Susan Finlay Writes ~ Mysteries and Suspense

I’ve known Mary Fan for about a year-and-a-half. What impresses me the most about her is that she’s not much older than my son and is already a published author. She has two more books coming out next year, and she is a composer, musician, and singer. If that’s not enough, she also inspired me to do my interview series. Meet the young author, Mary Fan, and her book, Artificial Absolutes.

Book Summary for Artificial Absolutes:

Set in the distant future, Artificial Absolutes is a sci-fi adventure through space and cyberspace that follows a young woman’s efforts to save both her kidnapped friend and her falsely-convicted brother from a powerful, invisible enemy known only as No Name.

Excerpt from Artificial Absolutes:

From Chapter 3: What the Hell?

Jane had never been afraid of heights. As a child, she’d enjoyed alarming her mother by climbing the tallest Venovian evergreens on the Colt estate. Comparing her size then to her size currently, she probably wasn’t much higher up. It was a little different hanging from the underside of an elevator with only a hastily slammed hatch between her and a killer robot.

Well, this sucks.

That she’d caught the bar after sliding down the hatch could only be attributed to super reflexes reserved for times of great danger or to the grace of the Absolute. If only those super reflexes or that divine grace would allow her to reach the conduit Devin had mentioned…

The faint lights along shaft’s walls let her vaguely make out the conduit’s square entrance. Jane saw another bar under the elevator, parallel to the conduit’s top edge. She’d played on jungle gyms when she was little and remembered the motion of swinging her body to catch a bar an arm’s length away, but she’d forgotten how much the friction burned her palms.

She grabbed the bar and swung forward. Her face banged into the wall. Ow.

After taking a moment to let the pain in her face subside, she extended her body as far as she could, barely touching the conduit’s floor with her foot.

Dammit! Wish my legs were longer. Good thing I wore flats today. And pants. If I had to do this in heels and a skirt…

The inane thoughts kept her from freaking out. Something about talking to her brother had done away with the panic she’d felt before. She wasn’t about to let it take over again.

The conduit was only half her height. Even if she could stand, she would probably fall backward if she tried.

Why are utility conduits so small? Are maintenance workers all midgets or something?

A small handle below her, right by the conduit, looked within reach. She grabbed it with one hand. She had to let go of the bar under the elevator to enter the conduit, but the thought was too scary.

Above her, the machine whirred.

Jane had never been remotely religious, but in a situation as unthinkable as the one she was in, even she prayed, albeit facetiously.

Hello, Absolute One. Please let the machine be too big to fit through the hatch. And please keep me from falling. In return, I will compose a magnificent motet for You. So be it, truly.

Jane closed her eyes and let go of the bar. She bit her lip to stifle a yelp as she dropped her body weight onto one arm.

She reached up with her free hand and pressed her forearm into the conduit’s cold metal floor. By pulling, bending, and twisting, she managed to fold herself into the conduit.

She collapsed against the wall in relief. Whew! Made it!

Jane listened for the machine, half expecting it to appear right behind her. Instead, a beep emitted from her pocket. Wondering what the hell it was— and why the hell she didn’t know the contents of her own pocket—she reached in. She pulled out her company-issued videophone.

Oh, right. This thing.

About the Author:

Mary Fan is a speculative fiction author currently residing in New Jersey. She has two books coming out in 2014: Synthetic Illusions, the sequel to Artificial Absolutes, and Flynn Nightsider and the Edge of Evil, the first in a YA fantasy/dystopia series. She has a B.A. in Music, specializing in composition, from Princeton University. She also enjoys kickboxing, opera singing, and exploring new things—she’ll try almost anything once.