The People's Cube - Political Satire

Hey guys,

I have recently self-published a dystopian novel titled More Than Mischief (The Hurley Vance Series: Book One). The story has an unabashed, individualistic message. My hope is that this book might serve as a unique, current, and edgy way to communicate a philosophy of restrained government. And to bring this philosophy to an audience otherwise indifferent to issues concerning the overbearing, relentless State.

However, given my unknown status and general irrelevance as a human being, I am trying to find an audience sympathetic to the story that I have written. And thus, I have been directed to this fantastic site and forum. So, if you would like to download a free copy of the entire book, I am offering any user of this forum a coupon code which may redeemed at Smashwords. In return, I ask that you write an honest review of the book, preferably on Amazon since they have more traffic than any book retailer. Aside from genuinely wanting to know what like-minded people think of my work, many advertisers won't list a title lacking a certain amount of feedback.

Given the negative stigma attached to self-publishing as an industry (one which is certainly justified in many instances), I understand if you are skeptical. I can make no guarantees. The only assurance I can give is that I have invested in professional copy-editing, multiple rounds of proofreading, formatting, and cover design in hopes to deliver a quality product.

If you are interested, please shoot me an email me at [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url]. I will generate the code tomorrow, and pass it along immediately. It will be valid for three days.

If you'd rather not, I completely understand. And I thank you all for reading this.

Below is the cover and blurb. And if you'd like to read the prologue, it is available at www.jdnock.com. Or, lengthier sample versions are free to download at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Smashwords. A print version is currently in the works.

Torture, brainwashing, and obedience are common. Questions are not.

A few among the subservient population strive for something more. Son of a senator and brutalized for his beliefs, Hurley Vance desires to be his own person. Wicked statesmen want Hurley contained and the ideas he cherishes suppressed. Evangeline Street, an opposition leader who rejects State enslavement, asks that Hurley join her countermovement.

After visiting his friends one night, Hurley saves a woman from a Watcher's cruelty. As a result of his actions, he discovers an underground society living in Building 86.

Now, he must choose between a safe life of government protection or one of danger and revolution.


J.D. Nock

Perhaps we can have our volunteer People's Book Kritiks review new books on a regular basis?

Let this be a test run...

Red, thanks a lot. And I just realized that I am unable to use the private message feature (as I'm new). So, if you'd like to receive the code, please shoot me an email.

"Next Tuesday™ Book of the Month Club"

It's called The People's Book Club™, but like all book clubs, we're snooty and elitist and only read and eviscerate books published by the established liberal New York gatekeepers.

Self-publishing? As Obama might say, you didn't publish that! Editors, proofreaders, cover artists...why, it takes a village to get published and if none of those people are regulated by the government, they should be. Soon...soon!

Obama would say you didn't write that, either!

You wouldn't be a writer without a teacher employed by the state to teach you! And you wouldn't have that teacher without a government funded public school! You wouldn't even be able to go to school without using roads or sidewalks provided by the government.

Hell, Comrade Nock, it's the very idea of Big Progressive Government that inspired you to write your novel (which I reiterate you didn't write) in the first place! Without Government, you'd have nothing but a blank page or screen!

It wasn't your mother or father or some Christofascist god who inspired you and made your success possible--it's all the Government's doing!

All that remains is to establish a Government program to redistribute talent, because surely you'll agree some writers have too much and others far too little.

I am intrigued by this idea of a coupon code for a free book. Perhaps we should implement it on a national scale by giving everyone a coupon (which we could call a ration card) for a free copy of The Audacity of Hope.


And by free, I mean paid for by the taxpayers at 300% of the normal price so our Dear Leader can receive his royalties.

How foolish of me to think that I, without the collective wizardry of our infallible State services, would have been able to produce a single syllable, let alone a book. I am a mere number, a malleable pawn incapable of thinking without a fatherly overlord.

J.D. Nock wrote:How foolish of me to think that I, without the collective wizardry of our infallible State services, would have been able to produce a single syllable, let alone a book. I am a mere number, a malleable pawn incapable of thinking without a fatherly overlord.

Precisely.

You didn't write that!

And, it takes a village.

And, umm, WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?!?

:)

Welcome to TheCube™, J.D.!

Thank you for the warm welcome, comrades. This is a delightful place, sort of like a tranquil utopian gulag.

Wait 'til the beet vodka starts flowing, Comrade...

I'll take " Government Protection " for $ 500, Alex.

Dear Kulak Knock, We hate this books stinking guts, it makes us vomit, it is scum between our talons! Love, Red Rooster and The Wombat Collective

I love it when you talk dirty Comrade Rooster!

J.D. Nock wrote:....Given the negative stigma attached to self-publishing as an industry (one which is certainly justified in many instances)...

stop that this instant. you'll go blind.

Red Rooster wrote:Dear Kulak Knock, We hate this books stinking guts, it makes us vomit, it is scum between our talons! Love, Red Rooster and The Wombat Collective

This troubles me, as it shows that I incorrectly assumed the rooster demographic would yearn for something mischievous. Unpredictable and wily creatures...

Ahem! We do not ASSUME a demographic Kulak Knock, rather we create the demographic! Have you no Social Construct skills? Please read Alinski Directive #538720987 and begin Community Organizing training today! If that thing is loaded and you bought it from one of those Gun Shows, perhaps you'll understand better now why require a permit! This is not a game! We have a whole new generation of Neo-Kulak American to subvert...


We await your pithy reply....

We create the demographic by using Community Organization to teach a certain select group (in this case, roosters) that (a) they are victims of discrimination and oppression caused by Republicans who want only to wipe them off the face of the earth because doing so makes Republicans even wealthier; and (b) We the Party are the only ones who can save the roosters through an endless stream of free stuff via new government programs.

All the rooster has to do is vote for us...again and again and again. And when the midterms roll around two years later, he votes for us again...and again and again.

I guard my Alinsky directives as if they were handwritten notes from Papa Engels himself. However, and much to my everlasting embarrassment, I have only made it to directive #489735. You see, the other portion of the document was shredded from my grip by a tiger during a parade of the motherland. For my carelessness, I was deprived of my bread and water portion for three months.

Comrade, as long as your beet vodka rations were not reduced, you'll get through this!

Yes. As Faulkner once noted: "There's a lot of nourishment in an acre of beets." (or was that corn?)

After a less than plentiful meal of cold beets and murky water, I feel revived and ready to be a kind steward of everything that is just and moral. With hatchet in hand, I will work diligently to State hymns. With a smile, I will march in perfect formation.

Comrades, to misquote the GoGos - "He's got the beet!"