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Welcome to the web site

Submitted by B Regan Asher on Thu, 06/16/2011 - 20:39

Well, it's been a long time waiting in the wings, but this web site is finally up and running.  As host of this site, let me first welcome you to this blog.  I thank you for your interest and look forward to your comments.

First, a little background.  I love to write but have never really had time to do it even though I have many book ideas.  And, though I am quite opinionated, I love hearing the other side of an argument. So, finally, a few years ago I simply forced myself to write something each day.  After about a year, lo and behold I had my first novel.  A few years later I had a second.  Then I got distracted.

I wrote a hacker novel called White Cell because I think computers are liberating us.  But I also wrote it to show how easy it is for anyone to land in unfortunate circumstances, not because of laziness or lack of a plan, but just because it happens.  The hacker in White Cell, Jim Kincaid, is a good fellow who means well, but is terrible at managing his time and his finances.  He's also extremely naive, a quality which contributes to his difficulties.  But White Cell also has other elements that intrigue me including religion, criminal behavior, and the power of friendship. All of these play a roll in moulding the characters.  White Cell is not about computers; it's about people.

Il Vendetta is completely different and it has a very strong message.  I worked for many years for a manufacturer which supplied big retailers like Walmart.  For those of you that don't know the environment, retailing these days is a very tough, low margin, business.  Some retailers are simply trying to offer their customers the best combination of pricing, quality and service that they can.  But other aren't.  I saw some truly despicable behavior by some of the largest retailers.  For example, one very large retailer (~$40B/year in sales) sent an e-mail to all suppliers saying that, immediately, all remittances would have 1% deducted.  In one foul swoop that retailer stole $400M/year from its suppliers.  That should be a crime.  And because it was so large, most suppliers can not fight back. This kind of behavior destroys not just companies, it destroys the livelihoods of real people.  Il Vendetta is about this world, but it goes further, showing how bad it just might get.  The retailer in the book, Star Stores, is approaching a trillion dollars in annual sales.  At that size, it's almost impossible to grow the business and the executives don't know how to get more sales legitimately.  Sound like someone you know?  So they cheat.  They create an internal investigative division which specializes in espionage, extortion, kidnapping and murder.  Woops.

Over the next several months I will try to post additional thoughts to this blog.  But I am also interested in comments, both on the books and on the blog, from anyone who agrees or disagrees with me.  And I'm happy to field questions about the books.  

To comment on the blog just sign up for an account.  But use a real e-mail address or your account won't be activated.

Thanks for reading this blog.  I hope you also enjoy the books.

Regan