from Author Giles

And the hits continue... It's so fun hearing from our authors. Author Dean Giles tells us about his story "The Quiet Death."

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To give you some insight into the story, I worked on a 4 year European collaborative R&D project back in 2011 looking at advanced Telecom networks (http://modegap.eu). Our existing fibre optic networks will reach gridlock in around 15 years, so a drastically new approach is required to update the technology. The project was looking at novel fibres and components. The hope is that the new technology will increase 100-fold the capacity in our backbone networks. This will eventually filter through to home networks. It made me think, what will happen once bandwidth demand increases to the point that this new technology is saturated? I've read a lot of science fiction, especially authors like Arthur C. Clarke. One that really stuck in my mind was Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Steve Baxter, where they develop a wormhole technology that allows you to spy on anyone at anytime, and the affect this has on human society. Fascinating idea. Any way, it gave me the idea that possibly in the future we might use a similar technology to overcome data gridlock.

I also love the idea that the universe is tied to consciousness. So in the same way time and space are part of the same fabric, consciousness is just another facet of that. My thinking was that the disruption the technology made to space-time, also affected consciousness on a local level, and this is how the "loop" effect came into play.

The character is based loosely on my Granddad. An old school British man who can fend for himself. Knows how to build stuff and tie knots, he is adaptable. He doesn't think much beyond what is necessary for the job in hand. He's not a dreamer, he is a doer. But underneath, at his soul, he is very human. I wanted to highlight the importance of human emotion, which is easy when compared against the Quiet. Harry is a man who has lived his life, stuck by his principals, and is prepared to accept death with dignity. He is my version of a decent human being, and, in this story, one that represents the human race.

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Thanks Dean! Very interesting!