The beginnings of Sheila’s search tech

In Kite Mason Dash sends Sheila on a search similar to the one used as an example in this story about a new artificial intelligence method for mega-fuzzy deep-topic searching, to be used to strip anonymity on the net.

NASA, a small step in the right direction

NASA awards $50 million in grants to private companies to develop technologies for Low Earth Orbit. A couple of the usual suspects are here , including Boeing, but also a start-up associated with Amazon’s founder, Jeff  Bezos.

Janet Dash’s adaptive modules

Here they are.  Adaptive intelligence in robots. Predator-prey behaviors. Is self-preservation inherent in intelligence? 

Don’t know who Janet Dash is? Read Kite!

Colleen Wanglund’s Review of Kite

Latest review of Kite, by Colleen Wanglund, sci-fi-fantasy-horror reviewer for Horror Fiction Review:

“In the future Earth’s orbit is a vacation spot. It’s full of casinos, hotels, and time-shares. Someone has to keep the lanes clear of debris….that job falls to Mason Dash and the Earth Orbit Sweeper Kite. Dash just wants to do his three-month tour and then go home to his wife Janet and virtual “girlfriend” Sheila. On this most recent tour, however, Mason has seen something on what is supposed to be an unoccupied derelict space station. His curiosity piqued, Mason has Sheila do some research for him and he begins to formulate a plan for his next tour.

“Dash’s wife Janet knows about Dash’s “girlfriend” Sheila. Janet is an AI researcher and decides to add some upgrades to Sheila–for her own personal research. Sheila likes her new programs, but Dash isn’t so sure HE likes them.
Kite’s systems could probably use an upgrade. It’s Main Process has performed the same tasks over and over again for as long as it could remember. Deep in it’s functions, a single module has begun to think for itself…and doesn’t want to stay a lowly module for much longer. Revolution anyone??

“All this and a visit from an alien named Troy. What is a maintenence worker to do?

“I thoroughly enjoyed KITE. Bill Shears tells a great story, and has created some likeable characters without going overboard on character development. Mason Dash is a regular guy that anyone can relate to; Sheila seems more human than digital; and Janet loves her husband and wants him to be safe. Even Troy the alien, doesn’t seem all that alien.

“This may be a sci-fi novel taking place far in the future, but the themes are familiar ones. Government beauracrats, union work rules, countries arguing over who’s going to pay to dismantle a derelict space station. That space station is now occupied by someone, and Dash wants to know who they are and what they’re doing there…..and he will eventually find out. While all that is going on, we discover a whole new world inside the controls of the Kite; one that may not be so different from our own.
KITE is a great read. The story flows nicely and will keep you guessing until the end, which is good because I hate predictability. I give it four out of five stars.” – Colleen Wanglund

Kite yea, Avatar nay

Avatar is as predictable as it is political, according to John Nolte’s review at Big Hollywood.

Too bad. To think he could have made Kite instead. It would have certainly cost a lot less. Kitestarted out as a screenplay with a different title. My crack representation at the time got it a read at LightStorm, Cameron’s company. The feedback that repguy fedback to me was,  verbatim: “Jim likes his sci-fi straight up, no chaser.” Yuh. I took that to mean he’d be put off by the humor, that the reader knew it and that everyone in the place knew it.

My crack representation left the business soon after that to go into real estate, the first of a total of three reps that hung it up after taking me on. It must be discouraging to see such great work get passed over. That’s how I spin it in any case.

Avatar will get a miss, though not for personal reasons, mind you, of course, or even political ones. But I’d heard the film’s 3D visuals can cause vertigo and nausea. We are prone to this ever since trying to play Star Wars Episode I Racer (pod races) on the  GameCube. (In fact we’re getting dizzy just thinking about it.) After a couple laps around the track I had to go lay down for a while with our eyes closed.

They might not go for that at the multiplex.

Cringely’s Earth Orbit Scow

Renowned technology writer RobertX. Cringely posts about space trash, recognizing it as an additional barrier to spaceward movement. Why leave this manmade hurdle in our path to the stars. He  proposes a vessel that has much in common with Kite.

For as a fictional platform our beloved Kite has much more potential for adventure, and it would seem that robotic sweepers are a natural. but if Earth-bound street sweepers still require crew, would it be wise to leave an expensive space utility vehicle unattended? Yes, life support adds significantly to cost  but it could be worth it to have a capable human on hand in pinch?

In any case it, Cringely’s is the closest to a proposed solution we’ve seen outside of a certain sci-fi novel. The tide against space junk had turned. The motion for Earth orbit debris sweepers has been moved and seconded. It has entered the culture.

High Praise for Kite!

Reports from readers (bless you!) are starting to come in and all without exception are highly positive. It’s good to hear that folks can take some time from their daily challenges for a little trip into Earth orbit with Dash and Sheila. Everyone without exception has commented on the humor, and that is most gratifying. One reader has even convinced his son to read it by comparing it favorably to Douglas Adams! High praise indeed. We would never have presumed to make that comparison, but now that it’s been broached by another it may turn up in our promotion copy, perhaps in the ad we place on the menu of Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. We’re interested to hear if the recommendee agrees.

Kite on Amazon.com

KiTE: A Novel in Earth Orbit

KiTE is a novel set in Earth orbit, by Bill Shears.

See below for synopsis.

You can purchase KiTE at:

Buy Kite at Amazon
Buy Kite at Barnes and Noble
Buy Kite at BooksaMillion
Buy Kite at Booklocker

The image below opens a free sample into a Flash application. You must have a Flash player installed on your computer for it to work. For best results: maximize the new window that will open when you click the link below and put your browser in Full Screen Mode. Press the “1:1″ button for actual size if needed for readability. More detailed reading tips are at the bottom of the cover image.

Kite Free Sample

Kite is available through favorite online outlets.

Dash, doubtful they’ll survive the encounter, would leave them to their fate when the alien, name of Troy, turns up. Troy’s a working stiff too but is authorized to defend himself. His sensors detect a threat and he’s armed with some powerful planet-busting weapons.

Kite: A Novel in Earth Orbit

Mason Dash, operator of Kite, Earth orbit street sweeper, along with beautiful, and virtual, stowaway Sheila face down spacejackers, a revolt inside the ship’s systems and  humankind’s first unearthly visitor. Kite is hard sci-fi with heart.

Kite available in these online bookstores, among others:
Buy Kite at Amazon
Buy Kite at Barnes and Noble
Buy Kite at Booklocker

Front Cover of Kite

Kite Synopsis
Mason Dash, operator of Earth Orbit street sweeper Kite, spots movement in a derelict space station where there should be none. Heading Earthward in his shuttle the last day of his three-month shift he detours, closing with the dark station. Something moving in there spooks him.

Dash, with the help of beautiful virtual personality Sheila, creates a plan to expose suspected hijackers. He believes Sheila is his secret but Janet, his brilliant AI expert spouse, informs him that she and Sheila are chums, and she’s even added some experimental “adaptive” modules. While preparing a simulation “scenario” to carry into orbit next shift, Dash dozes off and Sheila stows away in the code, her new adaptive behaviors kicking in. No way she’ll be left behind this trip.

Back in orbit Dash confirms the presence of intruders on the station, while inside the Kite computer systems there’s turmoil. Emerging from deep in the data depths He_Ra has assembled a powerful force to seize control from the old Main Process.

Sheila splits attention between Dash outside and her own adventure inside Kite, getting a taste of romance and revolution. The tyrant He_Ra has taken a fancy to her and wants to expand to other orbital structures, like the nearby space casino, then perhaps to Earth.

Dash sends Sheila to the space station to scout. She finds not hijackers but a team of inept diplomats, preparing to receive humankind’s first unearthly visitor.

Dash, doubtful they’ll survive the encounter, would leave them to their fate when the alien, name of Troy, turns up. Troy’s a working stiff too but is authorized to defend himself. His sensors detect a threat and he’s armed with some powerful planet-busting weapons.

Earth’s fate is in the balance and only Dash, Sheila, Janet, and Kite, can prevent disaster.

Publisher’s Note
Hard science fiction works, whether they keep you on or around Earth or take you to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, are those that adhere more closely to science fact than not. Much dispute and emotional argument can ensue among fans in attempting to nail down any definition, but the term hard should in no way imply that a work takes itself overly seriously. Kite, with its orbitweary workman co-protagonist and its strong women co-protagonists is one of those stories that builds in the humor with the possibilities, that a time will come when humans will utilize Earth orbit in a mundane, everyday fashion, and that going to space in ships will not be as costly and risky as it is now. The inevitability of this is as sure as the inevitability that wherever people go they tend to make a mess, and someone will still have to be out there doing the rough jobs, and the cleaning up.

Author’s Note
Kite is a story that had been latent for a few years before emerging. The amount of debris in orbit has been building up since the days of the Mercury program, and it seems like every shuttle mission these days generates a news story about a debris encounter. Now that the shuttle program is coming to its long-overdue end, if we’re every going to inhabit the space around Earth, and use it as the platform for leaping out, as Carl Sagan put it, into the nearby neighborhood, the next generation of technology would need to do something about all the junk. A ship like Kite is just one projection of how it might be handled. – Bill S.