Winyah grad tackles space in first novel – South Strand news

Georgetown native Gray Rineharts first novel, Walking on the Sea of Clouds, a science fiction story about asteroid miners, just hit book store shelves.

Rinehart has some experience with space travel after spending 20 years in the Air Force working in space systems operations and support.

Growing up on Screven Street in Georgetown, Rinehart watched Star Trek reruns and read Omni and Analog magazines. After graduating from Winyah High School in 1982, Rinehart joined the Air Force.

His love of science fiction sparked his interest in working in space systems for the Air Force. While serving, however, Rinehart said he stopped reading science fiction, although he did enjoy watching sci-fi movies.

The 1985 Orson Scott Card novel Enders Game got Rinehart reading science fiction again. It also inspired him to starting writing science fiction.

Walking on the Sea of Clouds follows the exploits of two couples struggling to establish the first commercial lunar colony for asteroid miners, and the sacrifices they have to make. The couples take care of everything to keep the colony running and the colonists alive.

Survival requires a certain amount of sacrifice, Rinehart said. The question is what sacrifices are people willing to make in order to survive and succeed in this endeavor.

Rinehart said he liked the idea of writing about the early days of space colonies because he didnt find a lot of stories about the topic.

What I wanted to do is explore some of the stories about the people who would be involved in building the (colonies) from the ground up, he added.

Rinehart started writing the book around 2008 after retiring from the Air Force. It took about 18 months to complete.

There was immense relief in having actually gotten to the end of a novel-length manuscript, he said.

Rinehart said he had a general idea of the plot of the book and how it was going to end, but didnt outline a lot of the details in advance. He compared it to episodes of a television series, where he came up with the major events of the story and then put them all together.

Because of his military background, Rinehart said he was careful about what he wrote because hes aware of how things actually work.

It certainly makes me a better writer than I would be otherwise, but not a better writer than anybody else, he said.

At the time he finished the book, Rinehart was working for Baen Books, evaluating unsolicited manuscripts that the company received. He would read the submissions and decide whether they company should consider publishing them. So he knew what the process of shopping a book around to publishers was like.

He submitted his book to Baen, but I knew in my heart it wasnt quite right for our publishing house, he said.

It took several years, and a lot of rejections, before he eventually sold the book to WordFire Press in Monument, Colorado.

It was very much a marathon not a sprint, Rinehart said. Like a steeplechase with things to dodge.

Rinehart plans on writing more books, although probably not sequels to Walking on the Sea of Clouds. Hes already started a fantasy novel and has some short stories that will be published within the next year or so.

He prefers writing short stories.

It allows me to get to the point where I type The End faster, he said.

Rinehart said it has become more difficult for authors to keep up with the science fiction as the science has advanced.

He said science fiction in the 1950s and 1960s had a hopefulness about the future, where people would overcome difficulties and make things better.

In Rineharts opinion, science fiction then took a turn toward the dystopic with worlds that are fraught with difficulties. He said hed like see more hopeful, forward-looking science fiction.

After retiring from the Air Force, Rinehart settled in Cary, North Carolina. But he plans to return to his hometown for the solar eclipse on Aug. 21.

He said he is still in touch with his Winyah classmates, although he missed a recent 35-year anniversary gathering.

We still are in pretty close touch with one another, Rinehart said.

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Winyah grad tackles space in first novel - South Strand news