PUTTING IN THE GROUNDWORK TO REACH FOR THE STARS

Young Karl Kofoed always watched the skies. And when he graduated from the Philadelphia College of Art in the USA, he landed a dream job as a technical illustrator for the aerospace industry. But his vision stretched for light years beyond our own earthly clouds and higher than any plane could fly.

In the forty-six years since his career achieved lift-off, Karl’s artist’s eye has roamed the surface of planets in solar systems galaxies away. So astute and vivid is his vision that NASA used his images in planning its own adventurous mission to distant Saturn.

For decades, he’s been celebrated in the world of Science Fiction for his breath-taking book covers and illustrations for scores of magazines. Then he exchanged his brushes and pens for the keyboard – at least for a while.

And today, BeWrite Books internationally releases his first SF novel, the far-sighted Jupiter’s Reef in paperback and all digital formats.

You can read more about Karl Kofoed and Jupiter’s Reef  HERE. The back cover text tells us:

Alex Rose is on the brink of the greatest discovery in the history of space exploration.

And he’ll break every rule in the book to make it.

He keeps his criminal record secret. He steals and modifies an interplanetary ship to probe a cosmic storm system three times the size of earth. And he falls in forbidden love with a girl who’s perfect in every way – just as she was engineered to be by genetic scientists on Mars.

Posing as a miner on Jupiter’s sulfur moon, Io, Alex is not there for the superpay … just for the Great Red Spot on the giant planet. Something beneath its swirling clouds is alive and has been waiting eons for his arrival.
 

Mary Seventeen is a clone, created to service men and to be a biological radio for communicating to MarsCorp from deep space.

Together they will risk everything to meet Alex’s destiny and prove the existence of Jupiter’s Reef of Life.

Like his illustrated work, Kofoed’s Jupiter’s Reef lures the reader with a palpable and thrilling sense of a world as alien to humans as it is full of wonder … and danger.

Karl Kofoed

Karl’s first voyage into self-produced Science Fiction (rather than covering the work of other stars in the genre) was his famous and lavishly illustrated documentary-styled Galactic Geographic series in Heavy Metal magazine and the subsequent book, Galactic Geographic Annual 3003: Earth Edition.

BeWrite Books is currently working on a new edition, fully revised, redesigned and enriched with new material. So look out for Galactic Geographic: 3012 later this year. This edition will be specially prepared with spectacular full colour digital presentation in mind. It will be our own first foray into the exciting new ground of colour ebook production.

And it’s coming into being because we agree with what Karl said when we spoke about his work recently: “The future is today!”

Even with coming-up seven decades under his belt, Karl sets his calendar a millennium ahead of other earthlings’.

This foresight and his imaginative work became part of NASA’s Cassini Mission to Saturn, providing what the mission chief deemed the most potentially accurate views of the planet’s moons. Kofoed’s uncanny knack of seeing what our most powerful telescopes couldn’t proved itself on the mission and became the water-cooler talk of astronomers around the world. Some of the images NASA worked from are HERE.

But he isn’t alone on the bridge when it comes to vision. Alongside, as he works on his art, literature and the expert restoration of old photographs considered beyond saving by others, is wife Janet, a hugely gifted creator of futuristic jewelry. You can see examples of their work and how they are mutually inspirational at KOFOED DESIGN.

They think alike, even to the extent that each have a daughter from a previous marriage … both young women named Lisa!

Multi-award-winning Karl, who has also worked as a TV set designer and promotional art director for more than a dozen prestigious magazines, said: “You can’t work alongside talented science fiction authors for long without catching the writing bug yourself.

The Fountains of Enceladus, one of the pictures
that amazed NASA and atronomers around the world

“I cut my teeth on two novels outside the genre, and then came Jupiter’s Reef. I’ve also completed an SF trilogy that’s ready to fly.

“And I’m looking forward immensely to working on Galactic Geographic: 3012 with the BeWrite Books team. It’s an exciting project and it seems fitting that it should be presented in 21st Century digital form for state-of-the-art reading devices that, until recently, were considered a science fiction dream themselves.”

Jupiter’s Reef can be bought in paperback and digital formats from the BeWrite Books  and all major online bookstores. The paperback is also available on order from brick and mortar bookshops worldwide.

INFO. Author: Karl Kofoed. Editor: Hugh McCracken. Cover Image: Karl Kofoed. Design and technical preparation for print and digital editions: Tony Szmuk. Additional input: The BeWrite Books team.

Happy weekend, folks. Neil Marr et al at BeWrite Books

PS: The first six readers of the above to answer the following three questions can claim an ebook copy of Jupiter's Reef in the digital format of their choice (Mobi, ePub or PDF) from contact@bewrite.net:

1) Of which NASA mission did Karl Kofoed's art work become a part?

2) Where is Alex Rose's place of work?

3) What is the working title of Karl Kofoed's upcoming color illustrated BeWrite Books release?