Title : Reap The Whirlwind
Author : Robert Sells
Published : July 18th 2013 by Martin Sisters Publishing
Synopsis
for Reap the Whirlwind
Whit Emerson had a beautiful girlfriend, great friends, the respect of his peers, and more than enough money. Until he discovered his bank account has been depleted. A day later he's fired from his job. Friends die, disappear, or disown him. Everywhere he goes, he is watched by security cameras. Something is definitely wrong with his world, but Whit doesn't know who or why. Then he is accused of a crime he didn't commit. That's when his life got worse. Much worse. Whit seeks help from a stuttering computer nerd, his attractive sister, a bank robber and a rogue detective all hiding from the government for different reasons. Together they search for a legendary computer expert known as Little Lion. Eleven years before Little Lion created a super computer for the military, a super computer which is now being used to take over the internet. Little Lion mysteriously disappeared but left strange clues behind to help Whit and his friends. When the clues are unraveled, an even worse threat faces the friends. They are determined to stop a nightmare scenario if they can live long enough. Please be advised, the story is fictional, but the 'nightmare scenario' is inevitable, if it hasn't already happened.
Robert Sells
I attended college at
Ohio Wesleyan where I struggled with physics. Having made so many mistakes in
college with physics, there weren’t too many left to make and I did quite well
at graduate school at Purdue.
I worked for twenty
years at Choate Rosemary Hall, an exclusive boarding school in the heart of
Connecticut. More often than not, students arrived in limousines. There was a
wooded area by the upper athletic fields where I would take my children for a
walk. There, under a large oak tree, stories about the elves would be weaved
into the surrounding forest.
Returning to my home
town to help with a father struggling with Alzheimer’s, the only job open was
at a prison. There I taught an entirely different clientele whose only
interaction with limousines was stealing them. A year later Alfred State
College hired me to teach physics. I happily taught there for over ten
years. A rural, low income high school
needed a physics teacher and the superintendent, a friend, begged me to help
out. So, I am finishing my teaching
career in a most fulfilling way… helping kids who would otherwise not have
access to a qualified physics (and math) teacher.
My wife pestered me
about putting to “pen” some of the stories which I had created for my children
and kids. I started thinking about a young boy and a
white deer, connected, yet apart. Ideas were shuffled together, characters
created and the result was the Return of the White Deer. This book was
published by the Martin Sisters.
Years ago I gave a
lecture on evolution. What, I wondered, would be the next step? Right away I
realized that silicon ‘life’ had considerable advantages over mortal man. Later
this idea emerged as the exciting and disturbing story called Reap the Whirlwind, my most recent
novel.
I have many other
stories inside my mind, fermenting, patiently waiting for the pen to give them
breath. Perhaps someday I will even write about those elves which still inhabit
the woods in the heart of Connecticut.
Robert
Sells has taught physics for over forty years, but he has been a storyteller
for over half a century, entertaining children, grandchildren, and
students. He has written the
award-winning novel, Return of the White
Deer, historical fiction, and he has written Reap the Whirlwind, a thriller.
His third book, The Runner and the
Robbery, a young adult book, will be published by December, 2013.
He lives with his wife, Dale, in the
idyllic village of Geneseo, New York with two attentive dogs who are uncritical
sounding boards for his new stories. He
is intrigued by poker and history, in love with Disney and writing, and amused
by religion and politics.
Amazon US Author Page http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Sells/e/B007A6481Y/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Guest Post!
I
got a note from my daughter praising me for contributing to a blog. I confess
that I’m really not sure what a ‘blog’ actually is. She, like my other
children, recognizes that her old man is a techno-illiterate dinosaur lost in a
modern world of electronic wonders.
Apologies, but I grew up in the sixties and things were a bit different
back then. The story which follows might
help you youngsters understand what we oldsters are dealing with. Actually, it
is based on a true story. At least as true as things get in this new age of
stretching the truth in politics, advertisements, and ‘come-ons’ in all media.
Be wary, dear reader, of that last phrase whether it is stated in movies or
books or… blogs. The truth may be there, but usually it is only a small acorn
while it’s presented as an enormous oak tree with golden bark, purple leaves,
and branches gossamer thin. With that admission, I share this story.
The
nurse opened the door and saw the doctor standing beside the bed. The patient
was obviously asleep again, long white hair fanning out like she had been
struck by lightning. The smooth face, wrinkles absent, belied her chronological
age which was seventy-two.
She
stood beside the concerned physician.
“What
happened?”
Eyebrows
pressed down in puzzlement, he continued to stare at the patient.
“She’s
back into the coma, I think.”
The
nurse looked up at the monitor.
“Low
heart-beat. I think your right, Doctor. Can’t believe it. Fifty years in a
comma and then wide awake, alert, happy. I talked with her just an hour ago.”
She
sighed as she adjusted the IV feed.
“I
guess it wasn’t meant to be. What do you think happened?”
He
shook his head and closed his eyes. The confusing world is often better handled
with closed eyes.
“I
don’t know. We were talking about computers. She worked for IBM when computers
were affordable only to the big companies like the airlines and telephone
companies. Big, room-sized computers. I tried to explain to her that times had
changed. Kept looking at me strangely when I talked about cell phones, ipads,
and laptops.”
“Did
you tell her I posted her picture on Facebook last night?”
“Yeah,
I think she thought it was some sort criminal posting. She kept saying she
didn’t do anything illegal.”
The
nurse was looking at her cell phone.
“Now,
I gotta tell my ten thousand friends that she’s back in a coma. Well, I’ll
probably get just as many hits as last night. Always a silver lining in these
things.”
“Hits,”
repeated the doctor.
“Hmm?”
responded the nurse while she tapped her cell phone.
“Hits,”
repeat the doctor. “Not sure that was the best word choice when she and I were
talking. I told her that she had generated over two hundred thousand hits on
the net,” said the doctor looking down at her.
Not
wanting to be overheard by the myriad monitors around the room, he whispered,
“Then she started crying.”
Eyes
wide, incredulous, the nurse asked, “Why?”
“Something
about not wanting to be responsible for some many deaths.”
The
nurse had pulled out her ipad and was flipping through one screen after
another.
“Saw
your blog. Well written, sir. Why would she be upset by two hundred thousand
hits? I mean, like, she’s famous.”
“Beats
me. I told her that I blogged her. Eyes got wide. Looked frightened.”
The
nurse nodded looking at the patient now in the deepest possible sleep.
“Hmm.
Maybe that explains her reaction when I told her about your twitter.”
“What
did she say?”
The
nurse scrunched her face.
“She
covered her face and said she had absolutely no desire to see your twitter. Strange
woman.”
He
sighed.
“Yeah,
I know. I offered to Skype her with her former husband. She said she thought
she might be too old for sort of stuff now. That’s when she shut her eyes.”
The
doctor took out his personal ipad and typed in some words as he spoke.
“Look
I gotta go. Sending the last few words she said on the cloud for download. You
can catch it there, okay?”
The
nurse chuckled.
“Wondered
what she would have thought about the icloud?”
“God!
Who knows?”
While
the doctor tapped some words on his ipad, she finished with the message on her iPhone.
The nurse looked over his shoulder and read the last two sentences he wrote.
I asked if she was sleepy. Her last
words to me were: “No. Not sleepy, but I have to get out of your world. I don’t
want to be blogged, Skyped, or twittered. Ever.”
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