Living in simulated reality, SIM, is all the rage in the mid twenty-first century. But just when it seems that illusion has triumphed and Reality has become irrelevant, Reality throws a curve ball.
Audrey is a SIMdesigner and an artPrank hacktivist. When her friend Dano disappears, Audrey is forced into the gritty world of Real to find him. People disappear all the time in this dystopian near future. But then there are Type III disappearances, so when the young Milan also vanishes, but this time right before Audrey’s eyes, the quest for the disappeared takes a whole new turn and Audrey finds herself unwillingly thrust on a bizarre existential odyssey. Real? SIM? Or hallucination? Nothing is what it seems.
Meanwhile, Milan wakes floating in midair before the floor suddenly comes up and crashes hard into him. He looks around and at first the room does nothing. Then it wakes up. Myllan is on the other side, a place where people meet in Astral, not SIM, where luminescent mushrooms grow in the snow, and the weather knows what you are thinking.
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Mars: Before we start
this interview we have to confess that there are two of us. We think of
ourselves as a band. I'm Mars and I play guitar.
Venus: Oh, stop it,
Mars! Actually he does play the guitar, but that’s beside
the point. I'm Venus Dumont. We combined
his first name with my last name.
Interviewer:
What would you be doing right now if you were not an author?
Venus: Right now? The
dishes
Mars: Actually,
I do the dishes. Venus does the cooking.
Interviewer:
5 years ago: what were you doing?
Venus: Trying to
figure out my iPhone.
Mars: 5 years ago? I
don’t remember
that far back.
Interviewer:
Do you have a certain writing ritual?
Venus: We have getaway
in the middle of nowhere.
Mars: Yeah, middle of
nowhere. Porcupines have been known to come out of the woods and chew on our
house.
Interviewer:
What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author?
Mars: I put my heart
and soul into something and my partner, Venus, tells me it sucks.
Venus: When we were
querying agents they'd tell us they loved the voice but they had no idea what
we were talking about. Mars had this musicality, like a cyberpunk Jack Kerouac.
It really didn't matter what it meant, but that didn’t work for
them. Ultimately we had to compromise on the music.
Mars: I doubt
Clockwork Orange could have been published today.
Interviewer:
Is there an author you'd like to meet?
Venus: Oh, I don’t know.
Mark Twain would be pretty entertaining.
Mars: William
Shakespeare, the greatest of them all.
Interviewer:
Biggest writing pet peeve?
Venus: Too much “tell.” Let me
live it. Don't tell me what you weren't able to convey.
Mars: Bad writing.
Interviewer:
Do you read other's reviews of your books?
Venus: Yes,
absolutely! And if I queried the reviewer I thank them, good review or bad.
Mars: No, Venus reads
them to me.
Fun
Five:
Fav Color?
Venus: Blue
Mars: I don't have
one. There are too many beautiful colours.
Fictional
Character you'd like to spend the day with?
Venus: Mr. Darcy,
every woman who ever fell in love with Jane Austen would be lying if they said
they didn't.
Mars: Winnie the Pooh.
Venus: Winnie the
Pooh?
Mars: Okay, Gandalf.
Fav
food:
Venus: Pasta, what
else?
Mars: I’d agree
with that, but I’d miss Indian if I never had it again.
Favorite
song or singer?
Mars: Frank Sinatra
hands down. But as far as a favorite song goes? Now that's a whole other thing.
Venus: Fav song?
lately I've been obsessed with a Phillip Glass song played by Bruce Brubaker
called Metamorphosis One.
Mars: Oh, come on.
That's your favorite song of all time?
Venus: Favorite of all time is a tough one! I
suppose I could start with everything Brian Eno produced.
Mars: Yeah, but what
about the Beatles?
Guilty
pleasure?
Venus: I don’t feel
guilty about pleasure.
Mars: A fag once in a
blue moon.
Actually, Mars Dumont is not a real person, it's two people. We think of ourselves as a band. Originally we tried to think of a band name like “Liquid Mars” but it sounded too goofy so we came up with a nome de plume using his made up first name and my made up last name.
Mars:
Mars was born in Poona, India. His father was a biologist, and research grants took his family to Mexico City, Silicone Valley, Stockholm, and finally New York City. After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, Mars traveled around Europe and spent time in London and Prague. He finished his undergraduate studies at Columbia College, with a major in art history and a minor in physics, and then got a Masters degree at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture. Mars then spent many years doing architecture as a day job and playing electric guitar (for The Shameless Sycophants, Dark Blue and Linoleum Blownapart) at night, in clubs ranging from CBGB’s to the Knitting factory. Mars holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and an Elder Brother rank in Tiger Claw Kung Fu. Mars Dumont speaks three languages: Czech, Spanish and English. Remaining creative is, as far as Mars is concerned, the most important thing in life.
Venus:
Venus’ unique style took form in New York City with summers on Block Island under the supervision of her advertising mad man art director father and her gourmet cook mother. Their home was a gathering place for artists and intellectuals. As a child she wrote and illustrated her own books. Venus’ affinity for art and design eventually took her to Italy where she studied for a number of years. Although she has lived and worked as a designer in New York City for most of her adult life, she still retains close ties with friends in Florence and a love of everything Italian. Venus has a soft spot for Italian style anarchy and humanist centered dissidents everywhere. She also likes to dabble in the mysteries of Astrology and Tarot and draws on the archetypes to develop the characters in her books.
Mars:
Mars was born in Poona, India. His father was a biologist, and research grants took his family to Mexico City, Silicone Valley, Stockholm, and finally New York City. After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, Mars traveled around Europe and spent time in London and Prague. He finished his undergraduate studies at Columbia College, with a major in art history and a minor in physics, and then got a Masters degree at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture. Mars then spent many years doing architecture as a day job and playing electric guitar (for The Shameless Sycophants, Dark Blue and Linoleum Blownapart) at night, in clubs ranging from CBGB’s to the Knitting factory. Mars holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and an Elder Brother rank in Tiger Claw Kung Fu. Mars Dumont speaks three languages: Czech, Spanish and English. Remaining creative is, as far as Mars is concerned, the most important thing in life.
Venus:
Venus’ unique style took form in New York City with summers on Block Island under the supervision of her advertising mad man art director father and her gourmet cook mother. Their home was a gathering place for artists and intellectuals. As a child she wrote and illustrated her own books. Venus’ affinity for art and design eventually took her to Italy where she studied for a number of years. Although she has lived and worked as a designer in New York City for most of her adult life, she still retains close ties with friends in Florence and a love of everything Italian. Venus has a soft spot for Italian style anarchy and humanist centered dissidents everywhere. She also likes to dabble in the mysteries of Astrology and Tarot and draws on the archetypes to develop the characters in her books.
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