Published: November 22nd, 2013
Description:
What if it cost you NOTHING to put gas in your car? What if you paid nothing to heat your home or cool it in summer? What if your electric bill was only for new light bulbs? How would that change your life? A real pipe dream, right?
Joel Heath, PhD has dedicated his career to making this pipe dream a reality. He’s obsessed with unlocking the secret of cold fusion energy. He’s come so close, but the final piece of the puzzle eludes him.
Which is a good thing, for Joel actually. You see, Phil Devlin’s energy conglomerate earns billions in profits with things just the way they are. He’s been keeping tabs on Joel. Phil was ruthless in attaining his stature of wealth and influence, and he’d protect his position with ferocity. He can crush Professor Joel Heath with a text message.
Neither man knows the planet is 90 days away from global slaughter, triggered by an oil war. One man does know. He has been cursed with prescient visions. These visions have shattered his life, plummeting him from an established career to begging on the street.
Joel’s simple gesture of compassion to this homeless derelict is rewarded with a dazzling insight. He has the key! This jolt of clarity begins with a touch, a touch that can send the world spinning out of control.
Because Phil Devlin sends that text message.
GUEST POST
Why The Heck Not?
by Katie McLean
Since I began writing my new novel Jolt-Countdown To The Apocalypse, there have been instance after instance of serendipitous things happening. The most recent is that my very first guest blog post is here, on a blog that is as concerned over issues of the environment, sustainability and living a life friendlier to mother earth. These topics are the reason that I decided to sit myself down and write the Jolt saga. As human beings, we need energy resources in order to maintain our lives; there’s no question about that. But the downside is that the energy resources we’re using—hydrocarbons and nuclear power—are strangling our environment. Did you know that there are some cities on this planet where the air is so foul that it’s like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day?
And yet, there’s a form of energy that if harnessed will have no toxic byproducts. No greenhouse gases, no smog, and no radioactive waste. The byproduct can be something as simple as helium.
And yet, this technology is not being pursued in any meaningful way. As a society, we spend much, much more money on defeating male pattern baldness than we do on exploring such research venues.
There are many people that say fusion energy is impossible to achieve. And that creating a fusion energy source that is as portable as a small electrical generator is fantasy.
I don’t know about that. I don’t have a background in physics, I’ll admit. But I have studied history enough to know that about fifty years ago the chairman of IBM stated unequivocally that there wasn’t a need for more than three or four computers in the world. Now look at your cell phone. Or when the American military was trying to develop the atomic bomb, physicist after physicist said it was an impossible task to undertake.
My point is this—I know that there are problems with developing the cold fusion technology that would make our current energy bills nonexistent. I understand that the challenges are daunting. However, human beings have walked on the moon, and right now have a mobile laboratory trundling across the planet Mars analyzing the surface and reporting its findings back to NASA.
We’ve spent ten billion of dollars on a particle collider in Europe that has proven Einstein’s theory of E=mc2 as correct.
My question is why hasn’t the same sort of resources been spent on developing a clean, sustainable source of energy?
In my novel, I propose one possible reason—that people who are earning tremendous profits from our current forms of energy wouldn’t tolerate such a massive change. I wonder how close to fact is my work of fiction?
Imagine if it cost you nothing to drive to work on your commute. Imagine if it cost you nothing to heat your home in the winter and cool it with central air conditioning in the summer. Imagine if your only worry about your light bill was the cost of light bulbs. How much cheaper would food be if the cost of trucking it didn’t pay five dollars a gallon for fuel for the transport? How would your life be different?
How much safer would the world be from terrorist attacks in the Middle East oil supplies? How much safer would our economy be if we didn’t care about the availability or price of a barrel of oil?
Imagine…
About the author:
Katie lives in Canada near Lake Ontario with her partner Desmond. They are living the life that they’ve always dreamed about--writing, editing and collaborating on books. Both are alumni of Queen’s University in Kingston and are frequent visitors to the Tyendinaga reservation, where the novel JOLT is set. She has published a series of adult romance books as well as a romantic comedy, recently released – Funny Business.
For relaxation (what is that?) she and Desmond enjoy walking their neurotic pug, trying different recipes together (Des cooks, Katie helps) and watching HBO movies, followed by immersion in their hot tub. There’s almost nothing better than star gazing in the frigid air while being toasty warm…Well maybe skiing at Mont St. Anne is a close second.
In taking on an epic of the scale of JOLT, Katie has been inspired by the words of Goethe.
“Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”
2 comments:
Pretty cute these dystopian books. I'm not big fan of paranormal books, but are very interesting, and that I recognize. Beautiful cover!
Dystopia and paranormal at the same time? I really need to read this book! <3
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