Seventeen

Hello there, everyone. Another author takes the stand. Allow me to introduce you to Mark D. Diehl, author of Seventeen.

In association with Goddess Fish Promotions, Mark is doing a virtual book tour to promote his novel, which is YA science fiction dystopia, and became available on October 31^st.

For this occasion, the author will be giving away a $50 Amazon/BN gift certificate to a randomly drawn commenter. So don’t forget to leave a comment!

Important: to leave a comment use the following rafflecopter code: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e43434/

More about the author

Author’s Website: http://www.markddiehl.com

Mark D. Diehl writes novels about power dynamics and the way people and organizations influence each other. He believes that obedience and conformity are becoming humanity’s most important survival skills, and that we are thus evolving into a corporate species.

Diehl has: been homeless in Japan, practiced law with a major multinational firm in Chicago, studied in Singapore, fled South Korea as a fugitive, and been stranded in Hong Kong.

After spending most of his youth running around with hoods and thugs, he eventually earned his doctorate in law at the University of Iowa and did graduate work in creative writing at the University of Chicago. He currently lives and writes in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

About the novel:

Blurb

Most of the world's seventeen billion people are unconscious, perpetually serving their employers as part of massive brain trusts. The ecosystem has collapsed, and corporations control all of the world's resources and governments. A bedraggled alcoholic known as the Prophet predicts nineteen year-old waitress Eadie will lead a revolution, but how can she prevail when hunted by a giant corporation and the Federal Angels it directs?
 

Excerpt

The man’s mouth hung open as he stared at her face. His long, ashen hair had shifted, revealing a smudge of grease or dirt that made an almost perfect circle on his forehead.

“Sir? Are you all right?”

His eyes widened. “It is you,” he said. “At last. I have been looking forward to meeting you for such a long, long time.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry it took me so long to get to your table, sir. I just clocked in.”

He blinked slowly, pondering her response. “Ah,” he said. “You are a waitress, still.  Well, then, General, I would have a cup of Vibrantia, if it pleases you.” The man’s expression never altered and his lips remained mostly still as he spoke, making it seem as though his voice was coming from somewhere or someone else.

Eadie clenched her teeth, trying not to laugh, though his words made her feel as though she was being tickled with a feather along her spine. “I’m sorry, sir. This is a corporate restaurant owned by McGuillian Corporation, so we synthesize only McGuillian patents. We have Synapsate but not Vibrantia. Would that be all right?”

“Of course, General. That would be lovely, if it pleases you.”

“Okay, sir. And my name is Eadie, by the way.”

“Thank you, General Eadie. And, if you like, you may address me as many have lately come to do. I am the Prophet.”

 

And finally, some words from Mark himself, about balancing life and writing:

I’m terrible at balancing life and writing. This book has been an obsession for many years. Much of the first draft was written in brief but intense sessions between 4:00 and 5:00 each workday morning while I was an attorney with a major multinational law firm. There were no hours to spare, and yet the book wouldn’t leave me alone. Eventually I was admitted to a two-year graduate program at the University of Chicago, and I wrote my other novel, “Vida Nocturna,” as my project there. I decided to save the final “Seventeen” edit for later, because I hoped to learn enough to truly do it justice … and also because I couldn’t bear to subject it to a workshop. The words are not precious to me, but the ideas certainly are.

Now I live here in Maine, writing constantly. I feel a very real and terrible pressure to share what I’ve seen, to help people recognize that uniqueness and individual free will are being purged from society and, subsequently, from the human gene pool. Our species is losing everything that is special about it as our institutions dehumanize us.  Watching this happen while I’m doing ordinary, day-to-day stuff is like trying to complete household chores, when I know that the house is on fire. Only in this case, it’s all of humanity, the whole world, distracted by made-up little issues designed to divide us while the entire planet is stolen from under our feet.

Fortunately, I have a forgiving wife and an understanding daughter. The daughter, twelve, is easy to bribe with a quick visit to the ice cream shop down the street, though she does often have to listen to me working out some of these ideas while we drip sugary glop all over my car. As for my wife, I don’t need to bribe her or make deals. She supports me and believes in me, and I’m incredibly lucky to have her as my partner in life