A New Career!

Hi world! After many years as a successful choral composer and conductor I have begun writing novels (btw, I am not abandoning my music career). The first is "Thawing A.C. Nielsen", a quite bizarre story about cryonics (freezing people for possible use later-haha). It's also about the trashiness of reality TV and I skewer that world mightily, I must say. The book is a bit cross-genre: elements of sci-fi obviously, with much satirical humor as the science/medical nerds battle the reality TV narcissists. A lot of research went into the history and biology of cryonics, medical issues with reviving such folks, and a ton of other stuff. Most of the crazy stuff in the book is based on reality! For instance, two of my characters travel to Iceland to interview some scientists there about their research. In their spare time they visit the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which is a fancy way of saying Penis Museum. Such a place actually exists!

Before I get too far here and bore you, here are some details--I will release the book sometime in October on amazon.com. Between now and then I will be publicizing it in many ways, AND, I hope that some people will pre-order the book, and maybe write an honest review the first week it is out (that first week is really important). Or, I will be very happy to send you, dear friend,  a free advance reading copy (ARC) now and you can read it in the next few weeks and be more ready to possibly post a review on amazon. Let me know if you'd like to receive a free, advance copy (ereader format). Respond here or email me at paulcarey440@yahoo.com

While the book is not about music, it is populated by some characters who are musicians. Aria, a classical violinist who also moonlights as an Irish fiddler, is the best friend and roommate of the main character, microbiologist Kate Pearson. The two rowdy Irish boys she plays with sing, play guitar, and also play a number of Irish folk instruments. Another character, Raimondo Machado, is a bebop trumpet player. My knowledge of music has obviously helped make these characters come to life.

I had a lot of help with the medical scenes from my brother Jim Carey, CRNA who teaches at USC. No, not Jim CaRRey!

Here's the cover of the book:

Pretty Nifty and Freezy, huh?

And here is blurby stuff- dang, writing blurbs is harder than writing actual text!

Pod after pod of frozen people,

Two outrageous reality TV superstars,

A slacker doctor in orange Crocs,

An ancient, crazy millionaire actress,

A guinea pig named Mr. T,

Two randy Irish folk singers—

How in the world will a talented young microbiologist

who just wants to be ‘normal’ survive?

It’s Nerds versus Narcissists as Kate Pearson begins  

“THAWING A.C. NIELSEN”!

Brilliant young microbiologist and self-professed lab rat Kate Pearson has just landed her dream job, although she worries it might turn into a frozen nightmare. She’s been hired to discover a way to successfully revive people who have been in cryonic deep-freeze stasis for years at the Chicago firm ExitStrategy, a company founded by scientist Mike “Cold Smokey” Burgess, holder of dozens of major patents.

            Kate is succeeding Dr. Enzo Saltieri, Mike’s partner for years, who has died suddenly under strange circumstances. As Kate sifts through mountains of Saltieri’s scribbled-upon legal pads she finds paths that lead nowhere. Was Saltieri on the verge of great discoveries or just sinking into the illogical world of dementia?

            Along the way, Kate has to deal with Miles Coleman, a sarcastic idiot savant assistant at the lab who’s hiding his true identity; Gloria Dunham, a famous former Hollywood actress, now ninety years old and bent on taking over control of the company; plus reality show egomaniacs Dimi Konstantos and Khail Santana, megastars who’ve been polluting television’s airwaves for years.

            After Kate has some success reviving lab animals frozen in the 1980s such as Mr. T, the guinea pig, and John Cougar, the housecat, her attention turns to the first human subject, famous TV ratings guru A.C. Nielsen, who has been frozen at ExitStrategy for twenty-five years.

Between Mike Burgess’s lofty expectations, hidden research files, secret medical procedures, switched identities, drugged drinks, randy Irish folk musicians, beefy bodyguards, plus the likes of Miles, Gloria, Dimi and Khail—Kate begins to realize that reviving A.C. Nielsen and stumbling upon a major medical discovery may actually be a stroll in the park.

Sooooo, that's all for now. Over the next few weeks I will be posting excerpts here, some snippets and even full chapters. I hope they will interest you! I'm also quite far in writing my next book. It's a wacky sci-fi adventure called "The Grandma Apocalypse" for upper lower middle grade readers (roughly grades 4-7). No naughty words or body parts in that one!