Better Living Through Chemistry
Book 2 of The Centé Conspiracy Trilogy is now available!
When you work in a series, the questions you ask get more complex while the answers get simpler. - Paula Nadelstern
The second book in my YA action trilogy is out, just in time for summer reading.
In Better Living Through Chemistry, we pick up where the first book, Just Say Yes, left off. Just when Brody Morgan thinks his life can start to get back to normal after all the hi-jinx with his new pals in the North 40, the bad guys come looking for him. Once again, he finds himself in a heap of trouble. But this time, he’s on his own.
Without giving too much away, I will tell you that the plot in Better Living Through Chemistry includes a laboratory experiment. It’s fairly typical as lab experiments go, with one major exception: the ‘lab rats’ are human.
This story arc was partially inspired by my research for this book, and partially by my own experience as a human lab rat.
Those of you who know me will not be surprised to learn that I sampled a variety of majors while attending college. Pre-med. Accounting. History. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I’m what they call a ‘multipotentialite’, which is just a fancy word for ‘can’t make up their mind’.
I spent one semester in college as a psych major. Fascinating topic. I enjoyed the courses, except for the part about requiring us to participate in experiments. You read that right: we had to participate in experiments as part of our class grade.
My brief experiences in the gloomy lower levels of the psych department building at Texas Tech were nothing that would end up in a Black Mirror episode. Sometimes they involved answering questions about images, or word associations. But other times, they required putting the electrodes on you. Not to shock you; but just to take readings, like a lie detector or a blood pressure cuff. Even so, it wasn’t long before I was like, Nope Nope Nope. Next major, please! Preferably something without human experimentation?
When my research churned up an opportunity to include something similar in my story, let’s just say it really resonated.
My main character, Brody, doesn’t get off as easily as I did, by filling out a few forms, and voila! I was no longer a psych major. Let’s just say he has to work a little harder to leave that nasty bit of unpleasantness in the rearview.
I will leave you with three things:
Thanks to my book club buddy Earl for recommending Neal Stephenson’s Termination Shock. So far, it’s a doozy. Especially if you’re a Texas resident.
Thanks to my political activist pal Mary for recommending Plowman’s Kitchen. Their roasted beet salad with goat cheese and pecans is outstanding. Beet haters: hush!
Thank you Patricia Osborne for featuring me in your June newsletter.
My latest book, Double Fault, is available now on Amazon.
When an investigation of illegal match fixing by the Russian mob brings the FBI to her tennis club in the person of hunky agent Wilson DuBois, Veronica Burk vows to help him solve the case quickly before her own very successful gambling habit falls under suspicion.
Ventured is available now on Amazon.
When she takes a chance on making a new life for herself, French orphan and cutpurse extraordinaire Belle must find a way to survive in the New World—or she may not live long enough to enjoy it.
My YA trilogy is also still available if historical fiction isn’t your thing.
Brody Morgan grew up starring in commercials for his dad's mega food corporation. What will Brody do when he discovers what he's really been selling?
The villains in this story definitely have zero ethics!
Your book sounds fascinating, with a twist on animal testing where we become the Guinea pigs. It must raise all kinds of ethical questions. We usually write from personal experience, don’t we?