Daughter of Mars & Fentanyl

August 2024

At the end of August I'll release Daughter of Mars, the third book in the Maps Private Value series on Amazon in Kindle and paperback editions.

Elizabeth Schmidt has kindly agreed to narrate the story as the voice of Rave Maps once more for Audible. Elizabeth will begin work on the Daughter of Mars audiobook in September.

The novel begins in my old stomping ground of Mt. Washington Valley in northern New Hampshire. Rave Maps is attending a memorial service for her cousin and preparing to join an opioid legislative conference in Boston. She's also taking time to enjoy the brilliant colors of fall in New England. We're in the year 2029, and the novel touches on the continued rise of fake pharmaceuticals. Rave is driven by grief to abandon her commitment to nonviolent analytical business processes in favor of launching a direct covert attack on parts of the illicit global drug supply chain.

Rave must also confront her Digital Twin AI, who we met in Daughter of the Cloud. All the action takes place against a violently changing climate, the same issue Rave was trying to raise awareness of in Daughter of the Storm.

It's a hot mess.

As its 2029, Daughter of Mars includes the launch of the first Chinese space fleet sailing for Mars with a goal of establishing a mining camp funded by space tourism and tourist attractions built using addictive REPtube technology introduced in the first book.

Kate Tong, now head of Canada's cyberintelligence agency, ensures Rave gets a seat on that first ship to Mars so Rave might retrieve the chip containing her Digital Twin AI sitting within a NASA probe on Mars equator, where it has been thinking about humanity's possible future. Hence the title, Daughter of Mars.

I drew inspiration from T.S. Eliot's poem about the tragedy of World War 1, The Waste Land, for Rave's meeting with her Digital Maps AI. If you haven't heard actor Sir Alec Guinness narrate Eliot's poem, I recommend that. 20 minutes, available free on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Hcj4G45F9pw?si=b76LuI0o8a03ACcP

I frequently recommend readers take time to watch the six-episode The Power of Myth, available free on YouTube, for an overview of The Hero's Journey, and the sweep of mythology and human nature that is the essence of storytelling. Every screenwriter in Hollywood has watched this program many times. While the production looks dated from 1989 the message remains strong. The six-hour program remains the most popular show ever aired by PBS: https://youtu.be/pE8ciMkayVM?si=XEDUJnJElA09wofK

As any independent author will tell you, writing a novel is challenging. All three Rave Maps books have been difficult due to the unique, wild nature of each global challenge addressed in these stories. AI is changing the world of work at a dizzying pace. Climate change is impacting communities faster than anticipated. And then there's fentanyl, as well as a host of other poison, such as niteazines and captagon.

The most surprising thing I learned working on this novel was gaining an understanding of the history of our relationship with drugs across the centuries. I've included a summary of that chronology in the Forward, providing context stretching from the American Revolution through the Old China Trade of the 19th century, all the way up to our opioid crises of today. Sadly there is no end in sight.

A detailed bibliography includes online sources, along with books and films for those wishing to learn more. Since the whole point of this effort is to raise awareness, I'll end today by sharing those resources below.

Thank you for reading. Whenever you read a book by an independent author please leave a book review. It's the best -- and only -- marketing we have to get the word out. Authors appreciate readers who make that effort and share enthusiasm for something you enjoyed reading. Amazon is a good place to leave a review. So is Goodreads.com, Reedsy.com, Apple Books and Audible.

Bibliography - Daughter of Mars:

1. 2023 Colorado Attorney General Report: Social Media, Fentanyl & Illegal Drug Sales: A Report from the Colorado Department of Law: https://coag.gov/app/uploads/2023/03/Colorado-AG-Report-Social-Media-Fentanyl-Illegal-Drug-Sales.pdf
2. You’re smart, but you can’t outsmart fentanyl. Blue Rising Community. https://www.pillorpoison.org/
3. We’re Overlooking a Major Culprit in the Opioid Crises: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/were-overlooking-a-major-culprit-in-the-opioid-crisis/
4. 5 Elite Families Who Made Their Fortunes in the Opium Trade https://www.alternet.org/2015/06/5-elite-families-fortunes-opium-trade
5. The New England Opium Trade https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/new-england-opium-crisis-1805/
6. How Britain Went to War with China Over Opium https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/03/world/asia/opium-war-book-china-britain.html
7. Opium Trade https://economic-historian.com/2020/11/opium-trade/
8. The 19th-Century Book That Spawned the Opioid Crises https://theconversation.com/the-19th-century-book-that-spawned-the-opioid-crisis-87615
9. America’s First Multimillionaire Got Rich Smuggling Opium https://www.history.com/news/john-jacob-astor-opium-fortune-millionaire
10. What Led To The Opioid Crisis – and How To Fix It. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/what-led-to-the-opioid-crisis-and-how-to-fix-it/
11. Responding To The Opioid Crisis In North America And Beyond: Recommendations of the Stanford-Lancet Commission https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02252-2/fulltext
12. An 8,000-year History of Use and Abuse of Opium and Opioids: How That Matters for A Successful Control of The Epidemic? https://n.neurology.org/content/92/15_Supplement/P4.9-055
13. A History of Opioids in America https://www.npr.org/2019/04/04/709767408/a-history-of-opioids-in-america
14. Opium Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
15. The Loyalist Migration from East Florida to the Bahama Islands https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2793&context=fhq
16. Loyalist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalist_(American_Revolution)
17. ‘We Are Shipping To The U.S.’: Inside China’s Online Synthetic Drug Networks https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/916890880/we-are-shipping-to-the-u-s-china-s-fentanyl-sellers-find-new-routes-to-drug-user
18. Mapping a Chinese Fentanyl Network https://c4ads.org/commentary/2020-1-16-tweaking-the-record/
19. The New Drug Talk. https://youtu.be/ZrFHAQrUlow?si=-036d8wIs9_njJyJ
20. PBS: Mexican Cartels https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/a-secret-look-at-a-mexican-cartels-low-tech-multimillion-dollar-fentanyl-operation
21. How the East India Company Became the World’s Most Powerful Monopoly https://www.history.com/news/east-india-company-england-trade
22. 5 Fast Facts About the East India Company https://www.britannica.com/story/5-fast-facts-about-the-east-india-company
23. Brian Mann, Aneri Pattani. Kaiser Health News. In 2023 fentanyl overdoses ravaged the U.S. and fueled a new culture war fight. December 28, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/12/28/1220881380/overdose-fentanyl-drugs-addiction
24. In the beginning: A History of Opium. https://drdrew.com/2018/beginning-history-opium/
25. Happy plants and laughing weeds: how people of the ancient world used—and abused – drugs. https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-history/ancient-drug-use-history-how-what-for-opium-hemp/
26. Fentanyl Awareness, Beaverton School District. https://www.beaverton.k12.or.us/departments/communications-community-involvement/fake-and-fatal
27. Song For Charlie. Real Talk About Fake Pills. https://songforcharlie.org/
28. Jennifer Brown. October 9, 2023. The Colorado Sun.Fentanyl killed their kids at college. Now Colorado schools are changing. https://coloradosun.com/2023/10/09/fentanyl-deaths-colleges/
29. You’re Smart, But You Can’t Outsmart Fentanyl. Blue Rising Colorado, 2023. https://www.pillorpoison.org/
30. https://www.bluerisingcommunity.org/fentanyl-poisoning
31. Washington Post Investigations: The Opioid Files. Follow the Posts Investigations of the Opioid Crisis. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2019/07/20/opioid-files/
32. The Opioid Crisis. NPR. https://www.npr.org/series/1049705109/the-opioid-crisis
33. hinese investment is ‘pouring’ into Mexico – but where’s the money? Mexico News Daily, November 28, 2023. https://mexiconewsdaily.com/business/chinese-investment-is-pouring-into-mexico/
34. The dark history behind India and the UK’s favourite drink. BBC News. 16 July 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36781368
35. Margaritoff, Marco. A Disturbing Look Inside The Victorian Opium Dens That Launched The First Modern War On Drugs. ATI. October 17, 2021. https://allthatsinteresting.com/opium-den
36. Wikipedia. Old China Trade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_China_Trade
37. Wikipedia. History of Opium in China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_opium_in_China
38. Lin, Ching Yee. The Collector. 1930s Shanghai: Why Was it Called the Paris of the East? April 14, 2023. https://www.thecollector.com/shanghai-1930s-why-is-it-called-paris-of-the-east/

FILM

1. Dead on Arrival (fentanyl documentary) Dir. Dominic Tierno, Christine Wood. Stopthevoid.org. Alexander Neville Foundation, Opioid and Fentanyl Education. www.anfhelp.org https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJgPmrLjkuo&t=14s

2. The Pharmacist, Netflix, 2020. Directors Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason.

3. Dopesick. Danny Strong Productions. 2021. Directors Danny Strong, Michael Cuesta, Barry Levinson, Patricia Riggen. Hulu.

4. Pain Hustlers. Dir. David Yates. Netflix. 2023. Based on the book by Evan Hughes.

5. The Rise of Fentanyl. 2018. BBC. Director: Darren Conway

6. The Crime of the Century. HBO. Director Alex Gibney. 2021.

BOOKS

1. Dalrymple, William. (2022). The Anarchy. Bloomsbury Publishing.

2. Westhoff, Ben. (2020) Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Crisis. Grove Atlantic.

3. Ko-lin Chin and Sheldon X. Zhang. (2015) The Chinese Heroin Trade: Cross-Border Drug Trafficking in Southeast Asia & Beyond.

4. Power, Mike. (2014) Drugs Unlimited: The Web Revolution That’s Changing How the World Gets High. Thomas Dunne Books.

5. Quinones, Sam. .(2015) Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic. Bloomsbury Press.