P is for Pharma

Hallo everyone! Hart here. If you've been following along this month, you may recall that on the D-day (D is for Deceit), I promised to tell WHO was doing the DECEIVING in The Seventeen... Even if you HAVEN'T been, you probably have the gist now...

See!  They OOZE Evil!!!

At the risk of getting political, Pharma is a FAVORITE villain of mine... I tend to find the industry borders on evil even without the suspension of disbelief called forth in fiction (profits before people annallat), but add in just a small twist and BUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! True rottenness. I've used Pharma as the primary villain before—in A Shot in the Light—but in that case it was a few people within who were the bad actors. In the case of The Seventeen, it is more a structural or institutional reality—the lack of rules is what enables a greedy industry to run rough-shod over people. What about you? Do you have a pet industry or group you like to think of as “the great evil”? Any pharma defenders out there? Any plans to raid your local pharmacy in the event of an apocalypse? (seems to be the thing to do, eh?--anti-biotics most commonly)

H = Horror

Do you love that rush of adrenaline when facing something truly terrifying?

Horror is at the heart of any good story, but especially speculative fiction. Today we (Hart Johnson and Crystal Collier) invite you to vote for the more horrifying monster in the comments for your chance to win Parallels: Felix Was Here.

HART'S HORROR 

Or rather Cecily's, in The Seventeen.

The Seventeen is not a story of monsters, but the horror Cecily feels is real. It is the horror of lack of control. She is a peon-level employee for a large pharmaceutical company and while she can protest if something isn't right, in the end she just has to do what she is told. I don't want to give too much of the story away, but let's just say there is a point at which Cecily feels truly horrified at what is happening, and more specifically, at her lack of power to do anything about it.

I like horror you can't see, but of the creatures, Cthulu is the one.

CRYSTAL'S HORROR

My favorite horror creatures is the banshee. (So much so that I based a character in another novel off her.) This version of the banshee may not appear too intimidating, but the true horror is psychological, for to hear a banshee crying means you will die within 24 hours. You spend those last 24 hours watching for death and never knowing how it will take you.

True horror to me is the anticipation of something horrible, something beneath the surface and sinister--like Jak's mirror image in The Mirror People. He lives on the reverse side of the mirror and is tied to a serial killer. If Jak doesn't mimic his mirror self completely, which means killing people, he will cease to exist.

Of these creatures, which do you find more terrifying? Cthulu from the deep, or Banshee, herald of your demise?

Don't forget, every comment you leave is a chance you have to win one of ten copies of Parallels: Felix Was Here.

D is for Deceit

Hello, friends! Hart Johnson here... We are each going into a theme of our story or a speculative theme with our letters...

In the case of The Seventeen,

Deceit is what creates and exacerbates the problem.

The premise behind The Seventeen is that the series of patient protection acts had never been enacted, and the vast majority of those acts are about protecting patients and research participants by FULLY INFORMING THEM what is going to happen so they can make an informed decision. So by removing those protections, we open the door to deceit.

So who is being deceived? In my story, there is a long history of deceiving research participants, but the stakes go up... the more reasonable question is about to be who ISN'T being deceived?

As for who is DOING the deceiving, you will have to come back for the letter P.

So what is your favorite book about deceit? Any main characters you love particularly good at it? Or tragically subjected to it?

Now why don't you go check out some other A to Z participants!?