The Amazing, Unfolding World of Machine
Civilization Series
by Clayton Barnett
GENRE: Science Fiction
NOTE: Echoes of Family Lost and The Fourth Law are only $0.99
BLURBS:
A history beginning
in our near future, these stories are set in a world where the US dollar has
been displaced as the world’s reserve currency, prompting its economic and
political collapse, with a few areas able to hold onto civilization.
At the same time,
across the Pacific, under a resurgent economy brought about by the
implementation of new technology and deregulation, three Japanese companies
produce breakthroughs in both artificial intelligence and robotics. These newly made people exhibit an odd
interest in the goings-on of the former United States.
To-date, my
chronicling of this interest of theirs has led to stories that populate five
novels, which I would like to share with everyone now!
The Fourth Law - In the near future, 23-year-old apprentice
nurse Lily Barrett lives in a shattered time.
Following its economic collapse, the US has devolved into a group of a
few barely functional smaller states and vast swathes of barbarian
badlands. His sister has been missing
for years, and her father, after earning the opprobrium of most of the world
for running a state terror organization, presumed dead.
Two things keep her
going: her live-in job at a small, Catholic orphanage in the city of
Waxahachie, Republic of Texas, and Ai, her odd but dear friend, whom she met
online; a young woman who only shows herself to Lily as a rendered CG image.
Troubled by her past,
haunted by her name, and facing an uncertain future, Lily seems only a quiet,
simple life. But, that past and her
present conspire against her.
Echoes of Family Lost - Alive! After four years believing her older sister
lost and presumed dead in the horrible Breakup of the United States, Lily
Barrett gets word from her dear friend, Ai – and Ai’s family of Machine
Civilization – that Callie Barrett is very likely alive… but over 900 miles
away in Knoxville.
Using the resources
of her and Ai’s family, Lily puts together a search party to go find
Callie: old, broken, and burnt Orloff –
an expert in surviving in the Badlands, Ai’s little sister, Fausta – her
machine mind controlling a Combat Android to protect her friend, all together
in a cart pulled by their sturdy pony, Clyde.
It’s almost a
thousand miles to go, with something very odd trying to limit their ability to
communicate over distance and even to cross bridges. A chance meeting along the way in Huntsville,
former Alabama, wrecks their plans, and puts all of their lives in danger.
Cursed Hearts - Even with San Diego occupied by the
Mexican Army, Katarina Sosabowski pursues her MBA at UCSD, and is happy to
welcome and put up her visiting step-cousin from Japan, Christopher Dennou, for
a night so he can complete his enrollment the following day.
But a minor
earthquake brings a major surprise:
Chris’s younger sister, Maya, murders their mother and escapes Neuroi
Institute, the research facility that created them.
While Chris and ‘Cat’
grow closer to one another, Maya inexorably crosses an ocean and half a
continent to take back her brother, killing anyone who gets in her way.
Friend and Ally - Model 5 is a prototype designed to fit
seemlessly into human society. A meeting
in Tokyo derails Nichole’s planned training as she is dispatched to Portland,
former Oregon; the last working deep water port on the West Coast of the imploding
US.
There, under her
cover as a Graduate Engineering Student, she is to do her utmost to nurture the
people and politics of the City-State into a Friend and Ally of the Japanese
Empire. But from the first day in her
new home, all of Nichole’s plans go awry.
Beset by those who
want this small lamp of Western Civilization snuffed out, Nichole must find
within herself the courage and ability to protect her new friends, at whatever
consequence to herself.
Foes and Rivals - After residing nearly a year in Portland,
Nichole’s life seems to finally settle down: with her classes, friends, and
lover. But troubling rumors about secret
deals between the City’s master and the savage horsemen to the east reach her
ears.
With her own skills
augmented by her friends and allies, she sets plans into motion she hopes will
thwart those in opposition to her dream of a peaceful future.
Once again denied a
quiet, normal life, Nichole is faced to make hard, dangerous choices that will
jeopardize her, her friends, and the survival of the City itself.
Excerpt:
Foes and Rivals:
Teresa laughed as she downed the
last of her wine and easily made her way to the steps and out. Nichole pushed her chair back and followed a
minute later. She paused at the door to
the outside. It appeared cold and wet;
foreboding. Yet she was suddenly surprised
by a sound she had not heard since her youth in Osaka: the yip of a small dog.
Nichole turned about to see Nike
squatting down to pet the head of a silver-grey Schnoodle.
“I didn’t know you kept a dog,
Nike,” she observed. Non-farm dogs were
an expensive luxury, post-Breakup.
“I don’t; he’s just visiting,” the
proprietor replied. “We met at the
Bridge once.”
“I see. May I pet him?” she asked.
“That,” he replied, “is entirely up
to him!”
Nichole walked over and extended her
hand as she leaned down. The fluffy one
sniffed her hand and looked to Nike.
“Unfamiliar smell!” he laughed.
“Yeah.” How much does Nike know
about me?
The small dog took two steps to push
his head into the palm of her hand.
Nichole rubbed and scratched behind his ears for half a minute.
“I must be off,” she said,
standing. “What bridge did you say it
was where you met him?”
“Rainbow.”
Nichole paused at the door. So far as I know, there is no such bridge in
the City or its surrounds!
She put her hand onto the doorknob.
Interview with Author Clayton Barnett
As a
writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
A
wombat? Hmmm… the header of my blog is
Fausta’s face from the cover of “Echoes of Family Lost”… there’s the triple battle rifle logo from 3-AR Studios… As a pasty, middle-aged White guy, it’d be
nice if I could have my 30-year-old body back…
How
many hours a day do you put into your writing?
When
I’m all-in, at least one hour each day… if it’s a longer scene then I’ll stick
with it until I reach the end.
Otherwise, while noodling about with my writing exercises, about thirty
minutes each day.
Do
you read your book reviews? If yes, do they affect what you write in the
future?
Of
course! And any that are less than
3-stars I find the reviewer and burn their house to the ground! *Ahem* As for affecting what I do later, only
a little and only in a technical sense:
my novels are almost structured like screenplays, and I’ve been
criticized for my jumps from scene-to-scene being a little jarring. I have been working on making those
transitions smoother.
Do
you leave hidden messages in your books that only a few people will find?
Yes! Every now and then it’s possible to come
across one of my ‘signature phrases’ or a particular action by a
character. It is not something I set out
to do, but if it fits I’ll smile as I type it in.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Machine
Civilization?
Their
classification as science fiction notwithstanding, my stories are about the
relationships between people, some of whom are flesh and blood and some of whom
are lightning and composite.
“The
Fourth Law” lets us peer into the deep love between two friends, Lily and Ai.
In
“Echoes of Family Lost” I broaden that to Lily’s family, her relative’s family,
Ai’s family and the inter-relationship between them all.
As
a horror/romance, “Cursed Hearts,” the unfolding emotional and physical
relationship between Chris and Cat is at odds with Chris’s tormented sister and
her desire to be reunited with him… at any cost.
Nichole
5’s saga in “Friend & Ally” and “Foes & Rivals” pulls together much
that I have learned in my earlier works:
friendships and lovers, but also with politics and war, as she does what
she can to preserve one of the last embers of civilization in the former US.
Can you tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have
planned for the future
Probably
titled “Worlds Without End,” I know much of the story is about 13-year-old Gary
Hartmann and his ten-year relationship with his Intended, Henge, a self-aware
machine. I’ve been shown some very
interesting scenes so far and have about 20k words down. I am becoming concerned about Gary’s younger
sister, Faustina, and her increasingly
erratic behavior.
Do you allow yourself a certain number of hours to write or do you
write as long as the words come?
As
I mentioned in #2, at least an hour, but if they keep showing me a scene I’ll
stay seated and write it down!
Do you have a certain number of words or pages you write per day?
Nope. I block out least an hour some of which is
considering what I see in my head and how best to relay that to a reader, so it
is not as if I am typing the entire time.
What inspires you to write?
It
has become a compulsion to the point of almost an addiction. If I go more than a few days without writing
anything my already too-high blood pressure gets higher, I get distracted and forgetful, followed by moody and
withdrawn. Yes, it’s a job, but like marriage,
it’s a job I love.
Would you rather
Read fiction or
non-fiction?
Yes. The 1000+ books in my collection are split
about 50/50 along those lines.
Read series or stand-alone?
Depends: can the writer get it done in a single
book? Like one of Ken Follett’s
historical fictions? Or is the span of
time so large you need a series, such as Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome?
In
creating my future history, things such as Larry Niven’s Known Space and Jerry
Pournelle’s Co-Dominium were never far from my mind: while composed of stand-alone novels and
short stories, they all inhabited a coherent whole. That makes things easier for both the writer
and reader: being able to return to a
familiar milieu.
Read Science fiction
or horror?
SF,
definitely! I’ve never had an interest
in horror. Even when I forced myself
into that genre for “Cursed Hearts” I don’t see it as something I’ll soon be
returning to.
Read Stephen King or Dean
Koontz
No
Koontz at all. Over a decade ago I read
some of King’s short stories… those weren’t bad.
Read the book or
watch the movie?
Depends,
again. Often I’ll watch a movie and
become interested enough to look at the source material. If it’s a 100-minute
movie from a 500-page book I’m going to assume ninety percent of the book was
tossed out and read it to see what I was missing. In that sense,
I treat movies like expanded trailers.
Read an ebook or
paperback?
I’m
not just old-school… I’m old-man! So
paperback.
Be trapped alone for
one month in a library with no computer or a room with a computer and Wi-Fi
only?
Depends
on the library! If it’s a Special
Collections with works going back hundreds of years? Then the library. If it’s the local county library I’d take the
computer and wi-fi.
Do a cross-country
book store tour or blog tour online?
Again,
I embrace the power of “and”! I am
enjoying this current virtual book tour very much. However,
I have also had the opportunity to give talks at local schools and conventions
about Creative Writing and Self-Publishing and love the audience engagement. So long as someone else is paying for it, I
would welcome a physical book tour to introduce readers to Machine
Civilization.
AUTHOR Bio
and Links:
One
time engineer, some time pharmacy technician, full time husband and father,
Clayton Barnett stumbled into writing a traditional novel November 2014 during
National Novel Writing Month. Liking the
results, he edited what would become “The Fourth Law” and set about teaching
himself self-publishing. In the
following four years he has produced four more novels as well as a children’s
early reader, all in what is now called Machine Civilization.
Clayton
Barnett lives in central Ohio with his wife, two daughters, and two dogs.
Book
Links:
Giveaway:
$25 Amazon/BN GC
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2 comments:
Thanks for hosting!
Morning! Let's hope it is a good one!
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