In the meantime, I have written a prequel to Beta Tested - I was speaking with someone about the implausibility of Mitch's super genius, and got to thinking about why he's so smart. Naturally, this led to writing about it a bit. (There's also a little backstory concerning his financial backers.)
Anyway, here it is:
Excerpt:“Right now,” Mitch said, “Your brain is completely conscious. You’re awake. NINA is just intercepting the signals your brain would send your body. Instead of moving my arm out there,” he waved his arm, “I’m moving my arm in here. In the training mode, it pushes you into an altered mental state, one where your brain is much more receptive to new information. It skips past your conscious ability to filter what it’s told and just adds facts to your subconscious.”Receptive.Skips Past.I wasn’t sure why that sounded so good, but I pushed it aside and asked, “So it programs us?”“Right!” Mitch nodded and smiled, “It hypnotizes the user to get their brain into the correct theta brain wave state, then it supplies information. Memory retention is phenomenal. What we’re doing now is like a lecture, but your Lessons program your brain almost like a computer.”Hypnotized.Program My Brain.I could feel my cheeks burn, and wondered if the game rendered that sort of detail as readily as my arm moving. Maybe Mitch couldn’t tell that all of this was turning me on. I hoped not. My fingers clenched reflexively at nothing, and I wanted him to put me under even more. At the same time, a little voice in the corner of my mind was very insistent that I needed to push back:I Must Not Submit To Hypnosis.The thought was very clear to me, but I couldn’t say why. I’d never seen someone hypnotized except on TV. All the same, I felt very clear about that. I asked, “So you can make me think I’m a cow or chicken or something?”Mitch swiveled in the chair and looked up at me. He said, “You know I would never do anything like that. You know you can trust me. I’m your Teacher.”Trust Him.My Teacher.I could hear the words echo in my brain, in Mitch’s voice. My mouth opened before I could think about it again, “Trust… you…” I blinked and asked, “What are you doing to us?”
As promised, this book will be available for at least four weeks via Smashwords. I'm also offering a coupon for 50% off there through June 15th: BY98H to help make up for all the shuffling I've been doing, and to thank you for checking up on this blog.
Hope you all like it, and I hope you're all having a good summer. :)
