GIVEAWAY: Win a free, autographed* copy of Conditioned Response!

I've been invited to participate in Cambria Hebert's launch party for her new paranormal CHARADE. She'll be having giveaways from over 40 authors on her Facebook Page on Friday, June 1, 2012 from 3pm to 9pm Eastern Time (USA). I'll give away a free, autographed* copy of CONDITIONED RESPONSE.



I hope you'll join us.

-Friday

*In order to autograph the book, I'll need to send the winner the autographed book in their preferred format (any format currently offered at Smashwords) via email.

#NowPlaying Soundtrack to #ConditionedResponse #SciFi #thriller #mystery #suspense

Every book should have a soundtrack--and Conditioned Response does! Because it's at the back of the book (so you'd have to buy the book to gain access to it), I figured I'd share the Soundtrack with you here. Plus I can make things more clicky here, right?

The following 3 lists were each made into a playlist (and/or burned onto a CD) then looped, repeatedly. I alternated between them on various days but definitely listened to one artist for days on end, including taking the CD into my car to keep myself in a “writing mood.” Certain songs became associated, in my mind, with certain characters or scenes. I've noted those, where applicable.

Except for The Crystal Method Single EP released on YouTube with La Machinima, I’ve bought all of the following music and urge you to do the same—then burn your own playlists to take everywhere with you! You can sample most (if not all) of these clips on YouTube. Tweet me @phoenicianbooks and tell me your favorites.


Dirty Vegas (@DirtyVegas3)
(for keeping me bouncy bouncy bouncy)

Changes (Electric Love)(Joshua’s Song)
Electric Love (Electric Love)
Pressure (Electric Love)
Round and Round (Electric Love)
Today (Electric Love)
Never Enough (Electric Love)
Weekend (Electric Love)
21st Century (Electric Love)
I Should Know (Dirty Vegas)
Lost Not Found (Dirty Vegas)
Days Gone By (linked DubStep Remix) (Dirty Vegas)
Throwing Shapes (Dirty Vegas)
All or Nothing (Dirty Vegas)
Alive (Dirty Vegas)
7AM (Dirty Vegas)
The Brazilian (Dirty Vegas)
Simple Things Part 2 (Dirty Vegas)


The Cruxshadows (@theCruxshadows)
(for singing the story of my book)

Isis & Osiris (Life & Death) (The Mystery of the Whisper)
Leave Me Alone (The Mystery of the Whisper)
Breathe (The Mystery of the Whisper) (Shayla’s Battle Song)

(...and if our children die before we reach our own demise,
then life is blacker still, blacker than the blackest fire,
and I am...the face you see within the mirror
and I am...the hand that holds the fist away,
and I am...the dream forgotten in the morning
and I am...I am! )

Cassandra (Ethernaut)
Flame (Ethernaut)
East (Ethernaut) (Julia’s Battle Song Part One)

(  Live. Love. Be. Believe. )

Love and Hatred (Ethernaut)
Winterborn (This Sacrifice) (Ethernaut)
Citadel (Ethernaut) (Julia’s Battle Song Part Two)

( Languid waves of desperation fall before the rains
A vanguard to approaching war is borne upon the sea
The icy breath of cyclones bent on waging our destruction
Drills hard against the hearts of heroes called here to defend
I see storms on the horizon I see the Tempest at the gates
I see storms on the horizon, and a Citadel alone
Clinging brave, defying fate
And I will stand here at the gates to face the onslaught fighting
Without surrender or defeat )

The Seraphs (Ethernaut)
Windbringer (Dreamcypher)
Sophia (Dreamcypher) (Raif’s Song)

( Do not injustice to another,
Defend the weak & innocent
May truth & honor always guide you
Let courage find a life within
Stand up when no one else is willing
Act not in anger or in spite
Be to this world as a perfect Knight
even if it means your life...!
Here I am, alive among the injured and the dead.)

Ariadne (Dreamcypher)
Sleepwalking (Dreamcypher)
Memorare (Dreamcypher)
Birthday (Dreamcypher)(Brennan’s Song)

( You roll out of bed, look in the mirror and wonder who you are-
Another year has come and gone.
Today is your birthday but it might be...
the last day of your life
so what will you do if tomorrow, it's all gone?
You won't be young forever... )

Aten-Ra (The Mystery of the Whisper)



The Crystal Method (@CrystalMethod)
(just for the sheer energy of this music! almost better than caffeine--almost !)

Kling to the Wreckage (Divided by Night) (feat. She Wants Revenge)
Play for Real (Single EP released with LaMachinima on YouTube)
Smile? (Divided by Night)
Sine Language (feat. LMFAO) (Divided by Night)
Double Down Under (Divided by Night)
Come Back Clean (Divided by Night)
Dirty Thirty (Divided by Night)
Slipstream (Divided by Night)
Busy Child (Vegas)
Keep Hope Alive (Vegas)
Vapor Trail (Vegas) (my personal favorite)
She’s My Pusher (Vegas)
PHD (Tweekend)
Wild, Sweet and Cool (Tweekend) (amusing little graphic novel parody vid)
You Know It’s Hard (You Know it’s Murder) (Tweekend)
Name of the Game (Tweekend)
Ready for Action (Tweekend)
Ten Miles Back (Tweekend) (amazing poppers on the YT vid, even b4 the FX)

Where Does #ConditionedResponse Get its Title? #indie #writing #amwriting

I usually get my titles from a line in the book, a piece of dialog or some turn of phrase I really like. The one thing all my titles--chapter titles, book titles, any titles--have in common is that they always have more than one meaning. Titles might even have more than one source.

This book originally was called Problem 4368: The Community of Trouville and the book really focused more on Problem 4368 (the machine-to-man subplot) than it did anything else. When I created Raif in 2005, as I've said everywhere, he really took over the page, the book, the series!  Because his influence was so strong, I ended up with a second reference in the book to the phrase "conditioned response" which tied the original machine to the Proctors I'd created in a kind of subliminal way. That is, both the men and machines were being "programmed" or "conditioned" and I juxtaposed the way the machine here was going to become more of a man than the Proctors were being allowed to be.

The machine is called Charlie. He gets his name from the acronym of his designation: Conditioned Human Response Series machine, Rev E, or CHR-E. The idea of his design was that a Turing machine can and will learn to respond to situations in a "conditioned" manner.

The book, once Proctor Raif hit the stage, took another turn into conditioning. Proctors minds are manipulated and even used to turn these men into weapons--without their knowledge or consent. Human trafficking is a big issue to me, personally, so making the Proctors slaves really was important to me but they're also highly-skilled soldiers so I had to balance a fine-edged sword there. I had to figure out how to make them both. Conditioned responses were my answer. Proctors are programmed....like machines, not men.

One of the manners in which Proctors are programmed is referred to as "planting a trigger." It's like being hypnotized and having a post-hypnotic suggestion planted in your mind. A trigger is a directive to carry out a set of instructions--and he'll carry out the directive or die trying. To resist a trigger would destroy him, mentally. It's a do or die directive. I've handily "disabled" the Proctors' survival instinct, their natural instinct for self-preservation, so they will self-destruct trying to carry out a trigger's directive.

Bearing all this in mind, when I got to the following paragraph in the book (near the end), I knew I had my title--my new title.

“No.” She shook her head. “Not me, the trigger. I couldn’t stop the trigger in his head from firing.”

Brennan leaned back and the other two Proctors took a small step away from her. It was a conditioned response. The word “trigger” held that kind of power over Proctors. Distance yourself from a trigger. A man with a trigger in his head cannot control his actions. He might be programmed to kill you without warning and without regard for his own life.

What do you think? Did I pick the right title? :) Too late now. It's emblazoned on Raif's mind and there's no fixing that anymore! Read a free sample of the book on Smashwords by clicking here. The book's official release date is this coming weekend, April 20, 2012, but you can already find it on sale at Smashwords and the Amazon Kindle store (for Kindle UK, click here).

-Friday

Guest Blog @BenWallace Books: Memory Mapping & Thinking Machines

The below content was prepared as a guest post for the Fascinations + Inspirations Blog at Benjamin Wallace Books. Reprinted here with permission. Enjoy!  -Friday


Thinking Machines – Science Fiction or Science Fact?
by Marjorie F. Baldwin

When Ben Wallace invited me to do one of these guest blogs, I choked. I mean, I wanted the opportunity, but what the heck was I going to write about exactly? Then I recalled the words of the venerable John W. Campbell: Science fiction should be equal parts science and fiction—but do notice which word comes first! That’s when I knew. I’d just take one of the areas of science I used in my technothriller books (The Phoenician Series) and talk about that. Funny thing is, Ben sent me an email just minutes after this suggesting the same exact thing. Great minds think alike!

One area of science I’ve speculated on throughout all of the books in the series is “memory mapping.” I start out in the opening scene of the first chapter of the first book I’m editing with a reference to someone’s mind having been “Adjusted” (and I can tell you, it just gets more involved from there!) Not only do I explore mapping a human’s memory—and Adjusting it—but I delve into the age-old scifi dream of taking a human mind (every thought, every memory, every little detail about the person’s psyche that makes them unique) and putting that “mind” into another body, presumably a better body. I don’t use robot bodies, though, as they aren’t really better than a human, are they? Phoenician bodies, now, they’re better, but you’ll have to read the books to find out how and why.