You don't have to spend money to help me.

Okay, so here's my deal:

I'm asking you to help me get some money. It won't cost you any money, though.

I entered a story in a writing contest: http://freeditorial.com/en/books/retro-vr

The sponsor of the story is offering cash prizes. First, second and third place in the contest will be mostly determined by how many times each entry is downloaded. Writing quality will come in if it's close.

You can help me win the contest by downloading the story. You do not have to register for anything to download it. The message you see about registering is for those who want to enter one of the writing contests.

If you follow the link, you'll see a synopsis of the story. Look to the right of the screen. You should see a DOWNLOADS OPTIONS menu. I prefer PDF, but READ ONLINE works just as well. You can download it to a Kindle or ereader.

I got the idea for the story when I read a New York Times article last year about a guy making sex robots. This paragraph caught my attention:

"One of the challenges that Mr. McMullen will have to contend with is the so-called uncanny valley. It is a concept first written about in 1970 by a Japanese researcher, that says people’s responses to robots will shift sharply from empathy to revulsion the more closely the robots resemble humans. In other words, something robotic that looks alive, but is not completely convincing, will creep people out." ("Sex Dolls That Talk Back," Emma Cott, The New York Times, June 11, 2015)

I felt compelled to write the story, and used Matthew 19:8 as its nucleus:

"He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so."

Please share the story, or share this link, so that others can have a chance to download it.

Working on the Sequel

I’ve made progress on the sequel to Retro VR. I haven’t decided on a title, yet. I call it a sequel, but it feels like I’m writing a better ending. Anyway, I have the structure of the story the way I want it, so I just have to fill in the details.

Eventually, I would like to combine Retro VR with its sequel into a full-length novel. I have also scratched out a few lines of a hybrid live theatre/virtual reality play. The members of an audience of a play would receive a VR headset with their ticket. They see on the headset what the actors on the stage describe.

Retro VR questions whether virtual reality - combined with advanced sex robots - could alleviate social problems such as sex trafficking. I imagine that it would have unintended consequences of its own, such as the further dehumanization of sexual relationships.

I’m not ready to start a Kickstarter campaign yet. Freeditorial currently holds the rights to Retro VR. If you want to help me toward my goals of producing a novel or a hybrid play, please download Retro VR. The story is my entry in Freeditorial’s Long Short Story Contest. The winner will be determined by writing quality and the number of times each story is downloaded. I’m shooting for the First Place prize of $15,000. The prize money would help me get more work done.

You do not have to register to read the story.

If you follow the link, you'll see a synopsis of the story. Look to the right of the screen. You should see a DOWNLOADS OPTIONS menu. I prefer PDF, but READ ONLINE works just as well. You can download it to a Kindle or ereader.

If you enjoy Retro VR, please share it on Twitter or Facebook.

Thank you.