Blog News for Mid March

Thank you to all my readers! I love communicating and connecting with all of you.


First round of business is the winner of the paperback QUANTUM STATE is:Ashleigh Hack

She has been contacted. If I don't hear from her, I will pick another winner.


Second round of business, be sure to comment to win the ebooks ELECTRIC GARDEN in the thread below:

Third round of business...I am finished writing books one and two in the ELECTRIC WORLD series and am working on book 3 now. I will keep you all posted for when the series will be releasing. Currently, it is set for book one to be released in Mid-March, but I will let you know if things change.

It is a very interesting premise, with Tins ruling our world. Teenagers are sequestered in a Compound which is watched by the Tins (robots) and Lexi019 just wants to break out.


Fourth round of business is that one paperback of ELECTRIC GARDENS is up for grabs and can only be won by commenting on this blog news post. So, post here with your eMAil and win the first paperback released of ELECTRIC GARDENS before it's release date! Winner will be chosen  Mid-March.




Fifth round of business:
BOOK REVIEW of MATCHED by Ally Condie.

I had the pleasure of reading this last week and I didn't think I would be impressed. Like many dystopian and romance stories, I thought it would an overdone plot with cheesy characters and an even more cheesy romance, but I absolutely loved it. In fact it has become one of my favorite dystopian romance stories!

The author has a way of not only making you care about the characters, but to care about material things such as a compass or compact! That's good writing. Ally draws you into the story and the characters and lets you in on who they are, developing them all well.

I was not sure which way the romance would go, and am still pleased with how everything played out. I am sad they did not all get to have a happy ending, and I have to say my only disappointment is that the book ended and I'll have to pick up the next one to finish this story. 

Highly recommended dystopian romance reading!

M.Black/

Ami Blackwelder 

Sixth Round of business is an EXCERPT from the upcoming release ELECTRIC GARDENS:

   “Wait,” his voice sounds crunchy like the red apple. His hand barely grazes the top of the gravely cell wall. I just see his worn finger tips and a folded, flat rice-milk carton. Another note. He lets the note drop from the top of the cell wall and I catch it on the other side. “I hid it under my shirt.”

     When the thick folded paper touches my palms, I feel a warm fuzz surge through me. I’m always excited to read his notes. Seems he has a new one every month. I try to keep as many as I can, but sometimes I have to bury them in the dirt behind the Compound. Writing on paper is forbidden in here, and he can be glitched if caught. Still, he does it.

     “Thanks.”    

     The rustic-horn is going to blow, and it is time to return to the Re-Learning center. We only get twenty minutes to ourselves outside, and I have to use part of that time to get to and leave the cells. I fold the note again and slip it between my shirt and breasts, anxious to read it when I’m finally back in my Compound room.

     At age twelve, the Tins began allowing us more freedom from the usual routine. We could leave for lunch and eat outside on the nearby grounds, or walk the Compound. Felt like a breath of fresh air, even though the air outside the buildings is harder to breathe. Seemed like such a big deal when we were first allowed outside again. Seven years I was stuck inside, with just brief moments outside to walk directly from Building C to the Re-Learning Center. The freedom we were given at lunch was only twenty minutes, always is, but still we—humans—relish it. 

     I head away from the cells, away from Kyle53, and toward the Re-Learning Center. A few Tins scratch across the grounds in my passing. I nod with a short smile. It’s important to acknowledge them. One stops and its red eyes peer over at me, scanning me, “Lexi019, good afternoon.” 

     “Yeah, sure.” 

Seventh Round of business is my book pick for this week. 

Over 500 pages of monsters, myths and murder! Plus, a sneak peek at book three, The Medusa Coin. Follow Detective Greg Loren and Soriya Greystone as they hunt the most dangerous creatures of myth and legend down the shadowy streets of Portents.

Buy here

Is our universe a Simulation?

What is a simulation? 


A lot of people ask me how I can up with the idea of my book SIMULATION, and I have to tell them the story was based on the possibility that everything around us is an illusion. Modern science hints at the possibility that our universe itself is a simulation--or something to the effect of a 'computer game' so to speak. 

That brings us to the question of the MATRIX which proposes that humanity is more a less living in a simulation within their own mind, hooked to tubes as they sleep so that machines can suck their body energy as food. Kind of disturbing. But how close could the MATRIX be in real life?

More disturbingly, "the science-fiction nightmare of being trapped in a universe manufactured within our minds can be traced back further, for instance to David Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983) and Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985)."

Not only may we be in the MATIRX, but we may not even have bodies at all. That may also be a simulation. 

"Several physicists, cosmologists and technologists are now happy to entertain the idea that we are all living inside a gigantic computer simulation, experiencing a Matrix-style virtual world that we mistakenly think is real."

Even Elon Musk had a thing or two to say about this idea."In June 2016, technology entrepreneur Elon Musk asserted that the odds are "a billion to one" against us living in "base reality"

"Musk and other like-minded folk are suggesting that we are entirely simulated beings. We could be nothing more than strings of information manipulated in some gigantic computer, like the characters in a video game"

But why all this talk about simulations? There are a few reasons, I think. One is that we use simulation models for all kinds of things. To understand animals better, or to understand cosmology or even flight patterns. We use simulations to learn to fly and or how life will be like in space. It is used in training, and these simulations are getting more complex. 

Would it be possible to one day create a virtual being which experiences consciousness? Some think so. That opens up a whole can of worms. What are these virtual conscious beings rights? Do they feel pain, pleasure? Do they have subjective feelings and thoughts about it? Do they experience? Do they remember the experience? 

In physics this idea keeps popping up too. The universe behaves mathematically and can be broken up into subatomic particles like pixelated video games. 

"The simulation hypothesis also accounts for peculiarities in quantum mechanics, particularly the measurement problem, whereby things only become defined when they are observed."


FREE books about our Dreams and Illusions

For more information, click HERE and HERE

EXOTIQA is out now for Pre-Order. YA SyFy Dystopia. Robots. Strong Female Heroines.

Only .99cent

just for Pre-Orders.

Regularly $3.99

https://www.amazon.com/EXOTIQA-WORLD-Book-1-ebook/dp/B06WRWZRMN/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487686619&sr=8-1&keywords=exotiqa+m+black


The second YA SyFy dystopian Thriller released by the debut author M. Black, dubbed Divergent meets iRobot. This novel will appeal to a vast array of audiences. Filled with haunting questions of consciousness and artificial intelligence, identity and self-awareness, politics and love, life and death, the reader will be engaged in an entertaining story filled with futuristic technology. 

Set in the year 2055 in British Columbia, Canada, where humans are part robotic and robots are becoming more humanlike, the line dividing the two is becoming less clear. 

When sixteen-year-old Fione meets Maci, a twenty-one-year-old Flexbot who escapes from ImaTech located along the crust of the Coast Mountains, Fione’s life is taken on a roller-coaster ride of events that begins with trying to save Maci from ImaTech Corporation and ends with trying to save the country.

With Fione's best friend and love interest, a Flexbot named Pix, Fione and Maci must come face-to-face with the greatest dangers their country has ever seen and learn the disturbing secrets of the popular online program Exotiqa—which her friends, family, and most of the country has downloaded onto their Cerebral Slabs. This won’t be easy, since Maci’s only love and greatest enemy, nicknamed Thirty, is tracking her every move. 

Told from two points of view: Maci’s and Fione's, this dystopia is filled with plenty of futuristic technology, and tells a story of a world that could eerily mirror our own one day. 

Fans of Divergent and The Hunger Games will love this dystopian world with two young but strong female heroines who must save the fragile system crumbling around them. This story will even satisfy those looking for something with more philosophical themes and it is a perfect fit for readers interested in sci-fi, artificial intelligence, and robotics.  

Flexbot dialogue is told in Synchro Let text in print (10 font size in ebook), and human dialogue is told in Baskerville text (12 font size). 

“Sunday passes too quickly. Approaching the mall in Mom’s jeep I almost forget I have a bot fugitive hidden away at my best friend’s house until we park and walk up to the glass front doors.”

REVIEWS:

"Wow, wow, wow! It is nothing short of great! I love all dystopia. But you have a unique twist." -Aisha

"The difference of narration between the eyes of a human and that of a robot is really fun. It is distinct and well thought out, of how each being would feel and see things." -Francine

"Certainly as good as anything Jane Lindskold writes! The story flowed, it was easy to sympathize with the main characters, and it was an entertaining read." -John  

"The book explores a new avenue in robotics with emotional attachments starting to develop between robots and even between humans and bots. Realistically and sensitively dealt with, this adds an intriguing and appealing aspect to the plot. Each chapter is written through the eyes of the various characters in turn, which further adds to the suspense and intrigue as well as elaborating on the nuances of human/bot relationships.

On their quest to prevent the destruction of the world as we know it, our heros set off on a journey to ImaTech to destroy Exotiqa, meeting up with some interesting characters and becoming involved in a lot of action including an exciting car chase worthy of any Speilberg movie. In fact, the story would make a great film or perhaps a TV series. There are twists and turns in the plot and we are kept guessing as to who the culprits are until near the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book despite it being designed to appeal to a young adult audience, but then I am big kid at heart. In my opinion this is a great read for anyone of any age. A warining shot across the bows of AI advocates. Marvelous!" -Ken