First Edition · 2020
A boundlessly wealthy genius. An elite international team. Building a link between computers and the brain that makes its owner transcendently intelligent. And a foreign power willing to do anything to steal all they've built — blackmail, sex-slavery, murder. Will the forces of good be turned to evil?
Proceeds benefit Save Our Youth · Costa Mesa, CA
About the Author
Trinity College, Bachelor's degree. Easy Rider inspired a year of wandering — motorcycle gang in Little Rock, love commune in The Ozarks.
Master's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Invited to Munich as a guest scientist. Worked with brilliant techies at the dawn of medical laser technology. Recruited to California by Big US Corp — then seduced by capitalism into serial tech start-ups.
Inventions spanning ophthalmic lasers, photopolymerization, digital imaging for a diabetes cure, and stem cell culturing. Festival awards for films made with locals in Jinotega, Nicaragua.
Research for A Final Reminder took him to Korea, Kamchatka, Tokyo, Norway, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia, New Zealand — and three months pursued by coronavirus at its freshest, from Hong Kong through Cambodia and Vietnam.
Read the novel →The Novel
Dr. Dirk Samuelson has assembled a team of elites to build the first direct connection between the human brain and Arctan International's computer Cloud. A new deadly virus threatens their dreams… but turns out to be their least worry.
The Cast
The Three Rules "One, The Golden Rule. Do unto others what they cannot do for themselves.
Two. The Silver Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Three. The Brass Knuckles Rule. Do unto others as they have done unto you.
Brass is the operative Rule for you now. Questions?" — Dr. Dirk Samuelson
Dr. Dirk Samuelson
"Hello, Matt, I'm Dirk Samuelson." Bumping knuckles. "Please call me Dirk. Like time, its brief." One particular feature stood out — ice-blue eyes; Samuelson had blood relatives on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Souchi Kim
The most self-controlled and, perhaps, most intelligent woman Matt had ever been alone with. She put one hand softly on his chest and kissed him on the cheek just south of his mouth. "Like you, I have been instructed to make bold, independent decisions."
Soh
Just as he was finishing the sentence, his face became rigid, eyes unblinking. "Matt, what's up?" He slumped and turned. In a low voice he answered, "Soh talked to me. And I hadn't requested it."
Douglas Matthew County III
The effect of a few hundred drifting molecules of her delicate Chanel Five coursed through his nerves and crushed his id. Matt felt dizzy.
Rehema Njoroge
Had a valid firearms license, but not for the caliber of the weapons she carried. If something went down, financial and political influences would make her mess disappear.
Antionette Césaire
One thought lingered. She would make him pay, the eight-inch scissors borrow-stolen from one of her street sisters. Agile, young, motivated, she got hold of Big Jacques and took off a fistful, leaving him a demi-Jacques.
Dr. Alicia Hoescht
A world authority on electric signals in the human eye, with a cult-following among young academics for her bilingual techno-blog and psychedelic hair color.
Devon McBain
Just about any family calamity that could befall a child had visited him. Nobody as likely to get you in and then back out of big trouble and have so damn much fun at it. The human embodiment of good drugs.
Stefan "Zig" Krzyzanowski
Stefan never turned his back to the front door. He hadn't consulted Feng Shui to lay out Zig's Bar. But then, Mr. Shui didn't have Stefan's problems.
Reader Reviews
Once I started this book I couldn't put it down. Funny, smart, and strong characters — especially the women. A wicked sense of humor and a brilliant mind for detail.
Buckle up for a thrill ride through dive bars, big data, and international intrigue. Action, boxing, romance, science, crime rings. There's shooting.
McCord nails the nuanced interplay — from salty gym-floor banter to the almost sterile corporate world. The quick-stepping dialogue entertains throughout.
Compelling and exciting, right up to the end. The footnotes were an education in themselves. From a Silicon Valley standpoint, fascinating reading.
Not your Beam-Me-Up Sci-Fi. Based in real science with footnotes — yet the sociological features and cultural dilemmas jump out as the major themes. A fresh action-packed showstopper.
A captivating romance adventure interwoven with wild motorcycle chases. Not quite tame enough for conservative friends — but what a blast!
Press
Broadway World
Moves energetically between upbeat and malevolent — written to simultaneously entertain and enrage.
December 2020
California Newswire
Walks the line between literary fiction and international intrigue — bioluminescent hairdos and augmented human intelligence.
December 2020
FOX 5 KVVU — Las Vegas
Born out of a raging pandemic — wrestles with artificial intelligence, surveillance, and sex crime.
December 11, 2020
Market Watch
Paints a believable, hopeful world scarred by ultraviolet sterilization and government-mandated pathogen detectors.
December 23, 2020
Beyond the Novel
Named for its resemblance to little white sea-shells — a hard translucent ceramic of kaolin and quartz, fired at high temperature.
A thing of lasting use and magical beauty. Each piece numbered, signed, and dated.
Buzz creates delicate but resilient porcelain vessels, thin and translucent. Custom design requests welcome.
All proceeds → Save Our Youth · Costa Mesa, California
Inquire about a piece
B010 Blue Flame · 2020
B024 · Coral & Teal
D005 · Translucency
Get in Touch
Questions, reactions, speaking inquiries, or custom porcelain requests — Buzz reads everything and tries to respond quickly.
Southern California