Career Switch from Consulting to Writing
I was sitting in my office at Microsoft, frustrated by a couple of emerging problems: the increasing number of virus attacks on my client’s systems and the ongoing litigation with the DOJ. The more I thought about these problems, the more frustrated I became. I was General Manager for consulting in the East Coast, having joined Microsoft after years of leading information technology consulting practices for other hi-tech firms. Suddenly the obvious solution hit me – get out of this business and write a novel.
What if a great (fictional) software company lost an anti-trust lawsuit and was ripped apart by the DOJ? What if the leaders of this once-great company decided to have their revenge by building an intelligent, deadly software predator into their flagship software product? That's the premise of PeaceMaker, my first novel.
Career Highlights
Born into a tough neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, I learned powerful lessons about family, friendship and violence. My escape was fiction, and I spent many hours reading in the local library. My passion was technology and I went on to gain a BS in Chemical Engineering from NJIT. Not enough challenge. Always fascinated by new technologies, I was awarded a full fellowship at Columbia University and gained a MS in Nuclear Engineering. Although I designed submarine nuclear reactors for three years, I discovered that I enjoyed computer technologies more than reactor design, so I changed career direction and achieved a second MS; this one in Computer Science from RPI.
Fascinated by virtually all areas of software development, my expertise grew to include development, design, project management, quality improvement and finally, general management. My niche was software consulting and my team assisted many large corporations and governmental organizations. Always looking for the latest challenge, I built and managed several consulting practices. I'm especially proud of two accomplishments – assisting AT&T greatly improve the quality of the first commercial UNIX release and helping Microsoft to create a world class consulting organization. Positions held during my consulting years included Senior Principal with an international accounting/consulting firm, President, Software Technology Management Inc. and General Manager with Microsoft.
Several years ago I decided to leave consulting and concentrate on a long held desire to write fiction. A successful engineer and businessman, I had the breath of experience to understand and synthesize rapidly evolving strands of technology. It became clear that fundamental change would turn our society upside down within the next few decades. Humans will have to adapt rapidly to gain the advantages of these changing social and technological innovations. Indeed, we will have to adapt rapidly just to survive.
I scoped out a trilogy of novels to expose three oncoming challenges; computer viruses enhanced with artificial intelligence (set in 2012), the oncoming clash between religion and technology concerning what it means to be human (2022), and the beginnings of the integration of human and artificial intelligence into a network entity (2032). Each novel is written as a thriller – packed with adventure, sex, greed and romance – as well as realistic science and technology. The three leading characters – Dianne Morgan, a female mega-billionaire obsessed with power; Ray Brown, her onetime lover and a brilliant software architect; and David Brown, Ray’s genetically gifted son – are fascinating and all too human.
PeaceMaker, my first novel, was released in August, 2004 with outstanding feedback by critics, authors, and most importantly, by customers. As one critic wrote, " If you enjoy techno-thrillers, you’re going to enjoy Peacemaker." My next novel,Unholy Domain, will be released the spring of 2008 by Kunati Publishing.
Q&A
Q: Do you really believe a software predator such as PeaceMaker is coming?
A: Yes, something like PeaceMaker is inevitable – but not for at least a decade. Remember, PeaceMaker is speculative fiction. No existing software can plan and execute at a level approaching human capabilities. In my novel, PeaceMaker has the ability to shut down the host computer, change or destroy data, send warning messages to its master, destroy hardware and attack anyone interfering with its objectives. A software predator could be developed today to perform many of these acts, but not with such sophisticated, adaptive decision-making abilities; one with PeaceMaker-level intelligence is still quite a few years away. I set the novel in 2012 because that's probably the earliest point such a predator could emerge. The critical breakthroughs are speech recognition and very complex modeling; once that happens, we’re on the fast track to the software predator described in PeaceMaker.
Q: Is PeaceMaker a suspense thriller or hard science fiction?
A: Damned if I know. Probably cross-genre, but it doesn't really matter if you're intrigued by the premise.
Q: PeaceMaker is the start of a series, right?
A: Guilty as charged. The Army of God, the second book in what will become a trilogy, will be released by Kunati Publishing in the spring of 2008. Examining the growing conflict between religious fundamentalism and advanced technology, it’s set in 2022, ten years after the PeaceMaker attack. The final novel, tentatively titled Tomorrow”s Children, is on track to be published in 2009. But I have to warn you -- this is not a cookie cutter series with basically the same lead characters repeating a familiar story. Each novel is visionary; provocative and thrilling.
.
Q: The protagonists, Ray Brown and Dianne Morgan, aren’t your typical lead characters. Why not the flawless, charming hero and the sweet but sexy romantic interest?
A: Once you read PeaceMaker, you’ll understand. The story grows out of Ray’s passions and flaws, as well as those of Dianne, his one-time lover, . Push Dianne and Ray together and you get a critical mass; the story takes on a life of its own and pulls us along. You’ll be surprised by many of the twists and turns. I leave plenty of clues, but you’ll never guess the ending. Once you get there, though, you’ll see it had to be this way; anything else wouldn’t have been true to the characters.
Turn to the PeaceMaker section and read what Ray and Dianne have to say about the situation.
Q: PeaceMaker seems interesting, but how do I know I'll enjoy it?
A: The best way is to read the Prologue and Chapter One presented in this website -- I believe you'll enjoy them. The prologue is brief, but includes a duel between man and machine that will surprise you. The first chapter begins as a tense courtroom drama and then roars to a conclusion unlike anything you've seen on Law and Order.
|
