Origin

The idea for my novel came to me back in high school. This was before the days of the Internet. I had a computer in my home but it was without a mouse and it was all DOS. And this was long before the movie The Matrix.

However people were expirimenting with virtual reality video games complete with huge clunky head gear and poor graphics. A guy took my sister on a date to one of these virtual reality games. I wondered about what the future might hold with this technology. What if there was a school where kids could attend class in virtual reality? Would the lines between realities become blurred? What if something sinister happened to a student within a virtual reality? Could the perpetrators be held accountable?

And so my story began. The main character, a young man, returned to this school after it had been shut down. He discovers that a person is still in a virtual world inside the building. He discovers it's the girl and rescues her. She remembers that something horrifying happened in the virtual reality.

The story was 30 pages long.

I resurrected it in my 20's and it grew to a 60 page story. I brought it to my writer's group and they suggested it be expanded into a novel.

I took their advice and expanded the plot significantly. Technology has exploded since I first drafted my story. Enter nanotechnology and Ray Kurzweil. I also had a little input from some of my students. I have enjoyed writing the novel and some of the rewrites. The sequel to the novel has also been rewarding even though it may never see the light of day.