Audiobook published + Interview with Anna L. Davis
Welcome to the July issue of Hacker Chronicles!
Two weeks late, I know. All because I foolishly thought the global audiobook publishing process would be smooth. But it's out! Read about it under Writing Update.
This issue also features a fascinating interview with Anna L. Davis, award-winning author of the cyberpunk novel Open Source. Our conversation covers biohacking, AI, and how personal experiences get pulled into fictional writing.
I'll review the 1980 short story Cyberpunk by Bruce Bethke in my next issue. That story is the origin of the word cyberpunk(!) and it's mentioned in the interview with Anna. Available for free here: http://infinityplus.co.uk/stories/cpunk.htm. I'm in contact with Bethke and hope to interview him further on.
Enjoy!
/John
Writing Update
Audiobook Publishing š„³
The audio version of my novel Identified is out! You can find it on Audible and Apple Books.
Now, I also wanted to provide you with links to other audiobook services such as Spotify and Storytel. The wait for that is what caused this newsletter issue to be delayed. Spotify's service Findaway Voices which channels to all those other places was "Pending QC Review," i.e. still in quality control.
Finally, this past Wednesday I got an email from Findaway Voices with the subject "IDENTIFIED has PASSED Quality Control." It paid off waiting, I thought, and opened the email.
It read "You will receive a follow up email shortly to confirm it's ready to be submitted to the distribution partners you selected." š© An email telling me I will soon get an email.
Two hours later I get another email with subject line "IDENTIFIED has been approved for distribution." I open it and read "You can expect to see your title live at most retailers in 2ā4 weeks."
Ha, ha! What can I say? The digital age has only half-happened it seems.
I'll get you those links, hopefully in my August issue.
An Update on the Sequel Submerged
I'm soon done with all the major rewrite pieces of Submerged. Then I have 13 mid-sized and 31 smaller sized edits. It's getting closer to the beta read.
As you might recall, Draft one landed at 93,323 words:
The first thing I did was to make the major cuts. That got me down to 88,598 words, so about 5,000 words out:
As of today I'm at 89,709 words with the things I've changed and expanded:
July Feature: An Interview with Anna L. Davis
Anna L. Davis is an American cyberpunk author and I recently read her novel Open Source. Below is an interview with Anna about the book and her writing.
Spoiler alert: The interview goes into some level of detail, setting, and character traits without revealing direct plot points or the ending.
Cyberpunk and Bio Hacking
John:
The novel gave me a cyberpunk feeling with all its street life and griminess. Philip K. Dick and Neal Stephenson came to mind. Is that a genre you like reading and how do you think Open Source is part of it? Or would you rather say it's straight up science fiction?
Anna:
Open Source is definitely cyberpunk, although I didnāt intentionally set out in that direction. It all started with a short story I wrote for a contest hosted by the DFW Writers Conference, about a reporter who loses his job and gets evicted because he didnāt want NeuroChip or even the required IDChip.
I won the contest, attended the conference for free, and my work was compared to Philip K. Dick (PKD). Iām ashamed to admit that I didnāt know much about him at the time. Iād seen Blade Runner, but had never read any of PKDās work (as a side note, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is now one of my favorite novels).
Open Source is a continuation of that award-winning short story, and since then Iāve fully embraced the cyberpunk genre. I even got a positive review from PKD award-winning author Bruce Bethke (non-secure connection), who was credited with coining the word ācyberpunkā in 1980.
John:
If I were to pick a subgenre for your novel, it would be bio hacking. I know you have a Bachelors degree in Biology. The way you describe things like tissue, blood, and implants shows biology is your home turf. Where do you think bio hacking is headed in the real world, Neuralink for instance? And do you generally view bio hacking as beneficial or scary for humankind?
Anna:
The messiness of biology has always appealed to me. There is order, of course ā but also chaos. Viruses mutate, thymine dimers cause cancer, childbirth is bloody and primitive, death is inevitable, our bodies can betray our souls without a momentās notice. We are bound to this earth by flesh and blood with all its flaws and inconsistencies. Biohacking strives to return mathematical order to this biological chaos.
To have a really good discussion about biohacking requires that we address the topic of AI. Most experts agree that in a few years, AI will have surpassed human intelligence. Unlike us humans, it will not be bound to biology ā AI exists in a world of ones and zeros, of logic and order. Elon Musk has explicitly stated that his brain implant company Neuralink will help humans stay relevant in a world dominated by AI.
I think that enhancement technology will continue to advance, and therefore biohacking will become increasingly necessary (much as our smartphones are necessary today). But what is it that makes us human? The messiness. We need to embrace our human flaws and be vulnerable to our fellow humans. This is how we find community in a world dominated by technology.
Journalists, Homeless People, and Veterans
John:
Your book's protagonist Ryker is a journalist, or at least used to be, and journalistic investigation is a driver for the plot. What role do you think journalists play in cybercrime as well as human enhancement? Tintin comes to mind as an investigative journalist putting himself on the line to uncover crime.
Anna:
Our news cycle depends on images, and cybercrime isnāt like combat or tangible tragedy or anything photographicāit is largely invisible, played out behind screens and proxies. In my novel Open Source, nobody pays any attention to cybercrime until hackers access a global electronic healthcare database resulting in a hundred thousand people dead at the hands of their own physicians because of alterations to digital health records. This form of cyberattack on the healthcare system would make the news, this would be tangible ā āif it bleeds, it leads.ā
I feel that journalists have a responsibility to make cybercrime sexy and compelling to viewers now, to prevent the loss of life later.
John:
Homeless people and their community play a big role in the first part of the book. You really manage to convey feelings of alienation, smells of the street and lack of hygiene, and the hunt for food and a safe place to sleep. How did you approach writing about homelessness?
Anna:
When I got the idea for my main character, Ryker, I was volunteering at a local homeless shelter, working the front desk. My job was to greet everyone who came through the front door and collect the required paperwork from potential residents. It was eye-opening to see the effects of homelessness in this way. In watching their struggle, I realized that any one of us can easily become homeless. All it takes is a few turns of bad luck.
There is also a huge technology gap for those experiencing homelessness. They often donāt have access to the most secure devices and may not have the knowledge to avoid scams like phishing attacks and other security vulnerabilities.
John:
One character in the book is a veteran and that person's experiences are tough to read. Where did you draw from to create that character?
Anna:
Years ago I worked as a technical editor for a peer-reviewed psychiatry journal. I edited numerous articles about research into the effects of PTSD on the brain, specifically for veterans. This research made an impression on me. When I introduced the veteran into the story, I was specifically thinking about how neural implants could worsen PTSD for members of the military who are asked to do things theyād rather not do, especially in the scientific field of medical research and experimentation.
Where Anna Finds Inspiration
John:
Many authors use their writing as an outlet for thoughts and speculation they have about the future, or the past. You write in a genre very similar to mine so I'm interested to hear what makes you write the stories you do? What is in in this genre that draws you in?
Anna:
I write about my fears. For example, I hate needles and bloodwork, but in the very beginning of Open Source we see a guyās head drilled open during NeuroChip theft. Taking my fears to an extreme was cathartic for me.
Iām also afraid of a world in which the regular people among us will need brain implants to compete with elites who have already enhanced themselves. Many of my fears in this area center on cybersecurityāhow will we keep these neural implants from being hacked and tracked? What are the security risks, and how could hackers exploit these implants? My imagination kind of runs wild in this area.
Worries About Future Technology
John:
Do you generally have a positive or negative view of our technological future? What do you think will be most important in getting it right?
Anna:
This is a great question because my views have evolved over the past few years. As I mentioned, my own fears and paranoia drive my fictional ideas, especially in technological advancement. Hackable brain implants would certainly be a dystopian situation.
But in real life, current research into neural implants focuses on using BCI for treatment of paralysis, OCD, depression, and other debilitating cognitive and neurological disorders. These are worthy goals and a source of hope for those suffering from these conditions.
Getting it right means that medical device manufacturers and the entire healthcare industry prioritize cybersecurity. Nobody wants a hackable medical device or vulnerable electronic health records.
The Enhancement Series
John:
You released the second book in the Enhancement Series about a year ago, titled Ten Digit PIN: Short Story Collection. I have yet to read it but I'm curious if it builds upon the first book and if characters reoccur? What made you go for short stories over another full-length novel?
Anna:
Ten Digit PIN is actually a prequel to Open Source. There are five short stories, each from the perspective of a different character, including the award-winning story about how reporter Ryker Morris becomes homeless on the streets of Dallas. All of the featured characters appear in the full-length novels of the Enhancement Series.
I like the short story format because it forces me to be succinct with my words while at the same time conveying plot and character development. Itās a fun challenge.
John:
What plans do you have for future books? Are you writing something now?
Anna:
Iām currently revising the second full-length Enhancement Series novel, titled Inside Source. I wanted to release it back in 2017, but I ran into some medical problems that delayed my timeline quite a bit. Iāve rewritten it multiple times, and really hope to be done with it soon. It continues the story of reporter Ryker Morris into a future where neural implants have been banned, but itās too dangerous to remove them from those whoāve already been implantedāresulting in all kinds of chaos for the chipped population.
Despite the dark themes, Iām having fun with the story.
John:
Thank you, Anna, for letting me and my readers learn about your writing. It's fascinating how we as authors want to and manage to pull in impactful real life experiences into our stories. Sometimes it's just a great name, sometimes it's a deep emotional experience.
People should read your novel Open Source and get the full experience of your craft.
Currently Reading
I finished reading Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and moved on to White House Warriors:
How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War.