ABOUT THE BOOK
With the pandemic that never seems to be leaving us anytime soon I’ve created worlds that might make you pause for thought. Dark stories told by the characters as they experienced their journeys into worlds that you might not want to live in a hopefully be happy in the one you’re in.
Book Details:
Title: What If?
Author: Fran Lewis
Genre: time travel/ sci fi
Published by: Fidelli (July 8, 2020)
Print length: 78 pages
LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH FRAN LEWIS
Things you need in order to write: my note pad on my phone, my computer, some interesting thoughts and a long walk before I get started and possibly a graphic organizer fill: med with ideas.
Things that hamper your writing: when my mind gets overloaded with ideas and I need to focus on the ones needed to create my novels or stories
Things you love about writing: I love that what I write belongs to me, and I can share my work with everyone.
Things you hate about writing: I hate editing and rereading.
Easiest thing about being a writer: just relaxing with a cup of coffee close by and writing without thinking about the outside world.
Hardest thing about being a writer: getting publishers to publisher your work and getting readers to give you constructive feedback before getting your work published.
Things you love about where you live: it’s quiet, and most people stay to themselves.
Things that make you want to move: nothing that would make me want to move.
Things you never want to run out of: coffee, salads, fun foods.
Things you wish you’d never bought: some of the jackets I plan to get rid of. A bag that was really not what it was supposed to be.
Words that describe you: opinionated, hard working, bold, blunt, and yet stating my thoughts without hurting anyone’s feelings. I love working with authors and helping to promote their work.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: tough as nails, asks too many questions, and at times won’t stop until I get the answers I need to solve a problem.
Favorite foods: pizza and tuna.
Things that make you want to throw up: beets, olives and spicy foods.
Favorite music: classical music and opera.
Music that make your ears bleed: RAP.
Favorite beverage: black coffee.
Something that gives you a pickle face: salty foods.
Favorite smell: hot brewed coffee.
Something that makes you hold your nose: a skunk.
Something you’re really good at: helping others with projects, finding information on the net and doing research for my books.
Something you’re really bad at: driving a car.
Something you wish you could do: teleport myself anywhere I want so I can finally see my nieces and nephews.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: dancing lesson: I hated them.
People you consider as heroes: my dad who was my champion and taught me to let everyone hear my voice; my aunt Tommy who taught me to speak out and speak up.
People with a big L on their foreheads: people who are too opinionate and too negative and who never tell it straight.
Last best thing you ate: Sicilian pizza from Arthur avenue pizza.
Last thing you regret eating: chicken salad with too much mayo.
Things you always put in your books: something about me and my sense of humor.
Things you never put in your books: personal information and age questions.
Things to say to an author: your work is inspirational, thought provoking and definitely worth reading.
Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: your writing is disjointed and your plot line is flat, poorly crafted and uninteresting.
Favorite books: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Last Scoop, Gone With the Wind.
Books you would ban: I never read porn or erotica.
People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): Dick Belsky, Jon Land, Marsha Casper Cook.
People you’d cancel dinner on: reviewers that are rude, a relative that is deceptive and betrayed my trust.
Favorite things to do: reading, walking on a nice day, shopping.
Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: cooking, housework and talking to certain people.
Things that make you happy: texting my nieces and nephews, helping them with difficult assignments, just hanging out on the phone.
Things that drive you crazy: people that are always negative.
Proudest moment: completing my 4 masters and above.
Most embarrassing moment: burning dinner for date when I was single.
Biggest lie you’ve ever told: telling someone they look lovely not to hurt their feelings.
A lie you wish you’d told: I try not to, I’m too honest.
Best thing you’ve ever done: becoming an educator and working with students with learning challenges.
Biggest mistake: retiring early.
Most daring thing you’ve ever done: stock car racing.
Something you chickened out from doing: hang gliding and riding in a hot air ballon.
EXCERPT FROM WHAT IF?
One Race: One World: The Year 2050
It was now 2050 and the world had really changed. There were no more planes or trains. All you needed to do was think about being somewhere and you were there. The government, in order to save money on gas and fuel, had banned cars, buses, and any means of transportation, and implanted chips in everyone’s arms that helped transport them to wherever they wanted to go, including the past.
A huge explosion had occurred, and all that was left in the world were twenty countries, with only twelve hundred people in each country. Most people had not survived the explosion, which had caused most of the countries to just disappear into space forever. No one really knew if anyone was out there or if these people survived somewhere, and no one really cared enough to find out.
One man called The Ruler headed all the countries, and assigned one person as the Chief of Law and Enforcement in each country. Under this person, five people helped to enforce the rules and the laws.
Then, one miserable day, someone decided there were too many wars, too many hate crimes, too many people being killed on the streets, and too much traffic and congestion on the highways. The government hired several scientists to find a solution to the problem, and that was how everyone in the entire world wound up multicolored.
Because of all the wars and fighting and hate that took place in the past, the government created a way to eliminate the many different races in the world and opted for only one. Everyone looked the same. Our faces might have looked a little different, but our skin colors were the same—multicolored. They did this so that no one would insult, mock, or hurt anyone because of their skin color. They eliminated houses of worship so that everyone was nonsectarian, and no one would be discriminated against. However, what they could not eliminate were our thoughts and desires to make changes in our lives, even though they tried.
Everyone that lived here had a job that paid the same amount. No one, no matter what they did or what career they chose, was paid more than anyone else. We never had to worry about being laid off. Unless we decided to move somewhere else our job stayed the same, and there was no room for advancement—ever. Everyone did the same thing every day. Nothing changed. Life was supposed to be anger free, insult free, and most of all, calm and tranquil. HOW DULL AND BORING! (OH! I am not supposed to say that. Opinions are not allowed here.)
One morning I got up and got dressed to go to my boring job as an accountant with the only accounting firm in this city. I went over the books daily, entered my accounts in their daily ledgers, and did taxes for some of the companies in this city. It was grunt work, and nothing exciting ever happened at work or anywhere else.
Walking to work as usual, I began remembering how it was only twenty years ago when there were cars, trains, and people running and yelling for cabs and trains to wait for them at the station. I missed the newspaper people on the street and the vendors selling hot coffee and bagels from their pushcarts. Those were the days. I loved the way people had looked and the different races and nationalities that lived here. Learning from other people was what made life exciting.
Then the unexpected happened. A new family with two children moved in down the street from me. These two kids were not going to conform to our way of thinking, and decided it was time to shake things up—and they did. One morning when going to school they each wore something other than the school’s drab gray uniform. The girl wore a pink and green dress with flowers, and the boy wore something blue, and a shirt that said, “I hate being the same. Different Rules.”
This did not go over well, and they were taken into custody by the guards in their school and promptly suspended. This did not stop them. They started screaming and yelling all sorts of words we had not heard before. “One race is not what we are supposed to be. I hate this planet. I hate all of you.”
I could not believe my ears. This was grounds for banishment into the Devoid Zone. These two children had painted stars all over their faces. Their younger sister decided to paint her face one color. Who in today’s world had a face that was one color? Everyone here looked and dressed the same. It prevented jealousy, arguments, and fashion wars. How dare they go against the laws of this state?
***
Excerpt from What if? by Fran Lewis. Copyright 2020 by Fran Lewis. Reproduced with permission from Fran Lewis. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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