable knowledge of history, folklore and Christianity to craft a convincing retelling of humanity’s time on Earth.

Told mostly from the point of view of a newly sworn-in U.S. President, we learn that Earth has existed under the shadow of secrets and lies for thousands of years. As Noah was building his wooden ark to escape the flood, a highly developed race of people called Terrans was designing starships and planning to leave the earth entirely.

The Terrans travel to an Earth-like planet and set up a colony, naming it Terra. They explore their new system and meet many friendly cultures. They also meet the Ragnor, a race obsessed with military conquest. The Ragnor attack Terran ships relentlessly and without cause.

Soon the Terrans return to Earth to see if their human cousins have advanced. They find Egypt at the time of the Pharaohs and decide the earth humans are far too primitive to help Terra fight the Ragnor.

Some Terrans decide to interfere with human development and pose as Earth people. From the times of King Arthur to Genghis Khan, Terrans make their mark on history.

Centuries later, a spy base is set up on Mars. From Mars, the Terrans watch as the Great War explodes in Europe and later as World War Two engulfs the entire planet.

The Ragnor visit Earth in cloaked ships and begin abducting and experimenting on humans. Tales of abduction and UFOs spread around the globe. A Ragnor scout ship crashes in New Mexico in 1947. The Americans develop the Area 51 program at Roswell. The project’s mandate is to use the technology from the downed alien craft to defend the United States against her enemies.

Sixty years later, a secret starship is ready, the crew trained, and the newly elected Present must address the nation and the world. He orders the ship to attack Earth’s alien foe. Is one advanced ship enough to match the combined fleets of both Terra and Ragnor? Is America on the brink of its greatest military victory since D-Day? Or is it doomed to fail like no other combat mission in history?

Ball has written an intriguing new take on history. He keeps the pages turning, explaining historical events in his own unique style. The story builds to an explosive climax that won’t leave you disappointed.

I recommend Don’t Mess With Earth to Sci-Fi and alternative history fans.

Reviewed by WR Potter for Reader’s Choice Reviews.

First Review

My first review for Don’t Mess With Earth, done by Feathered Quill Book Reviews

Don’t Mess With Earth

By: Cliff Ball
Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing
Publication Date: March 2009
ISBN: 978-1602643413
Reviewed by: Will Gabbett
Review Date: June 10, 2009

In the new book, Don’t Mess With Earth, intellectually and scientifically advanced humans, as well as aliens from a distant world, have descended on Earth. They have been experimenting and meddling in the affairs of humans for the advancement of their own species for centuries. But wait! Earthlings have caught on to the devious ploys and are fighting back.

Don’t Mess With Earth begins with the President of the United States getting ready to hold a press conference to explain how Earth has been manipulated. “…it all started a few thousand years ago…” The story then jumps back to a time when Earth was populated by primitive people with the exception of the Terrans, a race of technologically advanced humans. The Terrans worked constantly to advance their society while those around them fought and scrounged for food. Eventually, the Terrans were able to build a space ship and leave Earth, and all its problems, behind.

With the help of another alien race, the Terrans exponentially advanced their technology and soon were in conflict with the Ragnor, another advanced race. While these two enemies battled each other, they both descended on Earth – the Terrans to meddle and the Ragnor to experiment.

Once the author presents the history of the Terrans and Ragnors, he then brings us back to Earth and the reader is taken on a history trip where we meet Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Michelangelo, Galileo, and King Arthur along with many other historical figures. In the U.S., we meet Amelia Earhart and Chuck Yeager. The reader sees how some famous characters from the past were actually Terrans, and how these advanced people affected history.

The story chronicles various historical events around the world, including the well-known alien spaceship crash in New Mexico in the late 40s. In Don’t Mess With Earth, the crash is real. When a Ragnor space vessel crashes on Earth, one alien is captured alive and taken to a secret research area known only as ‘Area 51.’ By using the Ragnor captive’s knowledge and studying the spaceship, humans, particularly the U.S. military, advance their own knowledge. Soon, they are able to launch an attack of their own.

Don’t Mess With Earth has a great premise and the way the author weaves historical fact with creative alien mischief is clever and intriguing. There are a bit too many background chapters that present historical figures which, although fun to read, eventually drag the story to a halt. They are really mini vignettes that prevent the plot from getting into the meat of the story until about halfway through the book when the Ragnor ship crashes and ‘Area 51’ is established.
The writing in Don’t Mess With Earth is a bit strained in places as is the dialog. For example, when Amelia Earhart is having problems, we read, “She was beginning to suspect that her radio was being jammed by the Terrans, so she waited for whatever that was about to happen, go ahead and happen.” There are also several holes in the plot, such as how the Terrans became so much more sophisticated than their primitive neighbors. When the military captures a Ragnor, they force him to cooperate. How could one Ragnor’s reluctant assistance, the technology his ship offers, along with human ingenuity be enough to launch a strike against a much more advanced civilization? This idea may strain believability and evoke questions from the reader. Still, the unexpected twist at the end of the story, plus the creative storyline, will keep many readers hooked.

Quill says: A good attempt at showing what might happen when aliens think they know more than their human subjects.

What I’m writing next

I just thought I’d take the time to post what I’m writing about next, since I don’t blog as much as I should. I’m currently working on a re-write of my novella Out of Time. Since I published it last year, after working on it for what seemed like an eternity, so I had it published even though it wasn’t what it should have been. After about a year or so, I realize it needs more in depth characterization of more than one character, and a lot more details. Those that have read it have told me it’s a good story, but, I it could be so much more. So, watch for a re-release some day after I write the next two that I’m also working on.

The next novel I working on is a sequel to my science fiction novel Don’t Mess With Earth. I always intended Don’t Mess With Earth to have a sequel, because I intentionally made a misleading title because while you’re reading this current novel, you think Earth is going to win in the end. Once you get to the ending, I hope everyone wonders what happens next, so the next title is tentatively called Shattered Earth . *Spoilers ahead* So far, those survivors on Earth who the Ragnor didn’t find, decide to build a fleet of starships with Area 51 technology, armed to the teeth with every conceivable weapon available. They also get aided by another alien species who have tried to stay out of the conflict between the Terrans, Ragnor, and Earthlings, but the remaining Ragnor go on a rampage throughout the Milky Way. An epic battle will ensue, but, who remains standing will be currently undecided.

The third novel I’m writing isn’t science fiction at all. It’s about the United States being taken over by a dictator(I leave the political persuasion up to the reader), who dissolves the military, creates a Civilian Defense Force, has them assassinate the previous president, try to silence through the Fairness Doctrine and then try to kill the main opposition who happens to be a talk radio show host. The president decides that Christians, the 3+ day a week kind, are also the enemy(along with members of the opposition party), and he creates “Re-Education Centers.” States like Texas and Oklahoma secede, taking over the old military bases and the weapons on those bases, while the President tries to force those States back into the Union, causing a civil war in the process. The main character is part of the CDF, is really apathetic about politics and everything in general, that is until his family is rounded up and sent to re-education centers. Once he learns the truth, he makes it his mission to stop the President. Will it be too late?

Author’s Gathering place

I just thought I’d let everyone out there know about an author’s gathering place called Polkadotbanner.com. You can post your profile, sites to where your books can be found, links to your important websites, how you can be contacted and whether or not you can be contacted for signings or online chats. They even randomly list your book if you become a star author. If you click on an authors’ book cover, they can become the featured author for that month. Please help me out by clicking on my Polkadotbanner Profile

Check out the website owners’ blog: http://polkadotbanner.blogspot.com/2007/11/authors-website-to-promote-increased.html to find out what her thought process were for creating the website.

My review of the Star Trek movie *spoilers*

I just saw the new Star Trek movie, and I was expecting it to be kind of like “Cloverfield,” which was a total crappy monster movie. Now, I’m a major nitpicker with all things Trek, I prefer them to stick with the canon, so, even though I watched all 5 series and 10 movies, I was expecting this to be like most other re-boots, a total disaster. It wasn’t, it was kind of like Batmans’ reboot, a pleasant surprise. The alternate universe idea was done right, in my opinion.

First off my nitpicks. I’d say the first fifteen minutes of the movie(I checked my watch) after the prologue, I was disappointed or annoyed with, because it just made no sense to me that anyone would have a Corvette 200+ years after it was made; but, if we’re supposed to see that Kirk is a rebel even as a kid, well I guess it makes some sense. What’s up with the cop robot by the way? The whole bar scene thing, well, it reminded me of Star Wars a little bit. Plus, aren’t Orion slave girls supposed to be just that, Orion Slave Girls? Why is one in the Academy? Plus, they never explained why a starship was being built on Earth in Iowa, what happened to Utopia Planitia? In the books and in the original series, wasn’t the Enterprise something like 15 years old by the time Kirk took command? Isn’t there supposed to be at least one or two starships or some kind of fighter craft protecting Earth and Vulcan? What about those space stations? Isn’t the universe supposed to explode when young Spock meets old Spock? At least that’s what Doc Brown always said!

Now, what I liked. This movie had all sorts of references to TOS, TNG, Voyager, Enterprise, and a couple of the movies. Scotty said something about Admiral Archer when he was younger(wouldn’t he have been way too old by then?), the scorpion thingee reminded me a lot of the Wrath of Khan, but this time you just assumed Captain Pike told them everything. Then, when Nero yelled “Spooock!!!” it flashed me back to “Khaaannn!!” The whole time travel revenge thing kind of reminded me of the Voyager episode “Year of Hell” where the scientist kept making changes to history and kept ruining it and taking it further and further from where it was originally. Too bad destroying the Romulan ship didn’t reset history. When Kirk first meets older Spock, I thought it was cool when he told Kirk that he would always be his friend, referencing Trek 2 and 3. I found it funny when they explained away Chekov being there by having him be 17 years old, which would make him at least 4 or 5 years younger than everyone else. At the end, when Leonard Nimoy as Spock spoke the “These are the missions of the starship Enterprise…” plus the TOS music, that was awesome!

I thought everyone had their characters down pat. I thought I would see Sylar instead of Spock, but he was close to mirroring Nimoy almost exactly. Chris Pine, I thought, is a good replacement for Shatner, the guy playing Scotty was funny, the new guy playing Chekov had a little too thick of a Russian accent though, Sulu was good, and Uhura seemed more like a copy of Lieutenant Hoshi from Enterprise than the original. Even the guy who played Sarek reminded me a lot of Mark Lenards’ Sarek.

Overall, I thought this was a good movie and I hope J.J. Abrams doesn’t disappoint in the future. As long as one person is the director instead of more than one for a movie series, then it should do really well. Live Long and Prosper, Star Trek.

Book trailer for my two novels

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Galileo in Don’t Mess with Earth

In my novel, “Don’t Mess With Earth,” Galileo Galilei is a Terran astronomer who decides to go to to Earth to convince the powers-that-be that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around. In real life, he was a normal human who tried the exact same thing and was punished for his opposing views to official doctrine from the “Church.” My story goes almost the same way….

In this, Galileo meets Michelangelo who is painting the Sistine Chapel, but had also somehow gotten his hands on drawings for a glider. This interests Galileo, so he helps Michelangelo build the glider. They build it, and decide to present the glider flying to the Pope and the powers-that-be. The flight is successful, but the Pope comes to Galileo and tells him that if “men were supposed to fly, he would’ve given us wings.” Galileo tells the Pope what he thinks of him the Swiss guards then beat down the scientist, and then they burn the glider and tell Michelangelo that he is in danger of being a heretic, but, if he creates something new for the Church, he may be forgiven, so the artist caring only about his name in history, agrees and creates the Statue of David.

Galileo gets dragged down to a dungeon and beaten by the Swiss guards. Word reaches Terra that their scientist is in trouble, so a covert team is sent in to extract him. They extract him, blow up the building housing the dungeon/prison, causing a massive fire that sweeps up most of Rome, and the Pope vows to find him, even if they have to search all over the New World for the scientist. On Terra, Galileo is banned from ever leaving the planet again.

Guide to self-publishing

I took a technical writing class this semester and I did my presentation on a guide to self-publishing.

Here is the link: http://www.cliffball.com/Guide.pdf

Roanoke: Behind the Dissappearance

In history, Sir Frances Drake left the colonists at Roanoke Island to go back to England intending to return to Roanoke. Something happened to the colonists, and they left a note saying “Croatoa” which was supposed to be a nearby island. Unfortunately, Drake couldn’t get to Croatoa due to a major storm, so he gave up. History has wondered ever since what ever happened to those colonists?

In my novel, the back story for the colonists leaving have to do with aliens who discover Earth while they are at war with the Terrans. The Rangor, as they’re called, follow a Terran ship to Earth, and discover the blue marble of a planet. They discover the colonists, and decide to abduct and experiment on them. Some of the colonists don’t remember, while others think the island is haunted and they’re being plagued by demons. So, they decide to leave and make their way to Croatoa. Eventually, the inhabitants land on the mainland and discover the Appalachians, procreate with the local Natives, and later in American history, people discover blue eyed and blonde Natives living deep in the Appalachians. In the 21st century, DNA tests confirm they’re ancestors of the Roanoke Colonists.

Currently, their are supposed to be some people who live in the backwoods of Appalachia, the ones who distrust strangers and do look like Native American/English mix, who are suspected of being the Lost Colony. I don’t know if this is true or not and if anyone has conducted DNA testing, but having heard of this through some of my ancestory, I thought it would be a cool story to link to alien abductions and all that.