Bryon Vaughn Archives - Tena Stetler

Sep 18th Neurogarden by Bryon Vaughn an Interview

Give a warm welcome to Bryon Vaughn, Author of Neurogarden. Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate. Psstt.. don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter at the end of ttis post. Let’s find out a little about Bryon and his Science Fiction, techno-thriller.

What are four things you can’t live without?

Like most people, I am attached to my mobile phone. I can’t imagine life without it. Since my life revolves around computing, I would also have to say my MacBook Pro, though any computer would do. I absolutely must have paper notebooks and a good pen. Sure, I can take notes on a computer, but it just doesn’t feel like it matters unless I write it with my own hand, plus it is a pain in the ass to sketch or scribble with a keyboard or a trackpad.

Finally, though I don’t consider them to be things, I would we lost without my family. They are my touchstones to reality, and always keep me grounded and focused on what is truly important. In fact, despite what I said earlier, I could actually do without all of those things as long as I had them.

What is your favorite television show?

With streaming, I just watch whatever shows up in the lists, but I can say the last show that I remember being must-watch appointment television was Dexter. I adore that show, and despite the main character being a sociopathic serial killer, I think I identified with Dexter more than any other character that I can recall.

If you could be any character, from any literary work, who would you choose to be? Why?

I’m sure if you asked me this question every day for the next week, my answer would change, but in the moment, I would say I would like to be Guy Montag from Fahrenheit 451. He was a simple man, incurious, and good at his job, which sadly was burning books. What makes him so interesting to me is how he comes to love the very thing that he is trained to destroy. In this day and age where books can be found in boxes on the side of the street, discarded to make room for a new television, or some other electronic device, it is inspiring to picture a place where people would risk their lives to protect the written word.

What have you got coming soon for us to look out for?

Neurogarden is the first book in the NeuralTech Corporation series. Book two is well underway, and the working title is Necrogarden. The world has taken a dark turn, and the stakes are even higher in the second book. I can’t wait to hear what readers will think of this one.

What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?

I read a lot of different genres, and while I tend toward science fiction and horror, I also like the literary classics. I studied English at U.C. Berkeley, so I have a foundation in the canon, such as Shakespeare, Joyce, Milton, but I also like more modern classic authors such as Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood.

As for influence on my own writing, I would say that I draw from writers like Clive Barker, William Gibson, and maybe a little Blake Crouch.

Now tell us a little about Neurogarden.

Where can you run when there is no place to hide?

Brenna Patrick is a brilliant technologist specializing in neural-cognitive functions and AI. She has cracked the code to solve one of the most troublesome problems in the field, and turned that into the multi-billion dollar NeuralTech Corporation.

Working quietly with the U.S. Department of Defense, NeuralTech is poised to leapfrog the competition with a revolutionary system for tracking people, starting with the world’s most wanted terrorists. But there are only so many terrorists in the world, so who’s next?

When a pair of Columbia graduate students, Jenny and Leo, stumble on the dark secret of NeuralTech’s success, it kicks off a tense game of cat and mouse. As they fight to defeat the powerful forces arrayed against them, nothing less than the fate of humanity hangs in the balance…

NEUROGARDEN is a roller-coaster ride of a thriller, one that will have readers pondering the nature of memory, and of reality, long after they’ve read the last page.

How about a sneak peek between the pages of Neurogarden?

Halfway through her coffee, Brenna’s usual routine of morning news about the weather or the latest political storm was interrupted by a story on the previous day’s event at NeuralTech.

“According to sources, yesterday, in an impressive display of technical wizardry, the notorious Ethiopian strongman, Azim Dibaba, was eliminated by the U.S. military in partnership with NeuralTech. Stay tuned for exclusive video footage from the NeuralTech facility coming up after the break.”

With a dismissive wave of her hand, the television powered off, and she downed the last of her coffee. Explicit rules about keeping cameras from the Observation Deck were put in place to stop this kind of leaked footage, not so much to keep it a secret, but to control how the message was released. There was no way NeuralTech would have built such an elaborate display of lights and gadgetry if the world was never going to see what they were doing. The fanfare was all a show, a carnival for the masses to distract from the visceral heart of what they were witnessing. Hell, they used to run the ops from a small conference room in the basement of NeuralTech HQ with two laptops and an iPad. The spectacle was created for virality, but she wanted the first glimpses to be better than some shaky cell phone video from a reporter behind glass.

Buy Links:

Amazon Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Neurogarden-NeuralTech-Corporation-Book-1-ebook/dp/B08F7BWCDZ

About the author:

Ever since reading Douglas Adams back in my formative years, I have had an interesting relationship with humor, science fiction, and technology. My first computer was a TI-99/4A, so yeah, I’m old, but only until scientists have cracked the code on transplanting our brains into shiny new vessels.

My body may be showing signs of wear, but I’m keeping my brain tight.

When I am not dreaming of far off worlds and writing, I am living a semi-normal life working in New York City, and watching movies with my wife and her spastic cat, Moss.

Social Media Links

Web site: https://www.bryonvaughn.com

Facebook: https://facebook.com/bryonvaughnauthor

Instagram: https://instagram.com/bryonvaughn

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bryonvaughn

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It’s been great having you with us today. Good luck with Neurogarden!