H.L. (Harry) Wegley is our guest today.

He wrote a book called Virtuality. 

Today, he’s here to share the story behind his story.

What would you do with innovative technology that could make you the next Bill Gates but could unravel the fabric of civilized society?

“Don’t sell Virtuality. Jess can help you.” His brother Paul’s dying words to Vince van Gordon, a struggling author who can’t write happy endings, inherits controlling interest in Virtuality, a growing high-tech company with a mysterious product the US Army classified Top Secret. Paul’s last words force Vince to return home to Seattle to run Virtuality and face the girl he walked away from seven years ago. Can Vince, once again, endure being eclipsed by Paul’s larger-than-life shadow, a shadow that cost him the woman he loves?

Jessica (Jess) Jamison is a genius, a beautiful, highly introverted, young woman who can count her friends on her thumbs. Seven years ago, Vince left, shattering her heart. Now Jess has a Computer Science degree and still prays her childhood soulmate will come home. If he’s willing to reconcile their relationship, Jess can help Vince take the reins of Virtuality. But why is someone trying to kill Vince and her? And could Professor Scoggins be right–that, in the wrong hands, Virtuality’s technology could shred the fabric of civilization, and that stopping it may literally take an act of Congress?

Virtuality is a character-driven thriller with romance about dangerous technology lurking on the near horizon–a story of love and sacrifice, illustrating that there are no shadowed, worthless people in God’s economy.

Learn more and purchase a copy.

What inspired you to write this book?

After retiring from Computer Science work, I still subscribed to several IT publications. Over the past 3 years, a disturbing trend has emerged. It became my motivation for writing Virtuality.

A recent survey indicated that 15% of young men in America do not work at all, and 35% of these live at home with their parents or a relative. These men are choosing to stay at home and play video games. Why would anyone do that?

As social media use has proliferated, human needs for intimacy and meaning are often met only on a superficial level. Video games and virtual worlds came along at a perfect time, creating a perfect storm, sweeping many into addictions they would never have if they lived in a healthy society with healthy families.

In a virtual world, people feel that what they do matters. They take an action and see the consequences, immediately. In the real world, people see this less and less. If they work for a large corporation, many people feel they’re only an employee number in a database. What they do doesn’t matter and they feel powerless to change that.

Some other trends both surprised and alarmed me. In a mainstream trade journal, the use of virtual reality for pornography was treated as normal, expected, and no stigma was attached. This acceptance of the unacceptable is part of our culture’s downward moral spiral. But the downward spiral originates in the depravity of the human heart, something only explained by a biblical worldview.

After some research, I learned that the adult entertainment industry—a $100 billion a year industry, accounting for 40% of all Internet traffic—has driven technology for nearly three decades by backing advances that profit the industry. And emerging technologies can increase the addictive power of adult games to the level of street drugs.

Government restrictions might help. But the first place we must look is at ourselves, our own hearts and minds. Rather than worrying about the technology, we should be more concerned about the moral stature of the people who control and use the technology. That thought led to my plot for my high-tech, romantic-suspense, Virtuality. The subject is dark, however Virtuality isn’t a dark story.

There’s even some humor. Read it and you’ll see.

Sounds like a fascinating story! Thanks for sharing your inspiration.

H. L. (Harry) Wegley served in the USAF as an Intelligence Analyst and a Weather Officer. In civilian life, he served as a Research Scientist in Atmospheric Physics.

After earning an MS in Computer Science, he jumped ship to build computer systems for Boeing for 20 years before retiring near Seattle, where he and his wife enjoy small-group ministry, their grandchildren, and hiking on Olympic National Park beaches.

He’s an award-winning author of 12 inspirational thrillers and romantic-suspense novels and has more on the way.

Follow Harry on social media: Amazon Author Page, Facebook Fan Page, Facebook Personal Page, Goodreads, Twitter, Website

Harry is giving away a copy of Virtuality. Follow the directions below to enter.