I just approved the physical proof of the new book and it looks fantastic. The Light of Day will be available on Amazon within the next three weeks.

  He had the highest of aspirations for his son. Greg was to grow up to be a free man, whether he grew up that way or had to fight for it tooth and nail. That didn’t happen. He had watched his son grow up to be enfolded in the society that he despised. Every year Greg’s spirit became more and more malleable, and every year Old man O’Hara retired a little more of his own soul to that secret place that some people fortify with whiskey and hate. Old man O’Hara hid it in plain sight. He hid it in the light of day, in the world that should have been his and his son’s, the world that was off limits to the general population except under special circumstances by decree of the World Consortium on Government, Labor, and the Environment.

The World Consortium began as an activist organization. They pointed to technology as the cause of human suffering. They pitched science as mysticism and provoked the fear of the unknown in the ignorant. They were a paragon, the final ultimate stage of the evolution of the Luddite movement. They wanted to close the factory to save the weaver and the environment. They were going to close it no matter what the owner said and no matter how many people had to freeze without shirts on their backs. Even if it meant that the Luddites themselves would starve, because it was what was good for society and the world. If society and the world were too stupid to see it then they would just have to have the school marm twist their ears a little to show them, and they did.

Old man O’Hara could recall perfectly the day that the Consortium and the leaders of the world announced that there was going to be a sovereign alliance of all the worlds’ governments. All industry was to stop immediately and divert all resources to the development and production of an underground living environment for the world’s population.

The Light of Day is now available for purchase. I will be posting excerpts from the book. Below is the summary from the back cover.

Those who hate humanity have taken over the environmental movement. The environmental movement has taken over the world’s governments. Those governments have joined together to form The World Consortium on Government, Labor, and the Environment, and have moved everyone underground to isolate people from the environment and save the world. However, not everyone wants to live underground. Not old man O’Hara. That’s why he joined the Resistance, but that was years ago. Now he is living underground with a son who despises him and with whom he has nothing in common; eating synthetic food, breathing synthetic air, and only seeing synthetic light, except when the guards see fit to open the topside. It would be a dismal existence if not for his grandson Jeff. Jeff is everything he imagined his son would be: smart, independent, inquisitive, defiant, everything except free, but that’s about to change.

A series of events that begins with Jeff’s inquisitiveness and ends with his defiance and the death of his grandfather, thrusts him into an unknown world. It’s a world where the sun shines, and the wind blows, where people generate their own electricity and thieves are hanged by the side of the road. Jeff finds love, friendship, the truth about his grandfather and the hero he truly was. He finds that killing and dying for what you believe in is sometimes both necessary and painful.

I just approved the cover layout for the Light of Day. Thanks to Frances of Machine Politick – my beautiful wife – for the cover illustration, and the folks at BookSurge for the graphic Design.

This is an excerpt from The Light of Day. It should be available by Christmas.

 The splint Ryan had rigged to immobilize Jeff’s hand was only a temporary measure. The designated field medic would have a splint and a fresh wrap. If Jeff was lucky, he might get some sort of pain killer before the medic attempted to force his disjointed carpals back into place. When they returned to The Underground he would be placed on the waiting list, but the possibility of him seeing a medical professional before his hand healed was slim. Disjointed wrists were not life threatening and were therefore put at the end of a very long list. A list that was serviced by a few very over worked individuals.

Jeff remembered when he was younger and he had the flu, his family followed the standard quarantine procedures, placing bio filters over all the community air ducts and his bedroom door, and finally contacting the Office of Medicine. Jeff roasted in his room for three days, suffering through cold sweats, mild hallucinations, and diarrhea that threatened to burst his bowels and left his mouth dry. On the fourth day his fever broke and by the sixth day he was running through the halls playing hide and seek with his friends, a testament to the resiliency of children. Three weeks later the receptionist at the Office of Medicine called to inform them that Jeff had an appointment scheduled for the following week. The appointment had been confirmed and could not be broken.