The Training Of Socket Greeny

A year has passed since the Paladin Nation was exposed to the public. Their mission is still to protect humanity from whatever may threaten them. Previously, it was the human duplications, but now that they've been extinguished their biggest challenge is dealing with the complications of public image. Socket Greeny, now 17 years old, has been a Paladin cadet for the past year and is nearing the final test. But that's the least of his problems. He's trying to live two lives: one as a superhero while hanging onto his normal life. While fearlessly dealing with his masochistic trainer, he's trying to salvage his deteriorating relationship with his girlfriend back home. But Socket's greatest challenge is to find his true enemy. He discovers that fear has many faces. INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR When did you start writing? My first effort started with Socket Greeny. It was a story I started for my son because he hated to read. It didn’t work, but this character – Socket – took root. It was the first time I felt possessed by a character with a story to tell. It took me 5 years and countless rewrites to get it right. I waited by the mailbox after that, but the giant paycheck never arrived. If you can’t make money, why write fiction? I didn’t say you can’t make money. There are a lot of people out there with a good book, whether it’s romance, dystopia, science fiction or young adult. I’m just a minnow in a crowded pond. It took a good deal of networking and research to realize just how hard it is. Thanks to epublishing, I can get the book out. That frees me up to write what inspires me. Writing is the true love. There’s something deeply satisfying to have characters come to life in your mind and watch their stories unfold. It’s a deeper experience than reading someone else’s story. What do you want readers to get from your stories? I’ve always been inspired by fearless writing that asked poignant questions; questions like who am I and what is the universe? Things that made me look at life slightly different; books that exposed a layer of reality. Writing in the young adult genre appealed to me most because that’s the age I really craved those questions and answers. I want readers to see the world slightly different. What is your favorite character? I love a bad, bad antagonist that you can’t entirely hate; there’s some smidgeon of redemption you feel inside this demented, sorry character. Heath Ledger’s Joker. A despicable character that didn’t deserve an ounce of pity, but, for some reason, I didn’t hate him as much as I should have. It’s that character I find most intriguing. In The Socket Greeny Saga, the character Pike was my Joker.

A year has passed since the Paladin Nation was exposed to the public. Their mission is still to protect humanity from whatever may threaten them. Previously, it was the human duplications, but now that they've been extinguished their biggest challenge is dealing with the complications of public image. Socket Greeny, now 17 years old, has been a Paladin cadet for the past year and is nearing the final test. But that's the least of his problems. He's trying to live two lives: one as a superhero while hanging onto his normal life. While fearlessly dealing with his masochistic trainer, he's trying to salvage his deteriorating relationship with his girlfriend back home. But Socket's greatest challenge is to find his true enemy. He discovers that fear has many faces.

If you liked Ready Player One and Ender’s Game, you’ll love the thrilling high-tech adventure of Socket Greeny! I was a nobody before I was a legend. I had this funny name and white hair and really didn’t care about anything. But then one day something happened and nothing was ever the same. Change is like that. One day you’re a nothing, the next you’re saving everything. Not everybody. Everything. It’s not that I didn’t want to do what I did. Someone once told me that true nature is a train—you either get on board or get run over. So I got on and let it take me. What I saw… the androids and the off-world creatures. The psychotic minders. It’s out there. The rabbit hole is deep. That’s the thing with the truth. It’s been right in front of us all this time. We just have to see it. Once you do, you’ll never unsee it. Once you know the truth, you can’t ignore it. I was once a nobody and now I’m a legend because I saw the truth about reality, about this universe. And I did something about it. REVIEWS FOR SOCKET GREENY “Absolutely the BEST sci-fi! Totally enjoyable!” –Dr. Bill Encke, Reviewer “THE best book I have EVER read!” – Reviewer “I cried and laughed… I was captivated.” –Teresa Koschalk, Reviewer “A story along the lines of Heinlein’s best!” –SciFiGirl, Reviewer “Transcendent… a beautiful and well written expression.” Tiffany, Reviewer “A Great Series for the SF fan of any Age.” Greg T, Reviewer “Twists throughout woven in so well you may not notice the dominos until the very end.” Reviewer “This was one of the best sci-fi/tech audiobooks I’ve heard lately, and frankly I can’t believe it’s still relatively undiscovered.” Ms. Christian C., Reviewer AWARDS IndieReader’s BEST BOOKS of 2014 7 Indie Titles Perfect for the Big Screen –IndieReader (2015)

The Paladin Nation is rebuilding. Socket Greeny is leading them into a new era of compassion and understanding. But when Pike returns, Socket discovers nothing is what he expected, that his life has been planned from the beginning. He is faced with ultimate betrayal. In the end, he won't be asked to save the world. It'll be the entire universe. INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR When did you start writing? My first effort started with Socket Greeny. It was a story I started for my son because he hated to read. It didn’t work, but this character – Socket – took root. It was the first time I felt possessed by a character with a story to tell. It took me 5 years and countless rewrites to get it right. I waited by the mailbox after that, but the giant paycheck never arrived. If you can’t make money, why write fiction? I didn’t say you can’t make money. There are a lot of people out there with a good book, whether it’s romance, dystopia, science fiction or young adult. I’m just a minnow in a crowded pond. It took a good deal of networking and research to realize just how hard it is. Thanks to epublishing, I can get the book out. That frees me up to write what inspires me. Writing is the true love. There’s something deeply satisfying to have characters come to life in your mind and watch their stories unfold. It’s a deeper experience than reading someone else’s story. What do you want readers to get from your stories? I’ve always been inspired by fearless writing that asked poignant questions; questions like who am I and what is the universe? Things that made me look at life slightly different; books that exposed a layer of reality. Writing in the young adult genre appealed to me most because that’s the age I really craved those questions and answers. I want readers to see the world slightly different. What is your favorite character? I love a bad, bad antagonist that you can’t entirely hate; there’s some smidgeon of redemption you feel inside this demented, sorry character. Heath Ledger’s Joker. A despicable character that didn’t deserve an ounce of pity, but, for some reason, I didn’t hate him as much as I should have. It’s that character I find most intriguing. In The Socket Greeny Saga, the character Pike was my Joker.

If you liked Ready Player One and Ender's Game, strap in for Socket Greeny... “A brilliantly-written complexly-layered plot, set in a vivid, tangible future world.” --IndieReader I was a nobody. I had this funny name and white hair and really didn't care about anything. But then one day something happened. Change is like that. One day you're a nothing, the next you're saving everything. Not everybody. Everything. It's not that I didn't want to do what I did. Someone once told me that true nature is a train—you either get on board or get run over. So I got on. What I saw… the androids and the off-world stuff. The psychotic minders. It's out there. The rabbit hole is deep. That's the thing with the truth. It's been in front of us all this time. You just have to see it. Once you do, you can't ignore it. I was once a nobody and now I'm a legend because I saw the truth about reality, about this universe. And I did something about it. REVIEWS FOR SOCKET GREENY "Absolutely the BEST sci-fi! Totally enjoyable!" –Dr. Bill Encke, Reviewer "THE best book I have EVER read!" – Reviewer "I cried and laughed… I was captivated." –Teresa Koschalk, Reviewer "A story along the lines of Heinlein's best!" –SciFiGirl, Reviewer "Transcendent… a beautiful and well written expression." Tiffany, Reviewer "A Great Series for the SF fan of any Age." Greg T, Reviewer "Twists throughout woven in so well you may not notice the dominos until the very end." Reviewer "This was one of the best sci-fi/tech audiobooks I've heard lately, and frankly I can't believe it's still relatively undiscovered." Ms. Christian C., Reviewer AWARDS IndieReader's BEST BOOKS of 2014 7 Indie Titles Perfect for the Big Screen –IndieReader (2015)

Harold Ballard's breaking point came in the sixth grade. John Lively was a mouth-breather that no one cared about. He was an over-sized sixth grader destined to be incarcerated. God wasted a body on him. Harold was a curious loner that sat in the back. Unlike John's family, Harold's parents loved him. They just didn't have time for him. They spent days in the basement working on something that would change the world. Sometimes it was weeks. Harold was tired of being forgotten and pushed around. He pushed back. That day would change the world. That day would change him into the man he was destined to become. His curiosity would lead him to Foreverland. INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR HOW IMPORTANT ARE NAMES TO YOU IN THIS BOOK. DID YOU CHOOSE THEM BASED ON SOUND OR MEANING? Almost all of my books have names with special meaning, some foreshadowing a big twist. In The Annihilation of Foreverland, Reed’s name was symbolic of his ability to tolerate suffering, bending in the face of gale forces but never breaking. WHERE DOES YOUR TOMORROW SPRING FROM? IN OTHER WORDS, HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE CRAZY WORLD? Sometimes, I can’t remember how the story started by the time I get to the end. The Annihilation of Foreverland started with the premise of identity. I wanted to write it as a YA book in the science fiction dystopia genre in a way that slowly unfolded as well as questioned who we are and explore our fear of death, and what we’re willing to do to avoid it. Like all of my stories, it does have a romantic angle mixed into the action. Because it should. GIVE YOUR BOOK THE BECHDEL TEST. IT HAS TO HAVE AT LEAST TWO (NAMED) WOMEN IN IT WHO TALK TO EACH OTHER ABOUT SOMETHING BESIDES A MAN. I failed because there’s only one female in The Annihilation of Foreverland. However, the young adult sequel (Foreverland is Dead) passes with flying colors since its mostly female characters that rarely talk about men. WHAT SORT OF BODY COUNT ARE WE TALKING HERE? The bodies die, but not necessarily the characters. Chew on that a second. DO YOU WANT YOUR TOMORROW TO MAKE IT BIG, AS IN JK ROWLINGS-BIG? WHY OR WHY NOT? Believe it or not, no. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to make enough cash to pay off this house and send my kids to college, but I’ll pass on fame and fortune. Anonymity is a blessing. YOU CAST YOUR CHARACTERS FOR A MOVIE. WHO MAKES IT? In The Annihilation of Foreverland, I only casted two characters in my head while I was writing it. The Director is Jeff Bridges and Mr. Jones is Anthony Hopkins. It was like watching a movie as I wrote. HAVE YOU WRITTEN IN ANY OTHER GENRES BESIDES YA DYSTOPIAN? WHAT DREW YOU TO YOU THIS GENRE? I’ve been fascinated by consciousness, identity and what this all means since I was young. I would read my grandfather’s science fiction books with elements of artificial intelligence and alternate realities and wonder what happened when they died? I suppose that’s why all of my writing deals with the big mysteries of life in one way or another. In a way, I write for my own exploration, in a sort of thought experiment approach, pulling apart our identities, exploring what makes us who we are. If I lost my memories, would I still be me? If I had my body parts replaced with synthetic replications, at what point would I not be me? Do I even need a body? What am I? A few years ago, I figured I’d write a romance novel. Since all of my books have a romantic element, I thought it would be fun. Halfway through the novel, I found myself thinking more and more about the next project—a dystopian idea. So 40,000 words in, I scrapped the romance novel and got back to what I love. Science fiction.

We map the universe with five senses Interpret reality with our mind We rely on this body What a poor vessel it is Jamie wants to be a halfskin. Her life has become dull and pointless. If she had more biomites—synthetic stem cells that promise hope—she could take control of her life. But Jamie’s body is already 49.9% biomites. The rest is clay—her God-given organic cells. Any more biomites and she becomes a halfskin. And halfskins are shutdown. But there is a way. Black market biomites, called nixes, can’t be detected by the government’s halfskin hunter, M0ther. Jamie would have to sacrifice her clay to get the nixes, but they would make her halfskin without anyone knowing. Including M0ther. But first she has to find them. Nix Richards can help. He’s the first halfskin to escape M0ther and Jamie has something he wants. He’ll need her to help him find a fabricator. He’ll betray anyone to get it, even those closest to him. This psychological thriller will keep Nix and Jamie second-guessing every move while they elude M0ther and Marcus Anderson, the man that wants to rid the world of biomites. But in the end, they’ll all discover just how deep the betrayal goes. INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR WHAT GENRE DO YOU PREFER? Science fiction, dystopia, technothriller and, to some extent, young adult. I do have a series of novellas in the vampire genre. Yeah, I know. Doesn’t fit. That character, Drayton, came out of nowhere when I was at a community theatre production of Dracula. I figured that an immortal vampire would more likely become compassionate and wise as he grew older. The technothriller Halfskin is similar to vampires in that technology promises immortality and complete control of our bodies. But then what? WHY A SYNTHETIC STEM CELL? Organic life is too nilly-willy. We’re limited by our DNA. Give it to the scientists to perfect this vehicle that carries us around because it is a vehicle. If we no longer have organic bodies, if every one of our cells is replaced by something manmade all the way down to the neurons and synapses, then what are we? What if our world is just a computerized environment, ala The Matrix? Would we know the difference? Look, we’re printing organs today. I’m not, but someone is. Some genius has figured out how to push play and heart or liver or kidney comes down the chute. Halfskin takes the idea into the distant future and explores whether this leads to more happiness or just more of the same. Because more money, more problems. DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER JOB BESIDES AUTHOR? Day job, I’m a college horticulture teacher. Writing is a passion. No plans to change it. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? Breathe. WHAT TALENT WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO HAVE? Omnipresent supergalactic oneness. IF WE HAD A CUSTOM THAT ALLOWED US TO EAT OUR CHILDREN, WHAT KIND OF SAUCE WOULD YOU USE? Ketchup, the miracle condiment. ARE OUR ELECTRONIC DEVICES STEALING OUR SOUL? AND IF SO, DO YOU MAKE OFFERINGS TO YOUR TOASTER? I offer white bread and the toaster gives back crunchy, brown bread. Never doubt a true miracle.

The Jack Frost you never knew… Sura is sixteen years old when she meets Mr. Frost. He’s a strange man. Very short, very fat. And he likes his room cold. Some say inhumanly cold. Mr. Frost’s love for Christmas is over-the-top and slightly psychotic. He’s made billions of dollars off the holiday and, according to Mr. Frost, a holiday he invented. Rumor is he’s an elven, but that’s silly. Elven aren’t real. And if they were, they wouldn’t be in South Carolina. Sura takes a job at Frost Plantation that’s strange and magical and, for the first time in her life, a place where she feels like she belongs. She’ll uncover the mystery of what really happens at Frost Plantation and who’s making all the toys. She’ll discover the biggest secret of all—Mr. Frost hates Christmas. Really, really hates it.