Hello readers of Laura’s Books and Blogs! My name is Catherine Conmy, and I’m a first-time novelist here to get you excited about my upcoming release––a dystopian fiction novel titled Where I See You.
As we are experiencing the intensities of living in the digital age, coupled with advanced technologies emerging left and right, Where I See You takes readers on a journey to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of immersive Artificial Intelligence (A.I) technologies through a thrilling story that leaves readers engaged until the last page.
Coming May 2024, it’s both a timely and timeless exploration of the advancement of technology, its impacts on society/individuals, and peoples’ blind or unwilling acceptance to it. Now, you can sign up for Catherine Conmy’s mailing list to receive exclusive updates and the poignant prologue to the book––the origin story of the tech-giants who created life changing technology, Dr. Allan Fritz and Joshua Myers. Sign up here, and you’ll receive an ARC copy of the book!
The plot of Where I See You
When a tragic accident leaves Piper paralyzed, her picture-perfect life with fiancé Elliot shatters in an instant. Desperate for hope, the couple puts their trust in Phoenix, a cutting-edge virtual reality rehabilitation program. Leaving their familiar Philadelphia behind, they relocate to Elliot’s hometown in the Bay Area for Piper’s seven-day trial.
As Piper becomes immersed in the transformative VR world, Elliot struggles to accept their harsh new reality. They soon realize Dr. Allan Fritz and his tech giant Phoenix harbor ulterior motives beneath the surface.
Told through alternating perspectives, this poignant story intimately chronicles Piper and Elliot’s search for meaning in the wake of devastating loss. Will the promises of virtual reality provide the key to reclaiming their dreams for the future?
The technology
Technologies such as Neuralink are emerging to use artificial intelligence to alter medicine. In an interview with Joe Rogan, Neuralink creator Elon Musk spoke to his developments of Artificial Intelligence (A.I), saying it will enable “superhuman cognition” but warned that “once A.I becomes dangerous, it will be too late to regulate it.” Musk speaks to how technology has become an extension of humanity, so combining humans and technology is the natural next step.
While immersive virtual reality rehabilitation technology does not yet exist, I imagined Phoenix to serve as a replica of technologies that we as a society are starting to adapt and normalize. Devices like Apple Vision Pro and technology like Chat GPT are phasing into our regular lives. Many people are embracing and celebrating the comfort and ease they provide. It’s important to acknowledge that these are technologies that society once feared, afraid to become like the characters in The Jetsons or Wall-E.
The novel calls readers to question who the people forging these technologies are, what their motivations are, and who they will be accessible to. As conveyed in modern media such as Ex Machina, Black Mirror and Don’t Worry Darling, Where I See You replicates the idea that powerful leaders and tech giants become so entranced with technology and power that they are willing to jeopardize the public’s safety to Play God and create cutting-edge cash cow technologies.
The novel blurs ethical lines as tech giants Dr. Allan Fritz and Joshua Myers successfully offer life-changing technology to people who desperately want to be able-bodied and/or able-minded. However, it is up to the reader to decide if the ends justify the means.
Playing God
Religious undertones are felt throughout the novel as the trial is conducted over seven days, mirroring the seven days of creation. God is said to have created Heaven and Earth in six days, resting on the seventh, symbolizing completeness. In the novel, the patients of Phoenix work for six days, led by Joshua Myers, and are rewarded on the seventh with health and luxuries.
Additionally, the patients take a berry to aid their healing throughout their time in virtual reality, symbolic of their dedication to Joshua Myers, similarly to the Body of Christ. The company’s name itself, Phoenix, represents immortality, life after death, and rebirth.
Characters
A highlight of the novel is the complicated dynamics and relationships between characters. The novel is more than just a dystopian thriller. It’s a delicate study of peoples’ desire to change each other, themselves, and the world around them.
The narrative’s nonlinear structure allows readers to peer into Elliot and Piper’s lives before the accident through the recounting of memory, providing context to Elliot’s drive to go to great lengths to reclaim their lives. Supporting characters such as Elliot’s parents, additional patients immersed in Phoenix, and the leaders themselves convey how vulnerability can be manipulated and the power dynamics between romantic, familial, and community relationships.
The alternating perspective between Elliot in real life and Piper in virtual reality maintains the book’s quick pace as well as shows the intimate thoughts, desires, and fears the characters feel about themselves and towards each other. Despite the differing worlds they both occupy throughout the story, their perspectives mirror each other’s and constantly play to show the reader the similarities in their experiences despite the overt differences between real life and VR. The reader becomes a mediator for Elliot and Piper’s relationship, constantly leveraging who is justified in their behavior towards one another.
Prologue – Available Now
The free, downloadable prologue reveals Dr. Allan Fritz and Joshua Myers’ origin story, providing context to the hardships and insecurities that led them to create Phoenix and humanize their dynamic.
Their journey is complex, starting in 1997 when young Allan Fritz left his family to move to San Francisco, meeting Joshua Myers by happenstance. There are subtle tensions and dependencies explored throughout the prologue, heightening their motives behind Phoenix and juxtaposing the religious undertones I previously wrote about.
Thank you for reading about my upcoming novel Where I See You! It was born in my freshman dorm room at UC Santa Barbara and evolved in different bedrooms, bluffs, and black holes. It survived through many head-empty moments of writer’s block and one pandemic. I’m very excited to get it into your hands.
About the author
As a California transplant and native New Jersyian, Catherine Conmy graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies with a writing and literature degree doubled with film and media studies. Where I See You is her debut novel, and she has previously been published in Open Ceilings Magazine. She currently lives in Los Angeles and works in film & television.
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