CONQUERGOOD & THE CENTER

OF THE INTELLIGIBLE MYSTERY

OF BEING

by

CG Fewston

Science Fiction / Dystopian / Steampunk

 Date of Publication: October 17, 2023

Number of Pages: 381 pages

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One of resilience and transformation, Conquergood’s life-changing discovery explores the depths of family, memory, love, and the mysteries that lie at the heart of the universe.

In 2183, Jerome Conquergood is an outcast roaming the abandoned and crumbling skyscrapers of Old York City outside the Korporation’s seductive and dizzying headquarters, a post-apocalyptic security-city for the mega-rich. Despite his hatred for the techno-optimism and the Korporation, Conquergood is compelled to save his mysterious twin brother Vincent by joining the Korporation, a mega-corporate and governmental entity in a world oppressed to peace.

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CG Fewston on the Writing Life, Part 2

How has being a Texan influenced your writing?

For better or worse, Texans have a direct way of telling it like it is. When I travel the world, strangers always ask, “Where are you from?” And my reply is always the same, “Texas.” And every single person, no matter what country they are from, knows Texas.

So being a Texan shaped how I grew up, and it shaped me in how I see and think and tell stories. As a Texan I aim to be direct, unflinching, and authoritative. As a Texan I also seek to be kind, patient, and considering. So, this is how I was raised to be a Texan, but it is also how I treat the stories and characters I am writing. As a writer, I am patient and kind with my characters, and with a fierce intensity I must also be direct and immediate in the act of storytelling.

Where did your love of books, reading, and storytelling come from?

As a young child growing up in Brownwood, Texas without the internet or most of the technological wonders that we are blessed with today, books and storytelling — believe it or not — was a popular form of entertainment in my household.

My Grandmommy — Goldie O. — would read to me before bedtime each night I stayed with her in my grandparents’ lake house in Breckenridge, Texas where the white crane called Big Bird would stand in the shallows waiting for sunrise, and when the sun hit the great white bird, it would fly across the lake in all its wonder and glory. My Grandmommy would tell me stories about this bird, where it came from, where it was headed, and at night she would read from books telling to me the lives of historical figures, such as Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and Helen Keller.

Why did you choose to write in your particular genre?

As a writer (and avid reader), I’m not bound to one genre. As a serious novelist I enjoy and focus writing mostly historical fiction, because the research aspect of writing about history is fascinating and challenging to me.

Conquergood is a sci-fi novel because the story demanded it so. I did not choose to write a sci-fi story. The story is set in 2183, and I tried to write about this time by going even further into the future and writing this story as though it were already history. But the story takes place in the far future with more advanced technologies which reshape humanity and culture, so the label the story has chosen for itself is one of science fiction.

Are there under-represented groups or ideas featured in your book?

Yes, though it may be a strange one because it might not be currently accepted as an “under-represented group” — well, not for at least another fifty years or so.

The group I’m referring to is primarily A.I. related, and I imagine “Artificially Intelligent Related Entities” (i.e., A.I. Robots) might read my book one day and see themselves in the unique characters I’ve created.

There have been distinct times since 2007 while writing Conquergood where I felt that A.I. would one day read my words, read this novel, and learn something about themselves and about humanity. Now in 2023, that seems ever more likely than ever.

What do you like to read in your free time?

You can see my author website for everything I have recently read. The living writers who I frequently go back to are Paulo Coelho and Haruki Murakami. I did the same for Cormac McCarthy until his recent passing in the summer of 2023.

My “free time” (outside of my normal working-writing-reading hours) is spent with my family, and I read to my son Thor every night. Over the last few months, we worked our way through, and finished, The Notebook of Doom book series (2007) by Troy Cummings. We also read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) by Roald Dahl.

We’re currently reading and making our way through The Unofficial Minecrafters Mysteries series (2018) by Winter Morgan. We’ve already finished Stolen Treasure (Book 1) and Beneath the Blocks (Book 2), and we’ll soon be starting The Skeleton Secret (Book 3).

As anyone will quickly see, I love to read, but what’s more important is that I pass that passion on to my son so that he will have a strong desire to read, to learn, to think critically, and to explore new lands and new ideas when he’s older.

Do you have any writing pet peeves?

Yes. I like to be left alone to write. I must write in solitude — isolated from the world so my words can reach the world in their own time and place — and for me, this has a sense of delayed gratification — giving myself to something bigger than the moment or the current fad.

The American novelist CG FEWSTON has been a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome (Italy), a Visiting Fellow at Hong Kong’s CityU, & he’s been a member of the Hemingway Society, Americans for the Arts, PEN America, Club Med, & the Royal Society of Literature. He’s also been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) based in London. He has a B.A. in English, an M.Ed. in Higher Education Leadership (honors), an M.A. in Literature (honors), and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Fiction. He was born in Texas in 1979.

Fewston is the author of several short stories and novels. His works include A Father’s Son, The New America: Collection, The Mystic’s Smile ~ A Play in 3 Acts, Vanity of Vanities, A Time to Love in Tehran, Little Hometown, America, A Time to Forget in East Berlin, and Conquergood & the Center of the Intelligible Mystery of Being.

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