Books and Banter: Warren Chazan ~ guest post and his novel ~ The Waterhole

TITLE: The Waterhole

RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2017

AUTHOR: Warren Chazan

CATEGORIES: Science Fiction/Fantasy

PAGE COUNT: 452

ISBN: 978-1543044768

IMPRINT: Devil’s Tower

BOOK PAGE: http://ravenswoodpublishing.com/bookpages/thewaterhole.html

KEYWORDS: Alien, Physics, Parallel universe, Cataclysmic, Apocalyptic, frequency, decryption, thriller

ONE LINER:

Will our technology and quest for knowledge ultimately result in our destruction?

SYNOPSIS:

The year is 2051 and NASA, the US military and Australia have launched EMB, an incredible machine that can compress the fabric of space-time, providing us with previously unimaginable detail of the Big Bang and Janine Fuller, a pushy, headstrong anchor for CNNA has just been given the momentous story to break.

Following the launch, an alien internet signal is located coming through the wormhole in an electromagnetic region known as the “Waterhole”. Baffling NASA scientists, the source of the signal does not even appear to emanate from within the known boundaries of our universe.

Concurrent to this, animal migration patterns change, satellites malfunction and a reversal of the magnetic poles takes place. EMB is blamed, but despite official denial from General Smith, a brutal psychopath, with a frightening agenda of his own, Janine is unconvinced. In a world, where escalating mechanical failures, huge tidal surges and mass extinctions are becoming commonplace, Janine, using all resources known to her, goes into espionage mode in search of the truth.

What she discovers is a new reality more terrifying than she could possibly ever have imagined.

GUEST POST:

It was a Friday evening in 2007, and I was a guest at my brother’s dinner party. At about 1030pm, everyone eventually disappeared, my sister in law retired for the evening, and just my brother and I were left chatting at the table. As usual, we got talking about philosophical and scientific issues, as my brother is a computer engineer, well versed in science and physics, and I am a medical specialist. We often enjoy bouncing political, social and scientific ideas off each other, but tonight would be different. Unbeknown to me, tonight my brother would give me the premise to my debut novel.

Our discussions often led to arguments, sometimes disagreements but usually great debates. Over a couple of glasses of wine, the conversation became more passionate and for some reason we got talking about Scientific achievements of the 21^st century, and the computer age, We spoke about everything from transistors to teleportation and then out of the blue, my brother said to me, “Are you aware that every scientific achievement to date has relied on the laws of nature being what they are, and that if even a slight change took place to any of these laws, then every technological advancement that we have made to date would instantly become obsolete.” I asked him for an example, to which he replied, “Okay, let’s look at gravity, what do you think might happen if we woke up tomorrow and gravity increased.?”

I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders. “I suppose, aeroplanes would have a tougher time gaining lift, and perhaps certain birds could have some difficulty fying?”

“Exactly!” he responded, “And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Think about direction of electron flow, electromagnetism, weak nuclear forces. If any of these things change ever so slightly, our technology will become utterly useless.”

I gave this some thought, and responded, “Well, that may be true, but Physics 101 says that the laws of physics are assumed to be the same throughout the universe and that they are constant and unchanging, to which he quickly jumped in and corrected me, “ASSUMED to be unchanging. The key word is ASSUMED!”

He said, “who knows what the laws might be like a billion light years away?” and “What if the laws of the universe just so happen to randomly change every 13 billion years or so? That could mean that we could wake up tomorrow and everything might just suddenly stop working, possibly even us! Maybe that’s exactly what happened 13 billion years ago with the Big Bang.”

I knew that we had touched on something profound, something which I had never given much thought to, but was undeniably intriguing. And if it was intriguing to me, a lover of science and science fiction, than perhaps it would be intriguing to many others too.

And that was all I needed to sow the seed to the novel that I knew I had to write, that I must write and so, “The Waterhole” was born.

AUTHOR BIO:

My name is Warren Chazan. I was born and raised in South Africa, emigrating to Sydney, Australia in 2005, where I obtained my qualification as an anesthetist. I am very fortunate to live in a beautiful beachside town called Terrigal. I took to writing late in life, when I decided about eight years ago that although medicine was a good career choice, it was not where my ultimate passion lay. It was then that I began to write, submerging myself in creative writing courses, workshops, seminars and fairs. The “Waterhole” is my debut novel that blends together three of my pet interests; astronomy, the possibility that we are not alone in the universe, and humanity’s quest for knowledge (which could ultimately be used for both good and evil).

I hope that with this novel, readers will enjoy what I’ve written, just as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Being an amateur astronomer myself, and the proud owner of a 9.25 inch Cassegrain telescope, I have tried as much as possible to remain true to real Science, while still trying to capture the attention of the average reader, who is simply seeking a fast paced story that they can immerse themselves in and escape the reality of life for a while.

I am now working on my second novel, "Lucifer's Pill,"(a medical thriller) which is in the final stages of editing. I hope to publish this in the near future.