Future Memories: Prelude

I began working on the novel Future Memories longer ago then I would like to admit, though it has only been in the past couple years I’ve really begun to give it the attention needed to let the poor thing see the light of day.  My first “finished” version was over 200,000 words. Countless sources warn that unless your name is already within the ranks of Stephen King, don’t dream of sending a manuscript that long to any publisher or agent. My name is certainly not there yet and the obvious action was to trim the fat through editing. After several rounds of trimming, I feared cutting away the meat as well and succumbed to the fact that what I had was not one book but two. The first of those, Future Memories: Prelude, has survived the continuing battle of revision, losing characters that simply weren’t worth their salt and seeing unexpected transformations in others. Now the dust has settled and my dear darling has graduated to the query letter stage. Wish her well.

A huge-eyed Yecaepian version of my younger self fit for the newspaper (not a likely form of media in FM).

FUTURE MEMORIES:PRELUDE

For Eric Brennan, a cryogenic slumber metamorphosed everything familiar into an absurd future. Embedded in his wrist is a Bio-ID chip, inserted in all Earth citizens at birth. It provides vital health data to medical personnel but also enough information that one wonders if complacency didn’t conquer society over the passing decades. Population risk requirements ensure only the best selection of humanity continue its line and Bio-ID procreation bans eliminate exceptions.

To top things off, it turns out there is life beyond the stars and not all of it is benevolent. The Grynlins, a megalomaniac species seeking to dominate all others, value humanity solely as a slave resource. Allied with Earth is Yecaep, the only other known civilized planet. It is difficult to tell how peaceful the relationship would be if not for their own problems with Gryn.

There are those to whom this future is not so strange, but an accepted home. For Eric’s friend, Jared Rebmevon, it is a simple fact the modern world is one in which faith in technology conflicts with faith in anything else. We meet Verin as well, a Grynlin researcher at the beginning of his career. His greatest terror is realized when he finds himself falling in love.