Lando Cruz Focus Group Readers Sought

I’m looking for 5 to 7 focus group readers for Lando Cruz and the Coup Conspiracy, my forthcoming novel. Here’s what I need:

  • Read the novel in 2 weeks or less and fill out a questionnaire.
  • Don’t offer to do this unless you’re absolutely certain you will complete it.

Here’s what you get:

  1. My gratitude.
  2. A $25 Amazon or similar gift certificate OR 1 ozt. silver round from APMEX or Suns of Liberty Mint OR the equivalent in bitcoin.
  3. A FREE copy of my second novel, Project B, due out June 1.

Please email [email protected] if you are a regular fiction reader and would like to participate.

Read Lando Cruz Book #1 as I Write it

Lando Cruz and the Coup Conspiracy

Final cover pending.

I’m publishing Lando Cruz and the Coup Conspiracy, a full-length novel, over at LeanPub.com/LandoCruz as I write it. That’s right! As I write each two or three scenes, I will publish them over at LeanPub.com/LandoCruz for your reading pleasure.

This is first-draft level stuff but I’m very pleased with the story so far. I put about six weeks into planning the detailed outline for the story so this is not some wild-eyed easter egg hunt! This story is gripping, it’s well-plotted and you’re going to love it. Here’s the blurb:

In the near future, widespread economic collapse has forced the growing unemployed population into either the labor camps or a ragtag black market (agorist) rebellion. When cops destroy his food cart and steal his Bitcoin savings, Lando Cruz finds himself on the edge of desperation. Lando manages to salvage his Bitcoin but as payback, the cops put his 14-year-old sister and sickly father into the camps. He takes the only job that will enable him to bribe them out of there before his sister is deported into sex slavery. He becomes an operative for The Core, the mysterious leading clique of the rebellion. His mission: secret, even from him. His gut tells him he is about to be betrayed but failure means certain disaster for his little sister and a one-way trip to the camps for Lando.

Name Your Price

At this stage of the game, you can name your own price for Lando Cruz and the Coup Conspiracy, anywhere from $0 to $10. Feel free to pay nothing for it. I don’t mind! If you have suggestions for improvement though, I would appreciate those. If you opt to pay $3.99 or more for Lando, you will be eligible to receive, at no extra cost, the final, complete story as well – the same one I will publish on Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and in paperback. You won’t have to pay for it twice and you can feel proud knowing that you were one of the first to discover, and support, my unique freedom-oriented science fiction.

Get the latest scenes, easy-peasy, free of charge, fuss or muss via email as a PDF every Thursday morning.

Get FREE Lando Cruz Chapters
New Lando Cruz chapters every Thursday, FREE.

Here’s an excerpt to wet your whistle:

“Dad, get some more sleep.” Lando said.

His dad rolled into the kitchen, the nurse pushing him. “You know I can’t sleep past 5AM anymore.” His dad scowled. “How come you’re not out yet?”

“I’m leaving now, dad, just finished loading the food on the cart. Mari is up and eating. I left yours and Lizzy’s breakfast next to the —”

His dad moved his head violently. “Why don’t you just get a corporate job, boy? Breaking your back for pennies a day, selling burritos on the street!” His dad turned up his nose and frowned. “How will you ever put Mari through college on that?”

“Dad, I gotta go if I’m going to catch the breakfast rush.” Not this again!

“You realize when I die that my disability checks won’t come anymore, right?”

“Yes, dad, of course. Now—”

“What are you going to do then? We’re already losing this place.”

I’m going to go to work, dad! “You know I have my bitcoin business. Currency exchanges really rake it in, dad. We’ve talked about this.” Lando let out a long sigh and rolled his eyes upwards.

His dad reached out and grabbed Lando’s collar. “Don’t you roll your eyes at me, boy! This is serious! I’m already three months past my expiration date.” He let Lando go and hung his head. He strained to be absolutely still.

Lando put his hand on his dad’s shoulder.

His dad let out his breath. He took another one and breathed out through his mouth. “I want—”

“About that exp—” Lando started.

His dad threw his head up and raised his voice. “I want you to find, get and keep a corporate job. Now. It’s that simple. You need to build a future, not risk your neck for a crazy cause no one understands.”

Lando was silent.

“You are going to give me what I want.” He contemplated Lando. “You owe it to me, son.”

Lando opened his mouth but looked down at the floor. His stomach fell.

“And don’t tell me about your business. An unauthorized currency exchange is illegal. Selling those ridiculous burritos without a permit is illegal.”

“That’s the point, dad! In a world —”

“You are illegal!”

Lando threw his hands out in front of him and grabbed the hair at the back of his head. “Dad,” he whispered, “keep your voice down. Look, I gotta —”

“Why are you even involved in this political stuff, Lando? What is the point of these risks you take? One more strike and it’s five years. What happens to your sister then? Have you thought about that? Imagine for a minute what these animals will do with her.” He firmed his jaw.

Lando glanced at the kitchen clock. “I’m now officially late! Goodbye!” Lando walked out the front door, closing the flimsy slice of particle board gently behind him.

(This is an excerpt from my novel Lando Cruz and the Coup Conspiracy, which is currently available FREE both at LeanPub.com/LandoCruz and right here at GeorgeDonnelly.com below.)

Get FREE Lando Cruz Chapters
New Lando Cruz chapters every Thursday, FREE.

10 Per Cent of Royalties Go to the EFF

the Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a donor-supported membership organization working to protect fundamental rights regardless of technology. From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990—well before the Internet was on most people’s radar—and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.

Professional Publication by March 1

I’m thrilled to announce that I have hired a cover artist and that my writing is flying along on schedule. I’m almost 18,000 words into the novel now. I expect it to be around 104,000 total. Final publication of a highly polished version is due for March 1. It will be available for sale, DRM-free, here at GeorgeDonnelly.com, at Amazon and other booksellers as well as for bitcoin and litecoin.

A New Story: Lando Cruz and The Coup Conspiracy

George Donnelly

I’m working on a new story! In fact, it’s going to be a series of stories. I’ve actually been working on the main character for years. His name is Lando Cruz.

Lando is a resourceful young undocumented immigrant living in a near-future United States where the federal government is so desperate to control the economy that it has established a network of work camps and is funneling people into them using the Three Strikes Act. Under the Three Strikes Act, once you are convicted of three crimes, from failure to properly register your business to marijuana possession or just copyright infractions, you are sentenced in administrative court to a mandatory minimum of 5 years in the camps. In response to the federal clampdown, a libertarian-influenced underground economy has sprung up. People just can not find gainful employment in the government-regulated sector. These black marketeers – the agora – now comprise 15 per cent of the national economy. And they’re growing.

Lando supports his family – his terminally ill dad and pampered teenage sister – with a Bitcoin currency exchange for street businesses and retail shops in downtown Washington, DC that he runs under cover of a low-carb wrap food cart. When corrupt beat cops try – and fail – to shake down the sly Lando, they take his family hostage in the camps. Lando has just 30 days to bribe them out before he loses his sister to sex trafficking and his dad forever.

Lando lucks into a high-paying opportunity with the agora’s new intelligence outfit, The Core, but his mission is a secret, even to him. When Lando discovers the true nature of The Core, he is faced with a stark choice between violating his dearly-held principles and doing whatever it takes to save his family.

I’ve been planning Lando Cruz and The Coup Conspiracy since mid-September. My writing coach agrees that the story has a strong foundation and I’ve lined up a developmental editor to help me as well. This story is going to blow you away! My goal is to have Lando Cruz and The Coup Conspiracy ready for purchase in ebook and paperback formats for Bitcoin and USD by December 15.

Libertarians, agorists, voluntaryists and other politically-minded folks are going to LOVE this novel but the story is strong enough to snare everyday science fiction readers, too.

Enter your email address below (where it says “Get Free Novel Chapters”) to get updates! I might even write this in full public view, chapter by chapter, at Leanpub. I’m excited about this story. It’s not every day that new libertarian / agorist science fiction is in the works!

P.S. I’ve been promising Project B, another science fiction novel for quite some time. I decided to set my 130-page outline aside briefly so I can take it to the next level. Expect it in spring 2014. It’s going to be bad-ass, too!