Tell us about yourself.
I was raised in a middle-class Massachusetts suburb in the 1970s and ‘80s. My friends and I often played outside until dusk. Our parents were Baby Boomers who rarely hovered and fretted about our well-being. My family didn’t have cable TV or video games, so we passed the time by reading, playing board games, and using our imagination. This unstructured and independent upbringing resulted in a resilient personality typical of Gen Xers. My first stab at fiction writing was in the 6th grade. In high school, I picked up my pen again with the encouragement of a literary friend. Eventually, I took creative writing classes in college. After college, I was a graphic designer for a decade. Later on, I worked in public education. Over the years, I continued writing as a hobby. My first published work was in a Zimbell House short story anthology, W.com. “A Tangled Web” investigated questions surrounding the World Trade Center destruction on 9/11.
What inspired you to write The Psyop?
By nature, I am a critical thinker drawn to alternative points of view. As a teenager, I read George Orwell’s 1984. While in college, I watched Oliver Stone’s JFK. The Psyop began as a novella (called P&Q) after the March 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. My remote work schedule enabled me more time to investigate and write. I was unaffected by the mass hysteria after the national emergency declaration announcement. Instinctively, I felt there was a larger malevolent agenda at play. After witnessing four years of Trump Derangement Syndrome by the radical Left, RINOs, and the mainstream media, I suspected their goal was to undermine Trump’s re-election bid. Little did I know that I was only scratching the surface of a vast, documentable conspiracy! While exploring online rabbit holes, I stumbled upon the taboo topic of child trafficking. When I learned that Trump had prioritized that issue during his administration, I had the hook for my story!
Summarize the action of your original novella and describe the characters.
I had read most of Stephen King’s books and had always liked how he thrust strangers together in supernatural circumstances. That model influenced the novella's premise, except that my story was grounded in historical reality. The setting is the fictional P&Q supermarket in the made-up town of West Riverside, Massachusetts. The protagonist is a 20-year-old grocery clerk named Cassidy. He has mixed feelings about the job because his father also had a career in retail. He is most annoyed by the store’s porter robot and the physical demands of restocking the bottled water. After flirting with a single, older customer named Patty, Cassidy is surprised when the porter robot starts speaking cryptic warnings instead of its prerecorded cleanup announcements. Just then, chaos breaks out as panicky customers descend upon the store. Eventually, the robot communicates with Patty, the store managers, and the human porter, ultimately convincing them that their supermarket is participating in nefarious and illegal commerce. The novella ends with them hatching a plan to stop the evil in their midst. Later, when I decided to expand the story into a novel, these events became the first six chapters of The Psyop.
How did The Psyop evolve from a novella to a full-length novel?
When the government kept extending the “fifteen days to flatten the curve” lockdown, along with the introduction of face masks and social distancing, exponential death rates, and rumors of a vaccine in development, my hunch about a larger agenda was confirmed. I had also become dismayed at how accepting of the official narrative my Facebook friends had become, even when I pointed out discrepancies (e.g. TikTok dancing nurses, the media mocking Trump’s promotion of cheap and effective therapeutics, the CARES act incentivizing hospitals to distort mortality statistics, citizen journalists’ footage of empty ERs). Never mind the push for mail-in ballots and drop boxes! I continued compiling evidence but got distracted with another writing project. After the January 6th, 2021 “Storming of the Capitol," I felt compelled to expand upon my original novella. I decided that a character had attended the Trump speech in D.C. that fateful day and was now dealing with the consequences. I also introduced two new characters: an intuitive and religious pharmacy tech named Esther, and Skylar, an age-appropriate love interest for Cassidy.
What else happens in the expanded novel?
The action picks up ten months later, in January 2021. Things are not going well for our hometown heroes. Trump has lost a very suspicious election to Biden, the so-called pandemic rages on, and the FDA has approved the emergency-use distribution of the fast-tracked vaccine. There has also been a major shake-up at the P&Q store. Manager, Mr. Steinbeck, has been transferred as punishment for destroying store property, and Ben, the human porter fired for not complying with the mask mandate is now homeless. Meanwhile, Esther is having a crisis of conscience about administering the new vaccines, Patty, the customer/nurse, has witnessed adverse effects suffered by her healthcare coworkers after their forced inoculations, and Skylar's college is pressuring her to get jabbed. Over the next year and a half, The Psyop's characters experience many highs and lows as they awaken to the totalitarian, depopulation, and transhumanist agenda of the New World Order.
Is The Psyop available to purchase?
Yes! The Psyop is affordably priced in ebook, paperback, and hardcover formats on Amazon.
*March 2023 Update* The Pysop (formerly Fear Virus) is now available in eBook and paperback on Amazon. https://a.co/d/6MdGToi