T.R. Brown's Blog: Reflections author blog, page 8

Terminology of the Reflectons setting

Neo-People: Genetically engineered races created from human and animal DNA. Legally property of the nation or company who ordered their creation. They cannot legally have more than 40% of uniquely human DNA meaning they can in theory have as much as 99.4% the same as humans. Commonly referred to as neos.

Felis: human feline hybrid neo. They have approximately 85% of the same DNA as humans. Fur covered, with ditigrade posture, claws, tail. Facial features are a mix of human and feline. Pointed cat ears can hear in the ultrasonic range. Eyes can see in extremely low light. Able to walk upright or go faster on all fours. Used by the military.

Kanids: dog, human hybrid neo fur covered, colorblind, superhuman sense of smell. Ultrasonic hearing although not capable of hearing as wide a range of frequencies as felis. Like the catlike neo they are capable of bipedal or quadruped locomotion. Used by law enforcement agencies, military police and some private security firms.

Noxes: bovine humanoid neo. Strong, large, not too bright. Used for unskilled labor, jobs requiring heavy lifting or agriculture. Not capable of quadrupedal locomotion but they do have some ultrasonic hearing. Their eyes are also capable of independent movement, able to focus in two different directions. Some find it disconcerting.

The world of reflections 4

Central and South America: While this part of the world doesn't really have much impact on the story it has gone through its share of turmoil too. Several nations have been through revolutions and counter revolutions. Dictatorships have fallen to democratic uprisings and democracies have fallen into dictatorships.

The most notable change is the Brazilian bio-tech boom. Researchers had been looking for medicinal plants in the rainforest for decades. In the mid twenty first century the plant that led to the creation of a whole new form of antibiotic medications was discovered. A find which marked the beginning of the reversal of the rise of antibiotic resistant diseases.

Of course this has led to a veritable gold rush of botanists looking for the next big discovery. A few other notable discoveries in recent years have continued to stoke the enthusiasm.

The world of Reflections pt 3

The Far East: While U.S. power has declined, due to the national debt and civil war, the power of China has steadily increased. Sadly for the neighboring nations, this increase in power has come with an increase in territorial ambition. China has gobbled up the Korean peninsula, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan and several other nearby nations.

This expansionism has made the rest of China's neighbors nervous. On the other hand, some nations have allied themselves with China, hoping that making friends with them now will spare them from future conquest or give them the shelter of the strongest superpowers protection. The fact that Mexico is among China's new allies increased tension between the U.S. and its southern neighbor. Considering how strained things had been already, due to bad feeling over immigrant involvement in the disenfranchised, this has created a near cold war on the southern border of the United States.

Another facet of China's increasing power is their orbital missile defense system and orbiting nuclear weapons platforms. Although some feared they might use this arsenal as a sword of Damocles to force the rest of the world to surrender, they seem intent on conquest by conventional means. In fact, the only use China has made of these orbital weapons, so far, was to swat down missiles the Caliphate launched against Canada and the U.S. in the early days of the war. The Chinese governments official statement about the action was that they “Intended to prevent any use of nuclear missiles, due to the potential threat of fallout to all nations.” Many speculate that once they have consolidated their current conquests China will turn against North America.

The world of Reflections pt 2

Europe and the Middle East: The U.S. isn't the only part of the world to go through major changes in the latter half of the twenty first century. After decades of declining birth rates in Europe and immigration from the middle east the majority of the population of that continent is Islamic. Sadly the sentiment in that population has turned quite radical in the decade leading up to the time of The Face in the Mirror. An Islamic Caliphate unifying Europe and the middle east was founded eight years prior, with a stated goal of world conquest. They began by assaulting American and Canadian Shipping in the Atlantic. This touched off a war between The North American powers and the Caliphate. It was the first full scale war in which felis were deployed as soldiers.

One felis, an eleven year old mother of two named Shade, was deployed in what is now Syria. Shot by a sniper one month after Todd Hershel's accident her body kept going despite being brain dead. Her body served as the host for Todd's transplanted brain.

The world of Reflections

The United States: America has changed since our day. The second civil war-thirty-four years prior to the Face in the Mirror-broke out as a result of an attempt by the mountain and central states to succeed from the union. This was prompted by perceived progressive/socialist encroachment on civil rights by the Federal government. The conflict between the more liberal and conservative leaning states was interrupted when a coalition of abandoned welfare recipients and disgruntled immigrants formed the disenfranchised and lashed out at both sides with terrorist activities. Denver was devastated by a nuclear bomb. Manhattan was somewhat less devastated by a radiological weapon. The horror of those attacks, coupled with the war weariness the nation was already experiencing, brought the two main sides to the negotiating table. The progressive and conservative sides cooperated in bringing the ringleaders of the disenfranchised to justice and after much argument reconstituted the union.

The reformed United States is a much looser union than that at the beginning of the twenty first century. The saying used to be, "Before Lincoln the United States were and after Lincoln the Untied States is." After the second civil war the United States are much more separate once again. Another important effect of the war was a degree of curtailment of the rights of immigrants throughout the union and of non tax payers in most states. These restrictions on immigrants, wartime casualties, and decades of dropping birth rates led to a major labor shortage in America.

Robots make up for some of the shortage but were not capable of true thought or rational judgement required for many tasks. The genetic engineering firm Agrodine came up with a unique solution to this problem in the form of the neo ox, or nox species.
Noxes were a genetic mix of bovine and primate DNA, and the first neo people created. Born from cow surrogate parents a nox would reach full physical maturity in six years and was intelligent and strong enough to perform a wide variety of tasks that robots just weren’t suited for or that most humans simply found distasteful. Within a decade millions of noxes were a major part of the nations labor force and were soon joined by the primate canine hybrid kanids and feline primate hybrid felis.

Chained Reflections early draft sneak peak

Chapter 1

It’s funny what comes to mind when you’re feeling stressed. A few years ago I was in a, near fatal, accident and I thought about how horrible being the perfect subject for an experimental brain transplant was. That and “God help me.”

Now, here I was getting booked into jail. Printed, photographed, and so on. The two things that occurred to me were, God did help me and wanted me to pay it forward and what would my father think if he could see me now.

For once, in my nearly fifty years, I was glad my dad wasn’t still around to see this. Dad was Lieutenant Herschel, of the Denver, Colorado bomb squad. That’s right, the one standing in front of the memorial statue you see in all the pictures. Yes, that makes me Todd Herschel, the freak.

If dad had lived to see me here, getting booked, his first reaction would probably be to tell me how disappointed he was that I was on the wrong side of the law. Then, he would probably start to wonder what his son was doing in the women's wing of the jail. Then, he’d wonder who this furry, feline amazon was that was claiming to be his son.

Technically, I haven’t been his son since my brain was transplanted into a felis neo-person's body. Strictly speaking, I became his daughter after that. It took me a while to adjust to my involuntary change in gender and species. In the process, I lost my marriage, many of my friends, and some of my civil rights. I gained, a new lease on life, insight, and a missing piece of my soul.

What, you may wonder is this offspring, however freakish, of a national hero doing getting booked in the Dallas, Texas jail? Again. I’d been here before, long story. Now, I was being booked for theft of government property.

I'd started a new life out in the Libertarian Colonies. I'd remarried and started a family. Only to have my new home brutally attacked and my husband, Goliath, kidnapped by members of the U.S. Military. They justified their actions as retrieving stolen neos. The fact that the neos in question, like my husband, had escaped from their legalized slavery was a moot point. The army wanted guinea pigs, to test ways to fight a bio-engineered disease that was ravaging the neo population and the Colonies were too weak to fight off their assault. Ironically, it wasn't even necessary. We found the cure in the Colonies, inside my bloodstream. The gene therapy, used to prevent my new immune system from rejecting my brain, also increased my resistance to the disease.

Chained Reflections

The first draft of my new book, Chained Reflections, is complete 545 pages 127590 words. Now for much editing and proofreading to get it ready for publication.

New Cover art

I've learned some new techniques for the software I used to create my cover art. I have posted the current and a new version of the cover on my books facebook page I'm soliciting opinions on which version people think is better.

Cover art for Chained Reflections

You can see the cover I'm working on for my second book on the face in the mirror facebook page
feedback and constructive criticism welcome

Free promotion

As a special promotional offer the kindle version of The Face in the Mirror will be free until April second. No, this is not an April fools joke. If it sounds interesting get it free if you enjoy it, please tell your friends.