October's New Beginnings

I have been doing a ton of research for Grey. I’d like to be able to keep the real feel of Grey Redemption with this new story. Part of the problem, as a writer, is not taking the easy way out. That is to ask the reader to suspend belief too often. As storytellers it’s easy to simply say; “ well in my world it’s like this.”  I remember all too well the sense of let down when one of my favorite authors wrote about the main character flipping off the safety of a .38 revolver.

            So how does Rhys work within the New World Order? Gone are the days of simple cipher drafts left unsent in anon mail servers. Money transfers? Not these days without some heavy company profiles. I don’t want to spoil the book for those only reading the blog, so yes I get he can do a lot more now at the end of Grey Redemption but what if he still wants to be off the grid? What if he still needs to work off the grid and further needs to work outside of his normal and ordinary associations? He can’t very well use the same master forger that Simon knows about can he?

            In doing this research I have come across the Dark Net or the Hidden Web. These are websites only accessed under P2P share protocols, or anonymous browser.  First off don’t go looking for this stuff. Really it probably isn’t the safest thing to do. Remember when all the talk was don’t read this book as it would lead to demon possession or play with this talking board as it could unleash evil…How many stories and films have been made along these plots? Well this side of the net is that dangerous! Really! I fully intend on removing the hard-drive from the computer I am using to do the research and burning it. Remember once seen things cannot be unseen. Temper this advice with the fact that I have little faith in humanity and am pretty jaded by my work. Seriously any drug, perversion or general felony can be bought or sold on this darker web.  Seriously, ANYTHING is available and seemingly permitted or at least tolerated by these tech savvy gurus. Remember when Narcoterrorism  was the scary buzzword of the nineties? The trench coat mafia was the image used to sell conformity and terrify school children. Well you know all the geeks and nerds that got teased and abused? They grew up. The trench coat mafia was a joke and Narcoterrorism did little but get certain groups elected, money, and power. But this Darknet or Dark web seems to be the nerds’ revenge and it is very real. It is incredibly slow, circa 1989 speeds, and it has tons of broken links, mislabeled content but it seems that the world of everything is Permitted is just under the surface of the mainstream.

            Imagine a Groupon style site that lists hits. Yes were talking contract murder. Where someone posts some bully, manager, boss, or politicians name. Then someone else posts a price. When the offered price is reached, you guessed it the HIT IS ON. Obviously the president was on it with a huge number. I didn’t look closely as I didn’t want to be privy to anything should it happen in the future. The close eyes, quickly hit the back button was employed as it often is on this darker trek.

            So how does one pay for this bag of pot, cocaine, assignation? In a new currency called Bitcoins.  Bitcoins seems to be the new Cyber Currency. Yes there is even an app for that! LOL! I have been researching how this currency works and could go into a long explanation but suffice to say it works and is virtually untraceable. So why no big headlines warning about this? Easy. Same reason the person checking your luggage and taking your nail clippers while the flight attendant gives you powdered creamer and long stem wine glasses. You only need to believe your safe as it would take far to much money and effort and personal resolve to really be safe. You don’t know about it, well you didn’t, and so “they” don’t need to come up with a way to “protect” against it. 

            So, October is a month of new beginnings and new stories. The prequel is going to be shelved for a while as I really think the sequel is a better way to move the story forward. Health scares are over and hopefully in the review mirror for a long time and as I gave up drinking I wont have to worry about messing up dialogue at 2 am after two too many vodkas and ice. Hopefully the creativity won’t suffer!

Thanks for reading, and remaining interested.

Cheers

Scott (now ready to channel RHYS again)
View from Fairmont Empress gold room 206. Where the plot was hatched!