Writing is like being able to put life into a snow globe. It takes the things that are too big and scary and reduces them into a form that I can put away when I want and look at from a distance. It also takes all that’s good in life and captures it into something I can take out when I want and look at close up and keep forever. It makes the bad things into something I can hold…and the good things into something I can hold onto. Both help so much that I need that little souvenir of life.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Book Blurb Friday #31

I’m finally back to Book Blurb Friday, a great meme from Lisa Ricard Claro’s Writing in the Buff. The challenge: “Write a book jacket blurb (150 words or less) so enticing that potential readers would feel compelled to buy the book.”

I’m into colons this week, by the way. The punctuation variety, of course. My colon-laden offering this week is 147 words.


~ Option: Survival~

A.D. 2111: The Sentient 350s are classified androids designed for “experimental sport” by a group of scientists. Secret scientist-toys, in other words.

The catch: Sentient 350s are “choice-makers,” programmed to believe that they are human.

The goal: To design a droid who is able to win the game by making the best choices to achieve a life on Edenne, a small island in the Caribbean. Droids that lose are destroyed.

The problem: Daniel has just found out what he is. As if that weren’t bad enough, he can’t let his programmer, Zeus5, know what he knows…which is that each choice he makes—no matter how small—will result in certain preprogrammed outcomes which may lead him to paradise…or death. So Daniel must make every choice very, very carefully.

The paradox: Daniel wouldn’t even choose to live on Edenne.

The bottom line: It’s better than being a dead droid.


I dreamed this one the other night, by the way. It was a pretty creepy nightmare, let me tell you. I was the one who found out that my life had been programmed for sport by some unknown gods. Each choice I made triggered a predetermined outcome that I actually saw on a holographic computer screen because I had a fever and it somehow messed with the program. For example, I’d walk into a room and see a book sitting on a table, and then this would flash on the screen:

Option A: subject thumbs through book...Outcome A: subject gets option to join garden club.

Weird...yet lots of fun to think about.  (Outcome B: subject gets Book Blurb Friday idea.)

“It is not our talents that determine who we are, it’s our choices.” ~J.K. Rowlings (Albus Dumbledor)

8 comments:

  1. You are so refreshingly fun and funny.

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  2. Wow, it's like a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' dream!

    I have a similar feeling when I open the refrigerator to make my lunch...lol

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  3. I thought that I had some wild dreams, but you have me beat by a mile.

    Androids and predestination? I think this is a blurb that would sell.

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  4. Thanks Linda...but, um...was there a funny part? Shoot, I missed it.

    LOL June. Does your refrigerator need cleaning like mine?

    Yes, Grandma...my dreams have even had titles and credits and musical scores. My id must be odd. Or else my superego is superfreako.

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  5. Wow, Tammy, this is great. I've often thought about scientists creating androids for sport, but never thought of the androids being programmed for "choices"...I'd buy this book!

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  6. I'm so envious of you lucky people who have awesome dreams and actually remember them! I've tried keeping mine in a journal because I read that the more dreams you keep track of the more you'll remember. My subconscious messes with me and I lose most of what I dream immediately upon waking. The problem is either old age or a boring subconscious, and neither is an attractive option. *sigh*

    Love your blurb! The set up is perfect for the sci-fi genre and tone of your plot. (I like your colons...and I don't say that to just anybody!) I'm not a huge sci-fi reader, but I'd buy this one. Very cool blurb.

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  7. Hi Tammy, interesting dream. You put it together very well, and compel the reader to think.

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  8. Wow! You had a dream about this storyline? That would be scary. I've never done that before.

    It would be a great book, and fun to see what Daniel chooses to do. I hope that he wins and lives.

    Kathy M.

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