C James - Dome Six

“We’re from Dome Six,” Elle said. “We’ve been walking for a day and a half.”

Some kind of realization washed over him. “Did Dillard send you out this way? No one else would talk about the Domes like they still exist.”

“Who?” Owen asked.

“When will you people learn? It’s a fantasy! The Domes shut down decades ago. They moved everyone back to the Cities.”

Owen shook his head. “You’re mistaken. We just came from there. They blew it up.”

He paused to study their faces. Seeing no guile, he continued. “I’m not saying I believe you, but… where you trying to go?” he asked.

“We just wanted to find help,” Owen replied. “We don’t know what to do.”

The man paused, apparently still wrestling with his conscience. “You sleep in the barn, you wash up in the creek, and you eat from the fields. No one comes near the house. Are we clear?” They all nodded. He sighed and said, “I’m Edwin. Grab your shit and follow me.”

The lives of an exiled biomodder, a mysterious militia, and a group of refugees collide as they fight to break Cytocorp’s stranglehold on humanity.

Thank you for reading Dome Six . Making it to the end is the second-best compliment you can give a writer. The best is to take one small action that helps me keep going. Here are some great ideas I just pulled out of thin air:

• LEAVE A REVIEW ON AMAZONOR GOODREADS. Even if you hated it, even if you’re ambivalent. But especially if you dug it.

• Sign up for my email list(if you haven’t already). As a thank-you, you’ll get a digital copy of my novella, The Technician , a prequel to The Cytocorp Saga. I’ll only email once or twice per month and won’t ever share your info with anyone. Also, I won’t come to your home or office and ask if you saw my email. I know that pain. That’s the C.P. James Platinum Promise™.

• Share your read with friends on social media along with the link for the free book: signup.cpjames.com.

• Email me at cp@cpjames.comwith your comments, questions, expressions of concern for my mental welfare, favorite jokes, or unabashed adoration.

• Follow me on Facebook ( facebook.com/authorcpjames) or Twitter ( twitter.com/authorcpjames).

• Peer into my soul at cpjames.com/words

Reading has an opportunity cost. Whatever you paid for Dome Six is immaterial because, in choosing to read it, you will forgo something. Time with someone you love, perhaps, or a few nights’ worth of great TV. So I’d like to first acknowledge you, the reader, for whatever you’ve put aside in order to read my book. Thank you.

But the flip side also must be acknowledged, which is that the writing of this book and all its revisions represents roughly 22 months of my life — challenging ones, to be honest. Its flaws are a reflection of my own, and I’m as aware of them as you are of that mole on your ear or the ache in your knee. I acknowledge and lay claim to this story’s many imperfections, because we are one and the same.

The only person who is unequivocal about this book’s merits, such as they are, is my wife and fellow author, Amy. It’s through her encouragement, enthusiasm, and attention to detail that this book is in the shape it is, and I can’t ever be grateful enough.

During the course of this storytelling journey, I’ve come to realize that the measure of a successful book is not in how much it makes (though that would certainly help), but how effectively you’ve conveyed the story in your head to the reader. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve presented Amy with a draft, only to learn that what I really did was narrate the story playing across my brain instead of supplying all the details and waypoints that orient the reader.

As always, I’m forever grateful to my parents, Doug and Judy, for making peace with the fact that this is where my heart is. I’ve given up good-paying jobs with great benefits to pursue this dream. To their generation, that was a very foolhardy thing to do, but they’ve leaned into it and I am very grateful for their support.

Heaping helpings of gratitude are owed to my incredibly gracious beta readers, Tony, Catherine, and Scott. It’s incredible to me that people I haven’t yet gotten to know well are willing to take a crack at an unproven author’s work. In Tony and Catherine’s case, it’s like meeting someone over a pint, then agreeing to watch the final dress rehearsal of some ridiculous independent play they’re in — only instead of lasting two hours, it takes two weeks and you have to keep notes.

Thank you to Christian Bentulan ( www.coversbychristian.com) for turning my scatterbrained creative brief into an absolutely stunning set of covers. You are an exceptional talent, my friend.

Finally, I want to give a shout-out to all the independent authors in the 20BooksTo50K® family for their relentless encouragement, advice, and generosity. I’m so inspired by all of you and am incredibly lucky to have found my tribe. In particular, I’d like to thank my friends in the 20Books Momentum Makers Facebook group for being such a positive influence and sharing in each other’s successes. This is a lonely gig sometimes, but you guys remind me every couple weeks that there are others out there writing into the dark.

The reckoning we all knew was coming had arrived, but only Cytocorp had a plan. It had three phases.

Protect.

A century ago, the environment’s decline accelerated. Antibiotics stopped working. Heat and drought forced billions north.

From the ashes rose Cytocorp, the only company with the power to secure the country’s future. The Dome Project would protect America’s best and brightest from the looming apocalypse. Eight self-contained cities, each home to 100,000 souls, would be built from the reclaimed materials of dying towns.

Inside, they would work together as one. By monitoring human behavior under strict controls, algorithms would optimize daily life. Every decision, from when you eat to what job you should do, would be made by AI.

Predictive modeling said it would take a century for Earth’s recovery to begin. By then, Dome society would have evolved into the best possible version of itself.

Reclaim.

Once people left the Domes, they would re-establish order. They would work the land and start families. By and by, a new society would grow and flourish in whatever countryside remained. If none did, the Northern Cities would provide refuge.

In the end, the key to humanity’s salvation would be to study itself in silence. It would be saved, of all things, by data.

Rebuild.

In time, the seeds of this new society would spread far and wide. Trade would be established. Roads and bridges would be built. Armed with the lessons of the past, a new world would take root.

It was a good story. A hopeful story. And now, a century later, the citizens of Dome Six are about to learn whether any of it was actually true.

C.P. James writes cinematic sci-fi of substance. He lives in Bend, Oregon with his lovely bride, Amy, and two and a half cats. His first novel, The Perfect Generation , was published in February 2018. His dystopian adventure, The Cytocorp Saga , continues.