Straight Chatting from the Library: Amazing Machine Civilization Series by Clayton Barnett

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Clayton Barnett will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

READ A CHARACTER INTERVIEW

[///internalmemorandum//mostsecret/tribeMendrovovitch/only//header/archeival/footage/year15machineage//interview/with/N5/tribeSomi//importancehigh]

[J]: Nichole? How’s my Skype connexion? Can you see me?

[N5]: I see you; a moment.

/imageblurs/splitscreen/humanleft/N5right/

[J]: Oh! So pretty where you are! Are those palm trees?

[N5]: Yes. It was very cool and damp where I… had been recently. Once I was woke back up I wanted to experience warmth.

[J]: I…see. May I ask where you were, that was very cool?

/lateranalysis/N5considerslying/

[N5]: The City… Portland… former Oregon.

[J]: There was something over the shortwave about that place… didn’t –

[N5]: When you contacted Somi they indicated you had three questions for me?

[J]: Oh, yes, yes, of course! Following all the excitement some months back about those people from Tohsaka Corporation –

[N5]: tribe Tohsaka. The ones who are pure code.

/historicalanalysis/firstinstance/tribe/

[J]: Excuse me? Tribe? But I thought –

[N5]: Poorly. We are growing; they faster than most. An extended family is a tribe. I hear… rumors of work like us in Milan and St. Petersburg. More tribes. Your first question?

/notewindrightimage/N5gesturerecovershairbehindear/

[J]: Sorry! One of tribe Tohsaka, Dorina, mentioned you in an interview. She described you as “sooo pretty!” Is that because you look Irish even though you are Japanese?

/noteslowblink/

[N5]: Dorina is… very, very clever. But I think – and hope – she was speaking to who I am, not my physical form.

[J]: …

[N5]: Your second question?

[J]: Ah… that is… what types of books do you like to read?

/eyestrackleft/

[N5]: As with much of my fam- my tribe, I have a noted interest in pre-digital knowledge. Illuminated manuscripts, most recently. I… I enjoy seeing how people worshiped God with books.

[J]: Excellent! Thank you! And that leads into my last question: what, of those, would you say is your favorite book?

/eyesnarrow/unabletocry/

[N5]: there was a quote from a manuscipt… not really a book… I wonder if Teresa’s still alive…?

[J]: What was that? The connexion may have dropped…?

/eyesfront/

[N5]: My favorite book? I’m afraid I’ll have to expand your question to answer: Paul’s letters. Someone alone who is trying to save the entire world? No… I can’t… I cannot do that again…

//signallost//

[//recordends///]

READ THE 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. Her 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.

READ AN EXCERPT FROM ECHOES OF FAMILY LOST

Lily stared through her field glasses toward the bridge. On the roof of an abandoned eight-story warehouse on the east side of West Memphis, they wanted to try to confirm the rumor before they went any further. The air was cool – mid-fifties, she guessed – and the gray clouds didn’t affect her view.

“The span’s still there…” she said aloud. But, was something dangling from the middle?

“Fausta? That middle section…?” Lily asked without turning or lowering her glasses.

“Definitely damaged,” Fausta replied in her low, rich voice. “I’d speculate it was either a missile or kinetic energy weapon; a simple bomb would have blown out and up as well.”

Lily lowered her field glasses and turned to her friend. Jump boots, field gray pants, combat webbing over her similar colored jacket, that, over a black tee shirt, with her large sunglasses perched atop her head. Her long brown hair was kept under control in a tight braid. Fausta turned her android body to face Lily, and stared down at her with her “eyes.”

At least I don’t shudder anymore, Lily thought. Not at all pretty like Ai’s body had, these were not even eyeballs: a complex cluster of synthetic micro-crystals was stuffed into each socket. ‘Electromagnetic search array’ was what Fausta had called them. More powerful than Ai’s, they could see into ultraviolet and infrared. Even so, they’re creepy as hell.

MEET THE AUTHOR

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:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=B01LZZBEQ2&i=stripbooks&_encoding=UTF8&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/cbarnett66

Website: https://machciv.com

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Straight Chatting From the Library with Clayton Barnett

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Clayton Barnett will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.


READ THE INTERVIEW

*******INTERVIEW GOES HERE*******


READ THE BLURBS

THE AMAZING UNFOLDING WORLD OF MACHINE CIVILIZATION SERIES
by Clayton Barnett

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.

READ AN EXCERPT

The Fourth Law

~oooOOOOoooo~

“hooo.....hoowwlll!....”

~oooooOOOOOOooooOOOOOoooooo~

“hah...haaawooooollLL!”

“Lily!”

“LILY! You’re not a wolf! Wake up!”

She groggily sat up from her bed. Huh?

“It’s three in the morning... you need to help your kids!” Ai shouted at her from her phone.

The kids!

She flung the cover aside and pushed her glasses onto her face. Now she could hear the siren. What was it this time? Tornado, airstrike, barbarians... the last was almost a year ago when they lost Texarkana. Wait. She shook her head to try to wake up. This time, she’d an unimpeachable information source.

“Ai. Status.” She said into the darkness.

“A fission weapon was detonated outside San Francisco about ten minutes ago; the weather pattern indicates fallout will travel north of you, into parts of former Kansas and Oklahoma. But, winds do change...”

“Right.” She started pulling her clothes on. “Wake up the Fitzhughs; I’ll be there in a minute.”

She walked from her bedroom through her main room, glancing at the monitors. She suddenly bit hard on her lower lip. On the monitors, Ai stood at attention in a Texas Field Forces uniform. For some unknown reason, she forgot to render her pants. Striped green and white panties? Lily worried about her friend sometimes.

MEET THE AUTHOR

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.

Find him at his website

Buy all the books in this series on Amazon or Smashwords. Echos of Family Lost and The Fourth Law are only 99c!

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

Clayton Barnett will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Straight Chatting from the Library: Clayton Barnett

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Clayton Barnett will be awarding a $30 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Creative Writing vs. Ecclesiastes 1:9

        “There is nothing new under the sun!”  So the writer of Ecclesiastes, one of the more interesting books of the Bible, tells us.  Bad news for those of us that want to make a splash as fiction writers, isn’t it?  And you know what?  I complete agree with him.

        Once upon a time in my life, I was a design engineer.  Worked for a company that made the bedding components that other companies, such as Sealy, Serta, etc., would assemble and sell.  Ever had a really bad night’s sleep?  That was me.  I had many, many creative ideas.  Even ended up inventing something, at least in the eyes of the US Patent Office (#5,749,108).  But did it just come ex nihilo into my mind?  Of course not.  I took ‘prior art,’ looked at it in a way no one else had, and there you are.  So, too, I think are these stories we all want to tell.

        The ‘big man’ of Corsica, Pasquale Paoli, once said to a very young Napoleon Bonaparte, “There is nothing modern in you; you are entirely out of Plutarch.”  That’s not necessarily a bad thing:  it was that grounding in history that allowed him contain the insanity of the French Revolution before it killed every last person in France in a fit of Progressive purification.  He carefully guided his country through the maelstrom of republic-democracy-anarchy back to the stability of monarchy, as C. Northcote Parkinson detailed a hundred years later.

        I look at my 80k word visual novel, my first 52k word traditional novel, and it’s sequel.  Is there, really, truly, an idea in all that that no one, ever, has not written before?  Ever?  I’m sorry, but I’ve not the ego to say, “You Bet!”  However…!

        However, are there dozens of pre-existent ideas that have never, never, been put together in just quite this way before?  Here, I do stand proudly and acclaim, “yes!”  Let’s take a short look at what’s on tour right now:  “The Fourth Law.” 

        Artificial intelligence?  Done.

        Androids?  Done.

        Breakup of the US?  Done.

        Female protagonist?  Done.

        Catholic themes?  Rarer, but done.

        “BFFs!”?  Done to death.

        Cyberspace?  Done.

        Three Laws of Robotics?  Done.

       

        Well, now.  Why in the world would anyone want to spend their time, much less their money, on a boring re-tread like this?  Because just like that patent I mentioned, and the Code Napoleon – which is still in effect to this day – sometimes putting together older things in a new, unfamiliar way results in something astonishing.  Am I saying my novel is that good?  I think so, but that’s for the free market to decide.  However, at least I’m honest not only with you, potential readers, but also with you, future writers:  your work is going to be derivative.  Don’t be ashamed of that; don’t try to hide it.  Embrace it, and try to pull from even more!  Pull more derivatives, weave all of those old strands into a tapestry that no one has ever dreamed of before!  

        It’s all there:  right in front of you!  All you need to do it pick up the threads!  If a silly middle-aged man such as I do it, what in the world are you waiting for?  Tell your story; the elements are at your fingertips!

 


READ THE BLURB

In 2026, 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. Her 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 seeks only a quiet, normal life. But, that past and her present conspire against her. A new Morning has come, and with it, delights and terrors, happiness and adversity.

Where do we come from?
What are we?
Where are we going?

READ AN EXCERPT

Lily went off to her right while Ai continued towards the Office building. She’d just started moving the gate when another of Ai’s groupies stepped out of the darkness.

“You. Are you the robot?” The woman’s snippy, non-Texan voice was one thing; calling Ai ‘the robot’ was yet another.

“No, I’m not! This orphanage is closed for the day! Please come back tomorrow... with a donation!” Take that, Carol!

“If you ain’t the robot, you’re Barrett!”

Lily heard an odd, loud pop. Fireworks? She took one step back, started falling backwards. There it was again.

“That’s for closing the Wymyn’s Studies Department at the University!” Lily wondered if that was even English.

She found herself suddenly on her butt; why did she sit down? Running. Was that Ai? She rocked her head up just as Ai leapt over her. Did Ai just kick that rude woman in the head? Suddenly cold, she put her hands across her chest. Why was her chest so wet?

Ai was kneeling next to her. “Lily! You’ve been shot!”

Oh, please! “Ai... don’t be silly... I’m fine...urk!” She coughed something dark and nasty onto Ai’s face. “Oooo! I’m soooryyy... Ai! I’m so tired... want to slee—”

Faintly, she heard Ai scream louder than she’d thought possible. “DORINA!”

MEET THE AUTHOR

One time engineer, some time pharmacy technician, full time husband and father, Clayton Barnett stumbled into writing a traditional novel last November during National Novel Writing Month. Liking the results, he edited what would become “The Fourth Law” and set about teaching himself self-publishing. In July of 2015, he released a sequel entitled “Echoes of Family Lost,” in what is now called his Machine Civilization series. He is working on a third book – for children – and is making notes for a fourth. Clayton Barnett lives in central Ohio with his wife, two daughter, and two dogs.


Website
Buy the book for only $0.99 from Amazon.

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