Describe the book in two sentences!
An 18-year-old hacker-turned-undercover-agent just wants a weekend off, but gets locked in a building with cyberterrorists. Chaos ensues.
What inspired Augusta Pine Does Not Exist?
The original idea for this book came about when I was working as a bookseller. I was ringing up books when the barcode scanner went over my arm. The computer beeped and registered my arm as a series of random numbers. It was a surreal moment because there was nothing on my arm! I joked to a customer, “Is this how I find out I’m secretly a robot?” I never figured out how or why it happened and it never happened again. But it got me thinking about what if I did have a barcode? What if we all had barcodes? What if we were identified by tattoos instead of paper/plastic IDs?
The novel combines a main storyline with several interspersed flashbacks. What made you decide on this format?
I always knew what the main plot was going to be: a locked-building mystery with Augusta forced to go up against a group of well-armed cyberterrorists. But the problem with a locked-building mystery is that it’s a locked building. It’s very contained setting—and I wanted to look at this futurist world. So I came up with the idea to structure the entire thing as case report. I loved playing with that kind of format, because it let me include everything from scripts to lists. It was really fun to write!
What is your favorite part of the book?
My favorite has to be the flashback chapter with Augusta in the office… and a coffee machine that might be a threat to national security. It contains some of my favorite side characters and banter. I love workplace comedies, so this was a blast to write.
Who is your favorite character?
I love everyone in this book, but my favorite is Prefect. He’s a very dry wit and I loved writing his interactions with Augusta. He is a character with some very morally gray aspects to him, yet he’s protective of Augusta and is doing his best to train her for the future. Even if his methods are a little sketchy sometimes.
What was the most challenging part of writing this book?
Technology advanced faster than this book did! I started writing it seven years ago, but I had other books and other obligations, so this project got put on the back burner. The problem is, our capitalistic cyberpunk dystopia happened faster in real life than I predicted! When I started working on this book, I thought I was so clever for inventing smart rings. And then smart rings became a thing. I had to keep updating my world building so this book would be a dystopia and not contemporary!
If ID tattoos were real, would you get one?
Probably not! I’m a bit old-fashioned—especially after writing this book!