Showing posts with label Clayton Barnett. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clayton Barnett. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

The Amazing, Unfolding World of 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 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.

Politics in the future


On the first hand, the answer is simple: “In the immediate future, your skin will be your uniform.”

On the second hand, allow me to elaborate on that a bit. What is playing out in the US and western Europe right now is a competition between globalists and nationalists. The former believe humans to be nothing more than economic units who can be educated – in a classroom or concentration camp – to be whatever they want; that is, they see politics as their guiding light. The latter view that politics is downstream from culture, and, importantly, culture is downstream from race & biology. Some nations of central Europe, having seen first hand under Soviet occupation where the globalist agenda leads, have already rejected what they see coming out of Brussels and Washington. These are states of the Visegrad Group along with, for so long as their current government holds, Italy as well.

Aside: I have always enjoyed the hypocrisy of the globalists claims versus their actions: for open-borders fanatics who think a Somali is the same as a Swede, they themselves live in gentrified cities that have been cleared of all diversity – outside of those trendy ‘fusion’ restaurants – and in walled communities policed by armed guards all the while sending what few children they have to expensive and exclusive schools.

So, what we have is the American and western European governments importing millions of people will not assimilate because they cannot assimilate. What that has given us now are no-go zones and no-go cities. What it will give us in less than five years is the Yugoslav Civil War of the 1990s played out on a continent-wide arena. In that war, your immediate and extended family will be your platoon and your company, and your increasingly racially attenuated community will be your regiment. And, as I said at the beginning, your skin will be your uniform.

It is not a future I particularly want to see for myself or for my two daughters, but barring the US getting a leader such as an Orban or a Salvini, this is the train wreck we are sleepwalking into.

On the gripping hand, what’s funny is that knowing this, much of my writing and characters contradict it! Let’s take a look… “The Fourth Law” Living in the Republic of Texas, which in its formation experienced massive killings and deportations under the state terror organization ‘ExComm,’ the main character Lily Barrett is an early-twenties nurse who is ethnic Han Chinese. As an outsider and a non-White, she is accorded the status of Resident but not Citizen; she has the protection of the law but no voting or political rights.

“Echoes of Family Lost” On their small farm on the road between Knoxville and Oak Ridge, Leslie Hartmann is the head of his household made up of his Min Chinese wife, Callie, and his mixed-race son, Gary, who, as we find out, has been… modified… “Cursed Hearts” Christopher’s step-cousin – and later love interest – is half-Japanese and half-Polish. She even once reflects that “both of the guys I ever slept with are foreigners… I wonder what that says about me?”

“Saga of Nichole 5, Parts 1 & 2” The political situation comes closer to what I described above: elected Mayor of Portland just before the Breakup begins, multi-mixed race Lee Sanchez Johnson holds onto power through a variety of means, including a cadre of political police who are all non-White. I subvert the trope in having Nichole, who while a Japanese subject “looks like a poster-girl for Irish tourism,” work to make the Mayor’s daughter, a computer engineering grad student, his successor.


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.


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.

ABOUT CLAYTON

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!

GIVEAWAY

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

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, October 15, 2015

The Fourth Law by Clayton Barnett - Interview and Giveaway

VBT_TourBanner_TheFourthLaw copy

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.

Welcome to It's Raining Books, Clayton. Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?

First of all, I suppose it’s a matter of defining my genre. If you include my visual novels as well, then perhaps the broadest definition would be ‘speculative fiction.’ I recall a moment from some years ago, when working on one of the character paths of OTChi Kocchi; I sent a message to my collaborator asking if I could include ‘Secondary World’ elements in the story. Naturally, he texted back to ask what the hell I was talking about. I’d borrowed the phrase from Tolkien, who disliked using the term ‘magic.’

While, in The Fourth Law, I am dealing with technology; it is a technology so advanced that, per Clarke’s Third Law, it is indestinguishable from magic. That allows me the luxury of pushing it into the background and concentrating on the characters and their lives together. I suppose I’m drawn to a genre such as this as it allows me tremendous freedom of action when it comes to what I can do with the characters.

What research (or world-building – for fantasy/paranormal/Sci-fi) is required?

I needed not only a reasonable understanding of where AI development is now, but also what readers’ expectations might be based upon similar works over the recent years. Something that has always stuck with me, going all the way back to William Gibson’s stories in the 1980’s, was how fast AI’s think. That colors absolutely everything I write about them.

On a more mundane level, Google Maps saved me the airfare and hotel costs of going to Waxahachie, Texas. As I’m talking about a real place in, largely, current time, it was my responsibility to get the lay of the land correct for my story. I actually know someone who lives and works there, and I’d be ashamed as a writer if he called me and said “you got this wrong; that’s over there; that’s totally different!”

Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine

I make the time to pray before I go to bed. If I can force myself to make time to write, then I can force myself to take a moment to give thanks to God for letting me write. Lily has made me older in that regard, and I thank her for it.

Do you have any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?

I did, and hopefully it’s gone now! I don’t really ‘write a story.’ When I make the time, I sit down at my computer and transcribe whatever scene or scenes that I saw in my mind during the day. It’s as if I see fifteen to thirty minute shorts of a video of the action of the novel, and I’m just the guy that’s reverse-engineering it into a script.

The problem of that is transitions. When I first wrote T4L, it was “this happened, THEN that happened, THEN this other thing happened….” Looking at my very first draft, I must have written ‘then’ about three thousand times! That made for a long, horrible bit of editing! Aware of the problem now, I make an effort to avoid it, but sometimes it still creeps in.

Are you a plotter or pantser?

Oh, Good Lord, pants all the way. I made a point of this when giving a talk to the kids at my girl’s school about creative writing and self-publishing. When I first started The Fourth Law, I’d only the vaguest idea of who Lily Barrett was; I didn’t even know Ai’s name at that point! The orphanage and hospital, the rest of Ai’s family and “their home,” that’s all things I saw as I wanted to know more and more about who these people are. Even the ending – and the sequel it provoked – was a complete surprise to me!

Look to your right – what’s sitting there?

An old secretary desk that used to belong to my maternal grandparents. The front of it is open and the cable modem and wifi router sit there. My wife, of course, has laid some papers on it; likely to be shredded later. Rather banal, really.

Anything new coming up from you? What?

Absolutely! I’m fascinated by these people and very much want to know more about them!. I have already released the immediate sequel to T4L, called Echoes of Family Lost; I suppose I need to start another book tour! I’ve written the text for a 20-page children’s book entitled Henge’s Big Day! That’s about Ai’s niece; a cute little tale set when she got baptized. That’s being illustrated by a wonderful artist in New Zealand; I hope to have it out by late November.

Within the world of Machine Civilization but with a completely different set of characters and hundreds of miles away, I’m collaborating with another artist on a webcomic tentatively entitled Poisoned Hearts. Secondary World forces? I’d like a double serving, please!

I’ve some thoughts and notes about a book that takes place a few years before T4L; the main character, Sylvia Fernandez, is Legal Counsel to Clive Barrett and his domestic terror organization, ExComm. I’ve never tried to ‘see’ something as unpleasant as this, and it’s been slow-going. I may use the next NaNoWriMo to force this book out!

Do you have a question for our readers?

Oh, surely! For any of those familiar with my stories, are there some things – characters, plot – that you find interesting, and conversely, what things do you not? While these are my stories, I’m curious as to what others may see.

MediaKit_BookCover_TheFourthLawIn 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?

Enjoy 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!”


MediaKit_AuthorPhoto_TheFourthLawAbout 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: http://www.machciv.com

Buy the book for $0.99 from Amazon.

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