Guest author Eileen Schuh talks about intensifying suspense with secret codes

Today I'd like to welcome my good friend, author Eileen Schuh to my blog. Be sure to read to the end and enter her contest--you might win some fabulous prizes. Take it away, Eileen...

There’s nothing that intensifies suspense like a good secret code.

In my new release, DISPASSIONATE LIES, my heroine, Ladesque, is living that suspense. The mysterious markings that are stymieing her are splashed across the DISPASSIONATE LIES book cover—squiggles and lines that conceal the secrets to her past.

It’s no secret why codes are intriguing. Shrug, one of my beloved characters in the BackTracker series, tells those who listen that knowledge is power and at some deep level we all agree. Since a code implies someone is keeping knowledge from us, we can’t help but believe that if we decipher the code, special powers will be ours.

I’ve used codes in past novels; there are several in FATAL ERROR that Katrina, my genius young BackTracker series protagonist, capably solves. One involves an encrypted message between gang members and another, a password.

The most memorable fictional code for me is in the movie Close Encounters when the aliens begin their communication with humans using colours and music. In fact, I liked that code so much I mention it in DISPASSIONATE LIES.

Codes come in many shapes and sizes. Encryption is what supposedly keeps our secure internet transactions secure. Yes, I know, it doesn’t work too well and works even less effectively in 2035 which is why in DISPASSIONATE LIES Ladesque is battling to give the world an internet system that can’t be breached.

Although they say easily deciphering codes is one of the main benefit mankind would receive from a quantum computer (and there is a futuristic quantum computer in DISPASSIONATE LIES), the mysterious language Ladesque is trying to decode is unrelated to that. She’s trying to uncover the truth about the intrigue, conspiracies and perhaps even murder blemishing her past. Without that knowledge, she’s not prepared to face her future, even if it might hold the massive power of a quantum computer.

It would not just be human codes that a quantum computer could decipher, it might make short work of uncovering the history of the universe as encoded in the stars. It might reveal to us the true nature of gravity, time and space and perhaps even time-travel. It might be able to translate into English, the songs of whales and relics of the past.

Whoever is the master of that first quantum computer will possess unfathomable knowledge—a power that can all be Ladesque’s, should she choose. However, first she must decode the diary that contains the facts about her past.

DISPASSIONATE LIES - Official Launch price ONLY $1.99 July 13 -26, 2014 on Amazon and Smashwords (Use coupon code GS42H on Smashwords for the eFormat of your choice.)

SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT joins the celebration at only 99₵ on Amazon and Smashwords! Smashwords coupon JU57W

About Eileen:

Eileen Schuh has published two adult Science Fiction novellas, SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT and her new near-future release, DISPASSIONATE LIES. She also has authored three novels in her young adult BackTracker series, THE TRAZ, FATAL ERROR and FIREWALLS. THE TRAZ is also available in a School Edition.

Her new near-future release, DISPASSIONATE LIES explores female sexuality against a backdrop of high-tech science, governmental and pharmaceutical conspiracies, espionage, and perhaps even murder.

SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT, with its tangled relationships, weaves intense emotion into the science of multi-universes.

Schuh, born Eileen Fairbrother in Tofield, Alberta, lives in Canada’s northern boreal forests and draws her inspiration from the wilderness, her grandchildren, family and friends, and her adopted community of St. Paul, Alberta.

Visit her online:
Blog: http://eileenschuh.blogspot.com
Website: http://www.eileenschuh.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EileenSchuhAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/eileenschuh

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