Charles O'Donnell at the #SpringfieldOHBookFair

Promotions From Vendors Attending The 2019 Winter
​Springfield OH Book Fair 
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https://www.henhousepublishing.com/2019-winter-book-fair.html

Shredded: A Dystopian Novel ​

Who can erase my existence from the mind of God?

​Grace, a civil servant with a sordid past, wakes one morning to find that she’s become a viral sensation: Her life has been hacked, her life data woven into a lifestream, a full-immersion, 3-D, virtual reality experience that thrill-seeking stream riders can inhabit for a few dollars. The helplessness she feels, knowing she’s powerless to keep strangers from getting their jollies reliving her life, and her fear that her teenage son, Dylan, might stumble upon her explicit lifestream, lead her to find a shredder, an expert in the ways of the Worldstream, the nearly infinitely detailed record of data from the ubiquitous Internet of Things. He’ll erase her lifestream and all of her data, accumulated since the day she was born. Her life will be hers again, but she’ll be outside of the Worldstream—and she can never go back. 

Excerpt: 

“Ha!” Raúl laughed, almost sneering. “It’s a little late in the process to start making your plans. Do you know what you’re in for?” 

“I think so. The Eye told me about his Shade crew, and how they live. He provides.”

“Oh, then you’re a coder? A programmer? A data analyst, maybe?”

“I work at a state agency. I help people with live services.”

“Yeah, I know where you work. And I doubt very much that the Eye has a spot in his organization for someone with people skills.” Raúl went to where Chrysalis was sitting. He bent over her, resting his hands on the arms of Chrysalis’s chair. “When I said ‘pull the trigger,’ that was more than an expression. Do you know what a gun is? Not a taser, not a non-lethal device that gives you a little shock, but a Real Life, old school firearm? That shoots bullets? That kill? When I shred you, you’ll be dead, just as surely as if I’d pressed the barrel of a gun against your head and pulled the trigger. Except it’s worse. The dead have no pain. Their troubles are over. The Shade are not the Dear Departed. Their hell is real.”

“Please step away,” Chrysalis said. “You’re scaring me.”

“Tough love, Chrys. You need to know what lies ahead. In the Shade world, you are a nameless, faceless nothing. There are few goods and no credits to buy them with. What you get depends on what you give, or what you take. What do you have to bargain with? What do you have that’s worth anything?”

“Everything I have is in the account. There isn’t anything else. But I’ve had nothing before and I scrapped my way back. So, maybe I’m not a programmer. Maybe I don’t have any valuable skills. But I’m past the point of no return.”

Raúl stood up straight. He ran his hands through his hair, pulling it behind his head. “No skills? I’ve ridden your lifestream, and I can say for certain, you have skills. Think, Chrys. What industry has thrived through every age and every bust and boom? What’s the oldest commodity, the object of the first barter in human prehistory, of which the supply will always be limited, and for which the demand will always be insatiable?”

“Oh, Jah. If you think I’d prostitute myself…”

“You wouldn’t be the first. When your choice is survival or starvation, do you really think you won’t make that choice?”

“Step away!” Chrysalis shouted. Raúl stumbled backwards as Chrysalis stood up, too quickly for one sleep-deprived and unfed. Her vision went dark as she collapsed at Raúl’s feet.​

Charles O'Donnell 
charles@charlesodonnellauthor.com 
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​Now available: Shredded: A Dystopian Novel Get your copy on Amazon!

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