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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Synopsis

 

In The Psychic’s Memoirs, a hot-tempered Los Angeles detective and his distracted partner are assigned to find an alleged teenage psychic whose capture might determine the outcome of a looming civil war and humanity’s relationship with a misleading alien force. The standalone novel is part of Ryan Hyatt’s Terrafide series, techie tales of woe, and hope in which characters grapple with a world falling apart. The Terrafide universe, which also includes Rise of the Liberators and Stay Younger Longer, takes place on an alternate timeline that mirrors and mimics present-day events.

 

More about The Psychic’s Memoirs

 

The story begins in December 2026, months after the Coastal Earthquake ravages Los Angeles and compounds disaster brought on by the Greatest Depression, a global financial calamity underway throughout the decade. In the wake of the quake, a group of revolutionaries called Eco-Socialists clench a sweeping electoral victory in California. Led by a charismatic figure known as ‘Che Tay,’ the Eco-Socialists are committed to an autonomous Golden State freed from the constraints of a broke and bungling federal government. Hopes to end the federal occupation, symbolized by the presence around L.A. of giant mechas called Liberators, is the immediate goal. Over time, however, the Eco-Socialists hope to right the wrongs of the past and forge a model of statehood based on economic and environmental justice. If they could, they would save the world, or so their supporters claim.

Detectives Ted Kaza and Lydia Jackson of the Los Angeles Police Department are assigned to find an alleged teenage psychic, Alice Walker, whose capture might determine the outcome of the civil war looming between California and the United States. They visit the high school Alice attended to meet her former history teacher, Walter Newman, who leads them to a coffee shop where the teenager is apprehended. However, a surprise encounter during their sting involves Che Tay, who reveals himself to be not entirely human. Some even consider the revolutionary to be a greater threat to world order than Alice and her prophetic powers. Unfortunately for the detectives, Che escapes, and LA’s finest discover they have been manipulated by clandestine forces within the federal government to bring Alice into custody. When Alice disappears from jail and Kaza and Jackson fail to capture Che Tay after a political rally, the need to redirect the world’s bleak future suddenly rests squarely on the detectives.

Their trail leads them to their commander, James Elroy, who turns out to be a CIA operative along with his sidekick, a small sentient doll named Mr. Y. Jackson and Kaza’s quest to find Alice takes them to a mansion in the desert. Paranormal Plantation, which once played a part in California’s eugenics program, now serves as a federal outpost to experiment on individuals with extraordinary abilities. When Che Tay’s corpse turns up in front of LA City Hall, the public is up in arms, and time seems to be running out for the detectives to save the psychic and prevent a war. Thanks to clues left in Alice’s notebook, secrets are revealed at Paranormal Plantation about the nature of the extraterrestrial presence that has confounded the detectives’ investigation. If Kaza and Jackson are to quell an alien uprising and save their political friends and foes, they will have to prove they have faith in more than a nation or themselves; they must be willing to witness a dimension of their existence that is downright terrifying.

 

 

 

 

Praise

 

“The Best Cyberpunk Novels in 2020 and 2021” –Joel Stafford, Joel’s Books

 

“A mind-warping journey through an all-too-plausible near-future America where sociopolitical revolution and advanced technology represent the promise and peril of human evolution.” –Jake Anderson, author of Gone at Midnight: The Mysterious Death of Elisa Lam

 

“Hyatt’s superior ability to build a convincing lived-in world just over the horizon is on display page after page. This is not another orgy of post-apocalyptic horrors, but an opportunity to see every calamity as a possible stepping stone toward utopia.” –A.L. Lorentz, author of The Filter Trap and Dead Monkeys

 

 

Excerpt

 

“Good morning, class!” I say as the smartboard projects the notes from my computer screen. My voice is met with half-hearted grunts from half-awake juniors.

“Please, turn to the next page in your notebooks,” I say. “Date and title your notes as you see on the board.”

It’s Friday, May 8, 2026, and the title of today’s lesson is, ‘TREE OF POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES – CIRCA 1945.’ Three unlabeled branches stem upward and outward from a tree trunk labeled, ‘WESTERN CIVILIZATION.’

I meander between clusters of desks and monitor students as they flounder through backpacks searching for their notebooks, or at least pretending to be searching for their notebooks, as I catch several with contraband in hand: ear buds, licorice, soda, and other gadgets and junk they know they shouldn’t have.

I have to give credit to this group of juniors, they sure like to start the day off right with a solid breakfast of energy drinks and spicy chips, so that by the end of first period they’re fired up and ready to raise hell around campus. It’s as if school is little more to them than some lame party they are forced to attend, so they bring their own favors to liven it up.

I can’t deal with such nonsense so early in the day:

“Take off the earbuds, Jorge. They make you look like an alien from outer space. Try talking to Earthlings for a change. You might get a girlfriend.”

“Save that can of caffeinated diabetes juice for after school, Jeffrey, when you need it to stay awake to finish the homework you owe me.”

“Keep the flaming hot Salsalito chips stored in your backpack, Enrique. If you keep eating crap, your girlfriend will dump you and start going out with Jorge, as long as he’s willing to acknowledge her.”

Jorge, Jeffery, and Enrique laugh.

“Crazy Newman,” someone says.

 

******************************************************************************

 

The Urabus heads eastbound on Del Mar Boulevard away from the Caltech campus. The detectives spot the golf cart one hundred yards ahead of them and dozens of motorists driving leisurely between them on a thoroughfare lined with apartment buildings and single-family homes.

Kaza opens the sun roof, stands through it, and withdraws his Beretta—

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

“What are you doing?” Jackson demands, whacking Kaza’s thighs.

“Ouch, that hurts!” Kaza’s says, kicking at her flailing arm. “I’m just clearing the streets…”

Cars swerve out of their way. Two black SUVs turn a corner and gain on the detectives.

“Who are they?” Jackson shouts, glancing to her right and left at a set of tinted windows.

“I have no idea,” Kaza says, sliding back into his seat. “What the hell?”

Both detectives notice in the rearview mirror an airborne shadow approaching them from behind. Jackson eases off the accelerator, and the two SUVs with California government plates advance toward the golf cart. There’s a flash of light and a thunderous SWOOSH—

The SUVs explode. Jackson slams on the breaks. The Urabus careens toward the wreckage, skids to a halt and avoids two balls of billowing flame. Sweat pours from Jackson’s head as she clasps the steering wheel. Kaza opens the passenger door, hops out of the station wagon, and runs through the wreckage. A huge shadow looms over him and engulfs everything in sight.

The humongous bird of prey turns half circle, faces the detectives and transforms into a towering mecha. The hovering Liberator points a palm at the golf cart, which lifts off the ground. Cables extend from the mecha’s legs, wrap around the two screaming security guards, and fling them far and wide. Their screams are heard trailing off in the distance as Che Tay, clinging to the golf cart, shouts obscenities at the invisible force pulling the golf cart into the palm of the giant’s hand. The Liberator closes its grip around the wanted man. The mecha transforms back into a bird of prey. Its wings spread outward as the arms and legs fold into its chest. The soles of its feet, which also function as rockets, ignite and propel the magnificent machine and its cargo northeast toward the desert outside of Los Angeles.

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Ryan Hyatt was born in Tucson in 1976. He was raised in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Copenhagen before returning to his hometown and graduating from the University of Arizona in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in history, psychology and creative writing. Hyatt spent much of his twenties working as a reporter and columnist for newspapers such as the Apache Junction Independent and Santa Monica Daily Press.

In addition to the Terrafide series, he is author of the modern western, The Death of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and editor of the satirical sci-fi news site, The La-La Lander, as well as Not Your Father’s Bedtime Stories, children’s tales he creates with his daughter. He holds a master’s degree in education from California State University Northridge and develops and manages literacy intervention programs for Los Angeles schools.

 

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