The Demon Maelstrom, Excerpt #3

Dear Readers,

Here is the third excerpt from The Demon Maelstrom, the second book in the SubVersion Trilogy. I hope you enjoy, and I hope it keeps you guessing! Stay tuned for more news and content about the book, and as always, Let There Be Life!

EXCERPT #3

Her hands fell from her face and she glanced out the window again. It must be almost three o'clock, she thought. She checked her watch and confirmed the time as two forty-five. Her expression softened as she stared off through the falling snow to the west, trying to divine what lay beyond the city, beyond the beltway, inside a house miles away in the middle of a snow-covered field. Three o'clock was the prescribed time for a meeting more important than anything she was doing at Central Admin today.

She was startled from her reverie by Bridgit, who somehow had materialized right next to her without her noticing. Bridgit stood staring down at Anna's large belly with a serious look on her face, her manner uncharacteristically hesitant and quiet. She had only been part of Anna's coding team for a week but had already demonstrated an extraordinary aptitude for her work; she had also shown a penetrating mind that picked apart every bit of their project with a fervor that disturbed Anna to no end. If Anna was worried about any of her team discovering her secret, she was worried about Bridgit.

The younger woman stood wordlessly for a full minute, glancing out the window in the same direction as Anna before licking her lips and clearing her throat to speak. “I've got two questions before you get all gussied up for your party downstairs. If you have the time, that is.”

Anna nodded, her stomach clenching with a vague dread but her face betraying nothing. “I have a couple minutes. Go ahead.”

Bridgit's cocky grin half-appeared, but without its usual gusto. She scratched her chin nervously, the tattooed snake that encircled her wrist flexing with the movement. “I'm concerned about the new module code. I didn't want to say anything in front of Jeremy, but I think he's hit on something. A generic operating system process shouldn't be conflicting with the security software the way it has been.”

I was right, she is sharp, Anna thought uncomfortably. She put on a thoughtful face and regarded Bridgit with a cocked head. “Probably not. This module has been rewritten several times now, though. Did you think to check for any conflicting code from the previous version?”

Bridgit gave her a strange look, somewhere between respectful disagreement and incredulity. “That was the first thing I checked, before you even got here this morning. There was only new code. The conflict is occurring right where the module turns on. You get like two commands in and it just dies.” She narrowed her eyes at Anna. “Jeremy told me once that you sometimes set him up to look like the fool with some sort of 'lesson' in the code for him to pick apart. As fun as it is to do stuff like that to him, please tell me that's not what you were doing here.”

Partial relief washed over Anna and she gave a little smile. Jeremy must have been lying to gain sympathy, but it worked to Anna's advantage. She put a hand on Bridgit's arm. “No, I wasn't trying to test anyone, except maybe my own patience. I'll bring it home with me tonight and try to fix it, I'm sure it was just a stupid mistake on my part.”

Bridgit raised an eyebrow at her, not looking entirely convinced. “But you don't make mistakes.”

“I try not to,” Anna replied, growing wary again. “But statistically we're all bound to at some point.”

Shrugging, Bridgit appeared resigned to the answer. However, she still didn't turn to the door, only stood there with the same hesitant attitude. Anna frowned at her.

“You said you had two questions?” she inquired.

“I did, yes.” Bridgit's gaze moved back down to Anna's stomach. “You're . . . pregnant, right?”

Some Tidbits

The creation of The SubVersion Complex and the world it inhabits has been one of the most intensive, fun, infuriating, and inspiring projects I've ever worked on so far. While the next two books in the trilogy are already proving to be a far more monumental task in scope and emotional scale (I am writing them both at the same time for the sake of consistency), the first still astounds me by the simple fact that a year ago it didn't even exist, and now it does. It's humbling.

So I figured I would give back a little bit here, take a break from writing the second book and share a little about the process of writing the first. I found myself intrigued by the process, and I hope you do too. Call it a "behind-the-scenes" look. Or whatever, you get the idea. So here goes, a list of interesting tidbits about various aspects of the creation of the book.

(1) If you read the Acknowledgments section of the book, you'll notice that I credited the band Nero for indirectly providing the inspiration for the novel. It was a very weird inspirational moment. I had just finished writing and editing a short comedic novel and was bored thinking of what else I might write. So I began trolling the music videos on YouTube, and Nero's "Must Be the Feeling" popped up. I like Nero and I began to watch. The video was heavily dystopian/police-state in content, involving a car being chased by a robotic cop on a motorcycle. As the protagonists are chased at top speed through an unidentified city at night, a glowing billboard warns that the driver and passenger in the car are wanted by the government for "subversion," among other things. In a strange moment of word association, I distinctly remember pausing the video, opening my word processor up and typing down "The Subversion Matrix." That sounded too much like "The Matrix." So I typed beneath that "The Subversion Complex." And a title was born, with no story attached to it. I had no clue what a "Subversion Complex" was, but I was excited to discover what it meant.

(2) In my original treatment, the black box is not occupied by the little girl, but by the man Daniel Marcus himself, and the entire story revolved around Anna "meeting" him through the interface and finally breaking him free out of compassion.

(3) I wrote three separate openings to the book as tests, one of them even experimenting with first person. The first person opening went nowhere, thankfully.

(4) Practically every bit of "tech" in the book already exists in real life right now, in one form or another. The book is partly a true story in this regard. This includes the giant incinerator inside the Complex that Miriam is thrown into. That scene is based on a medical waste processing plant in the United States that incinerates the dismembered bodies of aborted children. Other tech that already exists includes the self-driving cars, the idea of the quantum computer, the lab-created babies, animal/human DNA mixing, robotic military vehicles, population control measures with drugs, the "aural dosing" sessions, even the reactive computer to a very limited degree.

(5) Real events in the news both inspired my writing with ideas for scenes, as well as flogged me to continue. Every time I put the book away and decided I was done writing for a time, something horrible or frustrating in the news would pop up to compel me to continue, and I thank God and/or my angel for providing those moments.

(6) Practically all of the names in the book have significance, whether intentionally on my part or discovered fortuitously later:

Mr. Vickers is a British name that I liked, but it also worked beautifully as a play on the word "vicar." Appropriate, since he is a priest.

Another name of significance is Daniel Marcus, who is obliquely named after former SEAL team member Marcus Luttrell of Lone Survivor fame. Besides being a good rugged name for a good rugged man, it provided a sort of homage to a particularly courageous real-life soldier.

Sonya was another name I chose with purpose, it being the Russian version of the Greek name Sophia, which means "wisdom." The name is an irony of sorts, as she is loaded up with knowledge via computer, but the inputting of that knowledge shows lack of wisdom on the part of the scientists controlling her.

Both the names Annalise and Miriam I chose because I liked them, only to discover later that they both meant very significant things for their respective owners. As Daniel tells Anna at the kitchen table in the book, her name means "full of grace." An irony of sorts at first, as Anna is about the least grace-filled woman at the beginning of her story. And Miriam was a spectacularly appropriate choice made by accident, a name meaning "sea of sorrow."

(7) The entire book was written without an outline. Whether for the better or the worse, that's how I do things. The book pretty much existed in my head, and just needed coaxing out onto the computer.

(8) Anna's friend Meghan, who joins Anna for coffee near the beginning of the book, is named after the singer Meghan Trainor of "All About That Bass" fame. Knowing that I can't stand Meghan Trainor will probably make the choice of name obvious.

And those are 8 tidbits about The SubVersion Complex that you may not have known. Now you do!

The Demon Maelstrom, Excerpt #2

Dear Readers,

Here is the second excerpt from The Demon Maelstrom, the second book in the SubVersion Trilogy. I hope you enjoy, and I hope it keeps you guessing! Stay tuned for more news and content about the book, and as always, Let There Be Life!


EXCERPT #2

 

Adam leaned back in his chair with a frown, and Anna noticed that he would not meet her gaze. He sat silently for a long moment, turned to look out the window in the far wall, then pulled his electronic cigarette out of his jacket pocket. He clicked it on and took a long draw. “You put a great amount of faith in the word of a convicted criminal such as Captain Marcus,” he replied, vapor leaking from his nostrils and lips as he spoke. “And a lot less faith in my decision-making. It was a simple determination. The opportunity of a lifetime presented itself, and it was far too good to pass up.”

“Why wasn't I told about this?” Anna asked indignantly, her ire rising.

Adam pursed his lips and shifted position. “Just because you are the Party Secretary-in-waiting doesn't mean that you are told everything. This was a classified operation, only a few people knew.”

“The plan was that we would wait until the system was complete before we sprang anything on Vérité!” Anna retorted hotly. “Or so I thought until I heard about this drone strike.” She rose out of her chair, confrontational and irate, her eyes flashing. “That was the plan, wasn't it? We need to stick to the plan!”

She realized too late that she was suddenly treading on very thin ice. Sinking back into her seat, Anna watched in growing alarm as Adam's face hardened. She had his full attention now. His eyes locked to hers and she saw wrath blooming in them like bursting fire. With one arm he swept aside the dishes between them and leaned full on the table, his breath blowing hot and hard enough for her to feel from where she sat opposite. His mouth twitched several times, as though forming words that would not come. He thrust an index finger at her.

“I–“ he said haltingly, “I am the plan, Anna.” His rage grew and spread. “I make the plan.” Finally he rose to his feet, planting both hands knuckles down on the table and angling towards her in a threatening gesture. His voice rose to a shout. “And I change the plan as I damn well see fit! Is that good enough for you?”

Anna's lower lip began to tremble with fear. Her emotion must have been contagious, for there came a sudden drubbing from inside her belly. Either the baby could feel her distress or it found Adam's voice frightening. In any case it kicked viciously in protest, making Anna's mouth drop open in a gasp of surprise and pain.

Adam continued angrily. “On top of that, I would have thought any chance to apprehend the head of Vérité would have been welcomed as a breakthrough development on your part, and yet you remain stuck in this holding pattern that you've created for yourself!” He straightened up and turned to the window again. “I brought you on because you fix things, because you take systems and you make them work.”

Anna bit her lip and suppressed a tear. “We were fixing things. We were working to fix your system. And I thought–”

“My system?” Adam queried in irascible surprise. “My system? You're calling everything around us my system? No, Anna this is not mine. It's my father's system, the last great rotting carcass of an idea of his stretching from the grave to haunt you and I.” He gestured dismissively to Anna's tumescent abdomen, where the thump thump still drummed from inside. “You're born, you grow, you eat and drink and screw and sleep and die. And then you're burnt. That unnatural thing inside you is no better than a lump of charcoal in the end.”

A sob swelled in Anna's throat and a tear rolled down her cheek. “It's a child, Adam, not a thing.”

The Demon Maelstrom - Excerpt #1

Dear Readers,

Here is the first excerpt from my new book, the second in the SubVersion Trilogy. I hope you enjoy, and I hope it keeps you guessing! Stay tuned for more news and content about the book, and as always, Let There Be Life!


EXCERPT #1

Holographic flames played about in their grate, the flickering light shining at intervals through clouds of vapor from an electronic cigarette. Besides the artificial fire in its artificial fireplace, no other light illuminated the darkened office except for the sickly bluish-gray glow from the window. Snow had mounded on the outside window sill and the panes of glass swirled with fantastic shapes of frost and ice.

In the large swiveling office chair in front of the fire sat the Secretary. His was a dark figure of worn gloom and stoic silence, the only movement being the motion of the right arm bringing the cigarette up to his lips and then back to the arm of the chair. His eyes gleamed with quiet intensity, only occasionally twitching to one side or another and focused stubbornly on the middle distance.

The desk beeped. After a long moment he roused himself, turned in the chair to the desk and tapped the button. He knew who was calling. “Yes, Major Forrest?”

“Sir, the surveillance drones have a signal. We've successfully located the tracking device.”

The Secretary's right eye twitched. He blinked and took another drag on his cigarette, and when he spoke again his voice sounded out low, almost threatening. “Would you please remind me again why Maelstrom demands a drone strike?”

Major Forrest's voice became uncertain. “Uh, he claims we won't get the prisoner until we prove ourselves. He says we won't regret it.”

The Secretary remained grim. “I don't need to prove a damn thing to anybody, Forrest.”

“Um, I'm sure you don't sir.”

“Just so we're clear.” The man roused himself and stood slowly, pushing up against the metal cane that supported him. “This is my strike, not Maelstrom's (whoever the hell he/she is), or Sam Holloway's. As far as the strike itself is concerned, I want the full treatment. Hit hard and fast with the Marauder, then coordinate with Farkas on a sweep of the grounds as fast as he can get the UCS Beta Squad there. Then report back to me.”

Major Forrest coughed and answered in the affirmative. The Secretary moved his hand to the comm button, but his fingers hovered above it without touching it yet. “And Major?”

“Yes, sir?”

“If this strike fails, know that heads will roll.”

A swallow. “Understood . . . sir.”

A tap of fingers on the button, and the comm died.

New Book, New Header, Book Two!

Well, I waited until the last possible minute here, but Book Two of the SubVersion Trilogy finally has a title! Originally I had intended to follow a "SubVersion" naming scheme, but that severely limited the scope of what I always meant to convey with the book titles. So instead, I literally went through dozens of possible titles after ditching the one I had up here, but at last I have one that is here to stay. Book Two will officially be titled The Demon Maelstrom.

To mark the occasion, and to show where we are in the progress of the trilogy, the header image above has been changed to reflect the new title. The header reflects the font that will be used for the title on the cover. Hopefully I'll have a cover design for the new book on display here in a couple days or weeks.

Stay tuned for excerpts from the new book, as well as various bits of info and sundry items. Let There Be Life!

Paperback Version Now Available!

I have the great pleasure to announce that the paperback version of The SubVersion Complex is now available in paperback from Amazon! Click here to purchase!

Officially For Sale!

The SubVersion Complex is now officially for sale on Amazon as a Kindle eBook! You can buy it here. Oh, and don't forget to leave a review once you're done reading, reviews are like gold for me! Enjoy and let me know what you think!