When A. G. Hayes asked me to work with him on his new political-techno thriller, QUANTUM DEATH, I ran to my computer and immediately began my contributions. It was an easy write: Everything flowed like water down a waterfall, as if Koski and Falk were talking directly to me about their adventure. Koski in particular talked directly to my heart. 




Where in the world could something as sinister as the the kvantovaya mashina smerti -- the 'Quantum Death Machine' -- come from you might ask? And is it even plausible that in this world of increasing tensions between Russia, China and the USA, that the Russians and Chinese might actually not be behind something like the disastrous events that occur? 

My concept for the Quantum Death Machine came from Dr. Kaku's popular YouTube videos on M-Superstring Theory and it's implications on both the cosmological and quantum scales. It wasn't a big mental leap from the intriguing concept that in this new world of 11-dimensions, not only could there exist multiple universes but that momentarily an object might coexist in more than one time-space location. Ergo, applying that in the techno-thriller world seemed an easy stretch of the imagination (surely I'm not the only person who's pondered this scenario in our increasingly tense world). On the other hand, I borrowed the slant from my previous collaboration with William Maltese, namely TOTAL MELTDOWN (Borgo/Wildside 2011) regarding the political and individual human implications thereof. Hence, the quixotic auctioning off of sections of the USA -- a theme that Russian leaders have actually alluded to time and again ever since the former Soviet Union dissolved, reputedly with American support.

I had the privilege of visiting the former Soviet Union, and getting to know one-on-one a number of pre-eminent Russian scientists and their families. What struck me in each instance was the wide divergence of attitude towards America and Americans between the nation's political leaders and its citizens. The "real Russians" -- the citizens I met -- were just as concerned about and opposed to clashes between the two nations as Americans seemed to me to be. While I've never visited China, and certainly not North Korea, I assume Chinese citizens might similarly be more interested in raising their families and living a comfortable, individually rewarding life than destruction of everything outside of their nation. I tried to inject just the right amount of this attitude in QUANTUM DEATH. What resulted was, I hope, a thrilling, but distinctly human account of a new political-technological challenge to not only the United States of America and the world, but to individual characters like Koski and Falk as they face and struggle to overcome such challenges.