New Novella Explores the Fight for Freedom in the Tech Age

[SciArt]

Hi all:

Jim Maynard here - my old sign-in hasn't worked for a while, hence the new one.
Shameless self-promotion follows in the form of a press release. But since this is a NH-centric project, and there is a tribute to the FSP in my novella (not saying what), here you go!!!

   New Novella Explores the Fight for Freedom in the Tech Age
      
   "Zero," by James Maynard, is the story of a distant, ancient civilization, not so different from our own. They find a precious new technology: nanobots that cure disease, heal handicaps and provide instant, worldwide communication and social networking. The trouble is, their government finds other uses for the same technology: tracking and controlling their population, and "enhancing" their soldiers. Using the threat of war as an excuse to trample the freedom of their people, the government begins a descent into tyranny. A small group of rebels begins to stand up for liberty. Suddenly however, the growth of the new systems creates a paradigm shift that no one saw coming.

The novella was released for sale online on July 19th, as part of a new collection of short stories from New Hampshire authors entitled "Carved in Granite: Storytellers of New Hampshire." The book contains fifteen stories from over a dozen New Hampshire authors, in a variety of genres and was published by SciArt Media of Temple, NH. 

Brian Wright of Coffee Coaster Book Reviews (and FSP member) is calling the collection "...[F]irst rate... the quality one expects if one were to walk into Barnes and Noble and purchase a book of stories from one of your favorite international celebrity authors..."

Maynard, a long-time libertarian activist, says his story was inspired by two main bodies of ideas – the first of which concerned how Star Trek's Borg could have let themselves become so totally controlled by machines. Accompanying that were thoughts of the loss of freedom in today's world, with REAL-ID, FISA, the PATRIOT Act and more.

"Although the story itself is not a Star Trek story," Maynard explains, "I was careful to make sure that the story was consistent with everything known about the rise of the Borg culture in that universe." The novella could certainly be read as the story of the rise of the Borg, and be consistent with Star Trek lore.

He added that "Given the great centralization of power to the Executive branch over the last few years, as well as seeing how easily people fell into the belief that Iraq had WMDs, ready to launch any minute into the United States, led me to ponder how many people would hand over complete control of themselves to government, just to be 'safe.'" The two ideas soon melded into one.

The collection itself is not a libertarian-minded project, but the spirit of the Granite State provides some wholeheartedly libertarian moments: "Trash Talk," by Melissa Rossetti, is a look at mandatory recycling and a man who doesn't like it one bit at all. In another story, "Minute Man," by Mike Dempsey, demonstrates courage, literally under fire, by the members of the Epsom, NH volunteer fire department. New Hampshire was one of the first states to reject the REAL-ID program and is the home of the Free State Project.

This is not Maynard's first foray into writing: in 2005, he wrote "The Light of Alexandria," a book about the first 1000 years of science in Greece, Rome and Egypt. This earlier work also spent time exploring problems in the ancient world that led to the downfall of science. Big government and bureaucracy, perhaps not surprisingly, caused most of these, as Maynard shows in the book.

"A lot of great moments in freedom were inspirations for various scenes in the novella," Maynard explains, "and not just the obvious ones that you might expect. I tried very hard to not only engage people in the story, but to use the actions of real-life events to make the fictional events more believable." However, it wasn't only public events, but private ones as well. He drew upon his experiences like any good author would, including the death of his father one year ago.

In 2001 and 2003, Maynard ran for City Council in what was then his hometown of Keene, New Hampshire. He found that being neither a Democrat nor a Republican, even in a non-partisan race, can prove difficult. The city's newspaper, just before the 2003 general election, called him both "a right-wing wingnut" and "a bleeding heart liberal" in the same issue of their paper.

Summing up the premise of "Zero," James Maynard pondered for a moment, and then brought up one of his favorite bands, Rush. "It's like that song, 'Freewill:' 'You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.' The greatest danger ever seen by the society in the story is brought on by just that – phantom fears and kindness that can kill. Then, we follow the people who choose another path – freewill." "I just realized, I probably should send a copy of the book to Neil Peart," he joked. 

To purchase a copy, or for more information, please visit: http://carvedingranite.sciartmedia.com. 
 

   
   

[turbo]

Jim,

You might want to post on LibraryThing as well - check out the Free State Project Readers group.

~turbo