Custodian¹ going through FINAL EDIT stage, Liberator² is being worked on.

yes, there's a blatant MICC angle

I've never been the most patient of writers, so (while Free Planet¹ "Custodian" is still being final-edited in the USA) I've decided to get back into the writing of Free Planet² "Liberator" right away.

There's no more time to waste pondering ideas, structure and resolution of this second book of three (as the current plan stands).

In fact, I already have two pages of bullet-pointed notes and am a few thousand words in having already mostly fast-drafted the first three chapters. Liberator takes place four years after the anti-corporate Natural Lottery events of Custodian. There are only a few survivors from  the original narrative, but certain intimate historical dependencies are explored in fatalistic detail.

In fact, I've decided to add the opening chapter from Liberator² at the end of Custodian¹ and I've had new thoughts on structure. Where Custodian was an alternating split narrative between You The People and The Custodian Liberation, Liberator's mostly-split-narrative structure will have an 'infrequent visitor' in the form of a 'third narrative stream'.

There'll be WE THE PEOPLE because now it's even more communal. There'll be MONSTERS FROM HELL because there are always prejudices and conspiracies. And there'll be a special feature section that opens the book and returns every now and then through the bulk of the novel to chart what really happened during Custodian, and it's nothing like you'd expect. It's sinister and will still haunt the narrative of Liberator, FOUR YEARS EARLIER.

Get ready, this brutal bastard'll sting.

The Custodian Libertion presents The Natural Lottery

Every night at exactly seven o'clock local time, the Natural Lottery Show will hack into the GES or Global Evertainment System to deliver the intended message of a Free Planet for all.

"We are gathered here, today, in a secret location known only as Bullingdon Woods to the select members of our new Diversity,” Asalah begins her introduction, “It's nice to see so many who've already adopted the Custodian way, and so many who've shown commitment to such in a future iteration, are all present at this inauguration of the official Campaign for a Free Planet. I'd like you to raise your glasses, beaks, muzzles, funny-shaped back things, your too many arms, your communal living spaces to the cause we've committed our physical and intellectual lives to.”

"You know this is really gonna hurt, don't ya?” one dissenting voice from the back mutters. 

"We are … yes, we will have to make the ultimate sacrifice for our fellow man. But this is something we are all aware of. No negative voices are to be allowed to 'sway our resolve'. We aim that every living person on Planet Earth will hear our message. Like a new record no one likes on first hearing, we will repeat and replay our message of a Free Planet for all the world to hear, until people finally get it. Until the world starts to wake up from its ridiculous monetary nightmare. Until people under.stand.”

"What if it doesn't work?” the voice again, from the quivering underbrush, the one dissenting voice of reason.

And you know what, the more Asalah Al-Faghori thinks about it, the more she becomes concerned that the whole Custodian Liberation is a complete red herring doomed to ultimate and embarrassing failure...

"CUSTODIAN" the first novel of the free planet series is due in ebook, kindle and paperback REAL SOON.

Kevlar Kubitz - gets you from A to B in perfect harmony

One of my favourite features of the Custodian novel are the Kevlar Kubitz that transport corporate drones i.e. You The People, from your CDZ or Corporate Dorm Zone to your offices of The Industry like mosquitos trapped in amber. They have this 'genetic muzak' that plays in your back brain that you can only 'hear later' while you're digesting the odorous tasks of the working day. And they don't always tell the truth. Though it's not like you'll have any discernment anyway, so any old crap story works. THe more lurid and insane the better.

But there are 'scintillas of truth' therein. If you know what you're being told. This particular bit is pulled straight out of the early part of the novel when you're not quite sure what your heroic role is.

P.V.s or Psyche-Vertisements, another ESI ready-to-wear, will push any old marketing to the core of your brain during your daily commute: here's a classic. 

January, 1932. Dusseldorf, Germany. Everyone knows the story about Lord Adolfus Hitler, 'cos you can't unknow a psyche-vertisement until its contractual erosion time has expired'. Heil Hitler, so the story goes, had just given a rousing speech before the Industrial Club in Elberfelder Strasse, just round the corner from where you recently worked in Wupper Strasse in what's still known as Dusseldorf in what once was called Germany. Heil Hitler was leaving the meeting, his protective entourage surrounding him, and he just slipped on something in Elberfelder Strasse, right outside the steps of the Industrial Club.

Died on the spot.
Everybody knows this … it's part of your Industry Education.

When a Kevlar Kubitz arrives in your Corporate Dorm Zone it'll sniff you out, home in on you, chemically. It'll ferret you out of your stinking pit of Evertainment slumber where you're allowed to be who you really wanna be. This is the perfect tactic for a ruthless organism like The Industry who may need to apply Leverage™ later on in your career cycle. You know, when your role as an asset for the Corporation, your paid-for loyalty, is put under 'ethical pressure'.

Angie's Diary reviews Custodian and it's not even out yet.

art, literature and lifestyle website Angie's Diary have a review of Free Planet¹ CUSTODIAN on their site, and the book isn't even out yet.

"Custodian" is the tale of one group of Oxford University's finest minds, the eponymous Custodians, who offer mankind a technological 'get out of jail free card' enabling them to slip from under the yoke of Corporate Slavery to THE INDUSTRY. [source ANGIE'S DIARY CUSTODIAN REVIEW]

"Custodian" (the first Free Planet novel from Mike Philbin) is due out real soon in ebook, kindle and paperback edition.


TEN DAYS LATER UPDATE: Angie's Diary have also run with that Kevlar Kubitz feature (in the post above) with slightly different data than the post content.