The author waves at the audience. “Hello everyone, I am Laura Napoli, indie author of the Tails of Little Flower sci-fi series.”
“Yeah, so? Why should I care about another random indie author? There are like a million of them out there,” someone heckles from the crowd.
“Because I said so? No? Eh, it was worth a try. Seriously, though, my stories are amazing, and I want everyone to have the pleasure of reading them. But don’t take my word for it. Check out my reviews.”
The heckler jeers. “I bet they’re all from friends and family.”
“They’re not. Pinky swear. For proof I hold up my single two-star rating amongst all the four and five-star ratings. It’s awful, I know, and I know there will be more, but not everyone can handle reading a story about giant transgendered alien cats who rescue the last of humanity after an asteroid destroys the Earth. It’s far too ‘woke’ for sleeping minds.”
“Oh, so you’re one of those woke liberal snowflakes?”
“Yup, and proud of it. I am permanently afflicted with that woke mind virus otherwise known as empathy, but then up until a few years ago, caring for your neighbors and fighting nazi’s and discrimination, was seen as a good thing. Now obviously we are in the middle of a hostile fascist coup by a handful of billionaires and criminals hell-bent on destroying this country and killing off the poorest and weakest of us, for profit. I honestly don’t know if we’ll be able to save it, and frankly, I’m not sure we should. The current capitalistic hellscape is not sustainable and we are both smarter and more capable than that. If we put our minds to it and work together, we can do far better. As an example, I present the government and economy of my books. They are not perfect, as my characters soon find out, no system is, but it’s a hell of a lot better than we have now.”
“How so?”
“Stick around and I’ll tell you, or better yet, subscribe, then go read the first book, the Tails of Little Flower, while I write up the first of many articles that will dive into the culture, government, and economic structure of the Consortium.”