Descriptions of the Nondescript

An Eye Toward the Future

I have nearly completed my first book. I hope to have it published this weekend or, at the latest, this coming week. More on this when there is news...

Of course I haven't been idly sitting around waiting for editing, review feedback, and other processes external to me that have been required to publish the book. I already have two more stories in the pipeline. Both of these are in an arc or series called the ANGEL Stories. I'm expecting these to finish as novella sized - quick and easy to read, and with a fast moving pace for the action, which is one important component of each of them. They're science fiction, set in our time, filled with action, as I said, along with political intrigue, and many things a computer geek, especially, would find to be entertaining reading.

The first has working title of In the Beginning: ANGEL This is the "genesis" of the series, introducing the three main characters who will be present in the entire arc. In fact, this first book involves the creation of one of the characters --- ANGEL, who is an artificial intelligence with a predominantly female persona. ANGEL is, of course, an acronym for "Algorithmic + Natural Genetic Evolution and Learning" that describes the fundamental technology through which ANGEL came to be. The other two main characters are Ross Reynolds, an aging geek who spends his evenings playing with genetic algorithms for fun, and Lenora Crosley, an expert in malware and computer crime who works for the National Security Agency. Together the three of them form the "Triumvirate" --- a team devoted to improving the conditions of society through subtle and invisible nudges of politics, technology, and culture in directions that will make everything better for everyone. The first draft of this book is now being edited. I hope to have it published in early 2015.

The second story in the series has the working title ANGEL and Kings. This book reaches deep into the past to the time of the beginning of the Crusades, where a secret society comes together around the power struggles in the Church and in the Islamic world, surviving and flourishing into the present day. ANGEL and the Triumvirate become involved when they work backward from a correlation between various movements in the financial world leading to funding of radical jihadi groups and thence to the people who are providing those funds. The identity of these people is surprising, revealing a secret held close by a select few over nearly a thousand years.

Stay tuned as these stories work through their cycles of creation, refinement, and eventual publishing. I'm very excited to see what people think of these. They have been --- are being --- great good fun to write.