About Babylon Dreams:
Set in a virtual life-after-death world, Babylon Dreams explores what life in virtual reality might really be like, when, as death’s door opens, you opt for door number two and a VR condo.
In 2286 the After Death Destinations industry has become a force in the world economy. Virtual environment companies offer slick packages of VR environments, new homes to welcome the uploaded minds of the newly deceased.
A fissure has opened between a virtual world and “bio” reality. Shemathra’s Realm, a virtual community and cult whose members manifest as herd animals, now forbids any communications between its virtuals (residents) and the outside (bio) world,
A national archivist denies the request a private investigator’s request for information on Shemathra’s Realm. Regrettably it’s protected. Instead, he offers memory files from Bali Hai, the after-death program that previously occupied the platform now used by Shemathra.
These memories are the story of Gunter Holden, a pioneer of the After Death Industry and the creator of Bali Hai, once lauded as the gold standard of the after-death field. Gunter was also a suspected murderer.
Babylon Dreams begins when Gunter appears as an eight-year-old boy while greeting TOM a new (virtual) resident. Gunter is alone. “…everyone I knew is gone. Few came here and they all walked the ramp and fell into the Dreams. I may join them someday; I keep the thought.
Gunter Holden, a ruthless businessman and creator of Bali Hai, an after-death custom paradise. Sixty years after his suicide, Gunter is bored and desperate. There are rumors of a company merger. His file is beginning to fragment which causes him to relive moments best forgotten. On the advice of Miranda, the Bali Hai AI, he tells his life story to Tom, a new Bali Hai resident. The mergers happen. Alarmed, Gunter tries to protect the virtual people of Bali Hai. Still, as the paradise of Bali Hai slides into a new form of hell, Gunter learns the devastating truth of his childhood. The novel ends when Gunter and Tom ride Babylon Dreams, a virtual rollercoaster and self- delete.
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Author Bio:
My childhood zigzagged. I was born in California. My parents moved to Tennessee, then Kentucky and returned to California when I was fourteen. I graduated from UCLA (theater major), was an actress for a split second then moved to Reno and raised children. In Reno, I started a location casting company, then moved back to LA, worked as a casting director. Then I became an English teacher, the biggest challenge yet. When I was an English teacher in East LA, I saw donated boxes of YA novels. I decided to give writing a try. How hard can it be? Incredibly hard. Still, a family story sparked my curiosity. Arthur, my great uncle had been an inmate at an Ohio State Penitentiary. There was a prison fire, the cell doors wouldn’t open. Almost everyone was killed. I wondered who or what caused it? The site is now a parking lot, But what if it was a mall on Christmas Eve? Would it happen again? In response, I wrote The Demon Rift. When I read a Ray Kurzweil story about mind-uploading and VR paradises, I was concerned. If the technology is successful, and people decided to keep existing indefinitely, what could go wrong? Quite a lot. Babylon Dreams explores the downside of a VR heaven.