Guest Post and Giveaway: Virtual Vice (CLOSED)

Please welcome author Jason Kays who is guest posting today! He is the author of the new book, Virtual Vice: A new technology crime novel based on true events, that was published this past March by BookSurge Publishing, as well an intellectual property attorney with fifteen years experience in both information technology and entertainment law.

Creative Non-Fiction as Genre

I’ve been asked why I chose this relatively new genre for my new novel, Virtual Vice. What made this genre appealing to me as a writer?

The question was forced when a prominent literary agent expressed interest in my story were I to write it entirely as non-fiction. I had completed the first draft, but it wouldn’t have been difficult to go back, change character names to their real life counterparts, and edit the last one hundred pages so that the book’s ending more closely resembled the life trajectory of the doppelgangers.

Doing so still would have resulted in an engaging read with fascinating individuals stumbling through a bizarre sequence of events. But it would not have been the story I had envisioned — the story, imagery and satire I wanted to present. The novel would have been less linear. It most certainly would have lacked the closure it now enjoys. And, as is so often the case where reality intersects with fiction, the reality was far more surreal — more unbelievable. I wanted to keep the book at least somewhat plausible. Also making a factual accounting less desirable was that it would have taken an already tawdry tale and made it that much more salacious. And no doubt more appealing to the agent, since salacious sells.

Some readers wrongly assume that if there is a component of fiction to a retelling of historical events, it is to function as commentary. I try to keep my writing morally agnostic. There is enough literature out there that teaches or preaches. I find morality tales condescending, even if that’s not the author’s intent.

The fiction here is strictly for purposes of shorthand and artistic expression. By fictionalizing a character, the author can use broader brushstrokes, portraying the character more succinctly with less verbiage by underscoring defining traits and omitting tertiary characteristics. Identifying dominant characteristics is a matter of perspective and is wholly subjective, but introducing bias into a book is different than punctuating it with papal encyclicals. Something I’m careful to avoid. I prefer to present the characters as they are or are perceived by other characters in the book, then let the reader assign merit or demerit points for perceived moral virtue or vice. That keeps the book more secular, organic and allows the story to conform, in part, to the reader’s world view. It’s not a blank canvas, but it is much more that than where the author overlays the entire Elizabethan Chain of Being overtop the narrative from Chapter One. I want the readers to have fun with the characters in their mind’s eye without looking over one shoulder for the nun’s ruler.

Creative fiction also allows a piece to be more timeless. Events in Virtual Vice span from 1993 to present day. The Ponzi scheme in the book was birthed during the early 1990′s Silicon Valley dot com boom and bust years. Literary license allowed me to preserve and present that time frame accurately, but also to compress the timeline of certain transactions and relationships so that the focus is on contemporary financial shenanigans, making the book more topical and complimentary to the analysis of ongoing financial crimes by Bernard Madoff, Allen Stanford and others.

Lastly, a non-fiction reenactment of events would have resulted in a very dark and gloomy book. By introducing fiction, I could also introduce some humor into this stark slice of humanity. Humor can be used to drive home a point or observation, but it is also a courtesy to the reader, allowing him to walk in the author’s footsteps without getting lost in melodrama.

Virtual Vice is largely autobiographical, so it lent itself particularly well to creative non-fiction, but I would urge all authors to consider trying on the genre at some point. You may find you wear it well.

You can find Virtual Vice in bookstores near you as well as on Amazon. In the story, readers follow disillusioned entertainment attorney Ian McKenzie as his professional life takes a decided turn for the questionable when he is hired by the charismatic and dangerous Scott White to represent Scott’s interests in his cutting edge Internet startup, Metropoleis Multimedia. Unfortunately for Ian, Scott has more in common with Scarface’s Tony Montana than Apple’s Steve Jobs, and things go from questionable to deadly in no time flat. As Scott’s confidant and consigliore, Ian soon finds himself caught between the Feds, La Cosa Nostra, and the Cali Cartel in a fatal game of corporate winner-take-all.

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

La Cosa Nostra: crime pays

White continued in his drunken narrative and told McKenzie that it was after his sister’s murder that he had resolved to distance himself from the family. He had flown to Jamaica to spend a month with Lance Astor, a high school friend who had opened a successful bar on the island. It hadn’t taken long for Scott to realize that the bar was a front for laundering drug money. It took him even less time to decide he wanted in on the action. Astor started off the rookie on small runs, delivering packages of marijuana to the roughly two dozen men he had stationed on tourist beaches to sell the drug. Astor referred to these men as “kiosks”, because they were assets in identifying which hotels and clubs had the highest demand for drugs in a given week. The drug kingpin had strategically placed sources in these venues as well. Concierges, doormen, and bartenders doubled as drug dealers. During the 1970s, the demand for cocaine was on the rise. Astor had partnered with Ernesto Velez, a Colombian living near Santiago de Cali, to supply him with coke.

Within a few years, White had become part of Astor’s inner circle of trusted runners. He convinced his friend that he should try his hand at export to the U.S., volunteering to spearhead the risky expansion of the business. Scott had picked up some basic piloting skills during his work for Astor. The plane of choice for transport to the U.S. was the powerful Beech Duke. The twin-engine aircraft had ample capacity to accommodate a large payload. Fast and capable of long-distance flights at high altitudes, it was unlikely to be as easily detected by either the DEA or the Coast Guard. White used an abandoned grass airfield in rural Northern Maine to fly in the marijuana. He then drove the bales to distribution centers in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. White used his mother’s house near Westbrook, Maine, to stash the drugs while he confirmed transfer points. The marijuana was of premium quality – far superior to what could be obtained in the U.S. domestic market. It was a hit with the Eastern Seaboard states’ rich preparatory and Ivy League college students.

White was tight with his money and managed to sock away a tidy sum for investment back into his thriving business. After five years of building his distribution network in the U.S., he felt he had maximized his revenue to expense ratio. Expanding operations further would result in overhead that would disproportionately diminish his profits. White was not particularly intelligent, sophisticated, diplomatic, or skilled, but he did have the ability to apply himself 110 per cent to a given endeavor, to the exclusion of all else. It was this freakish idiot savant myopia – and selfishness – that allowed him to succeed despite his undisputed shortcomings. By studying the business paradigm of his mentor, Lance Astor, White came to the realization that at this juncture, he would only be able to grow his business through the diversification of product.

With the advent of Studio 54 drug chic during the mid-70s through the 1980s, cocaine was becoming the drug of choice with the celebrity set and amongst the upwardly mobile. Demand was such that the price point of the drug was at a premium. White knew that the profit margin in cocaine trafficking was far greater than in the selling of marijuana. The risks in selling and distributing the drug were also significantly higher. White wasn’t dissuaded by the enhanced risks. Astor was content with his share of his friend’s U.S. marijuana trade. He wasn’t interested in expanding his cocaine distribution to America. So White had Astor’s blessings when he met with Ernesto Velez to propose an association.

Velez held a prominent rank within the Cali cartel. He counted Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela amongst his good friends. Velez’s estate sat upon a 100-acre natural game reserve on the Pacific Ocean, just outside the city of Buenaventura. He retained an army of men, many of whom were soldiers belonging to Colombia’s military, to guard his compound. White was stopped at the ornate wrought-iron gate to the house, where security swept his Mercedes for car bombs. He made his way up the winding drive, flanked by mahogany, oak, walnut, and pine trees, to the sprawling colonial-style mansion. Velez’s barrister met White at the door to escort him to the library. Two large men in dress khakis and berets stood guard with machine guns on either side of the doors leading to the lavishly appointed library. White was patted down for weapons before being granted entry. As the massive twelve-foot-high doors swung open, he stepped into the large room. The hand-painted domed ceiling and furnishings were done in the baroque style. The lithe, strikingly handsome Velez approached to greet White. Dressed in a conservative, three-button Saville Row suit and Hermès tie, the man was as impeccably appointed as the room they were meeting in.

Velez had an authoritative and deliberate manner about him. He greeted his visitor in a resonant voice, overlaid with a cigar-and-whisky patina, as he motioned him to join him for coffee on the adjoining veranda. Velez got right down to business. The drug lord stated quite clearly that he had distribution already established in New York and California; thus, he wouldn’t stand to benefit from White’s Rhode Island and Massachusetts network. Velez had a virtual air force of cargo and jet airplanes at his disposal, piloted by military veterans. White’s shuttle service would, therefore, not add value to the kingpin’s operation. Given the situation, he began to wonder how it was that he had merited an hour of the overlord’s time. Velez suggested that White might be of assistance in the Pacific Northwest.

Vancouver was a prosperous city with a quiet influx of moneyed Hong Kong resident aliens. It had a demographic profile of the young and the rich, with a propensity for hedonism. Seattle fit a similar profile. The latter had experienced a severe economic downturn during the 1970s, but as the 1980s approached, its economy was on the upswing. And like Vancouver, Seattle was a young city with a healthy appetite for recreational drugs. High-potency marijuana from British Columbia, Canada, “B.C. bud”, had long been a staple among Seattle’s collegiate and bohemian set. Heroin was firmly entrenched as a counter-culture drug.

Due to the heavy drug traffic coming from our neighbor to the North, bringing in drugs across the Canadian-U.S. border was becoming more and more difficult as Customs agents on both sides ramped up their efforts. Given this trend, Velez thought it best to map out new routes of entry along the Washington State coastline, most of which was lightly policed by the U.S. Coast Guard. White had an advantage in this respect: he had worked summers in his youth on a crabbing boat off the Washington and Alaskan coasts. He had a good working knowledge of all major and minor ports and those places along the coastline where a plane or boat could enter undetected. Velez unilaterally set the terms of the arrangement: there was to be no negotiation. The drug lord would receive sixty-five per cent of any profit. He would supply the aircraft and men to get the drugs to the U.S., but White would be required to cover all other costs from his thirty-five per cent. Velez would retain a Seattle area accounting firm of his choice to audit White’s books quarterly.

The Colombian stressed that while his reputation globally was that of a fair and honest man, if one of the random audits showed a discrepancy, he was not a forgiving man. A slight smile crossed Ernesto Velez’s face. White looked out over the expansive estate and formal French gardens. Red deer, pumas, and jaguars appeared to peacefully co-exist there. The drug lord directed his attention to a clearing, fifty yards from where they stood. White watched as a local boy, no older than fifteen, was fed alive to crocodiles by two of Velez’s guards. The drug lord charged that the child, employed as a local mule, had been caught with a kilo of stolen cocaine – Velez’s cocaine. He reiterated that he was a fair, but unsentimental – and unforgiving – man. He stated that he would show mercy in the execution of the boy’s younger sister and parents: they would be shot dead in their sleep, painlessly and unceremoniously. The two men closed the deal with a handshake. White returned to Washington State to begin work on establishing a new network on the West Coast.

He hired off-season fishermen to pilot the drug boats, as they knew the waters and shoreline better than the DEA and Coast Guard. Velez was spot on in his forecast of market trends in the Pacific Northwest. Cocaine’s popularity in Seattle and Vancouver would quadruple in the 1980s during the Reaganomics “me generation”. White’s overall markets were modest in terms of volume of product moved in the larger California and East Coast metropolitan areas, but as the forerunner in virgin geographic territory, his relative market share was formidable. Velez was pleased with the progress; within six years, White was the primary conduit for uncut cocaine in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

White maintained a low profile, but didn’t shy away from using the party circuit to promote his product. Seattle had a surplus of clubs catering to the twenty-something set, but did not offer many venues where doctors and lawyers could be in their element. Given that the latter demographic had the most discretionary income, White went to work, creating a playground for the young professionals. He purchased six spacious houseboats and the private Lake Union pier to which they were moored. He used the party boats to move his product, and the investment proved a smashing success. It was through this facet of his business that White became acquainted with Harold Cracker.

Would you like to read it?:

Thanks to Jason Kays and Pump Up Your Book Promotion, I have a copy of Virtual Vice to give away to a lucky reader! If you would like to read this entertaining crime novel, here are the rules:

1. 1. Enter by leaving a comment here to let me know who you would like to share this book with and why. Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.
   2. The contest will run until Monday, July 27th at 11:59 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY. US entries only, please.
   3. Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If you don’t wish to leave your e-mail address, please make sure that you leave a unique name and check back with PRIZEY to see if you won. If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
   4. If you’d like extra entries, you can:
   • Subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar) or subscribe via e-mail – leave me a separate comment to let me know.
   • Mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post and leave a separate comment with the link to your post so I can find it.
   • Either Twitter about, ‘Digg’ or ‘Kirtsy’ this post – leave me a separate comment with your username at whichever site you chose (one extra entry per method).
   • Take my survey! Leave a comment to let me know. Even if you’ve previously taken it, just leave the comment and you’ll get the extra entry.

So that’s a total of 7 comments/entries if you do all of the extra entry options.

Good luck! 

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #25 as the winner:

Congratulations to Aimee G whose extra entry for taking the survey has won for her! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.

This post courtesy of: Jason Kays and Pump Up Your Book Promotion. No payment or compensation was received for this post.