Imagine being blackmailed in real life by someone you had a romantic encounter with in Second Life. Now imagine you have to discover the true identity of that person before they hunt you down and murder your family. That terrifying scenario is the plot of a new book called ‘Femme Fatale Online’ written by award winning author Eugene Rodgers, known in Second Life as Adolphe Menjou. I had an opportunity to sit down with the author to ask him about the book.
What inspired you to write this book?
Adolphe: I originally wanted to write a nonfiction book about life in big corporations but decided fiction wold have a greater impact. My experience in SL gave me the idea for the virtual world. Many of my friends shared nothing about their RL, making me wonder about it. The virtual world story was originally a subplot. The original story would have happened outside the virtual world, but it grew into the main plot. I realized that I had to have a mystery to make the story interesting. That quickly evolved into the Femme Fatale Online idea. I realized a virtual world would be a perfect place for a spy to hide and operate.
Can you give our readers a brief, spoiler free, synopsis?
Adolphe: A young married man plays in a virtual world.He meets a beautiful, sexy avatar and she inveigles him into a romance. In this virtual world, called Personal Portal,avatars can be perfect reproductions of their animators. She gets him a job with a major corporation, then blackmails him intro industrial espionage with tapes she secretly made of their trysts. Later, she threatened to kill him and his family if he loses his job and can't spy anymore. He must find out who she is in RL, and where she is, and stop her soon before she acts.
How long have you been writing?
Adolphe: Professionally since I was in public relations for the University of Wisconsin 1961-63. Books since the mid 1990s. I've been interested since I was little.At about 7, I saw a typewriter for the 1st time and immediately typed a story about my dog. In college, I wrote for the school newspaper (at Villanova) and wrote feature stories about the scientists on campus. This led to a University of Wisconsin job. I've written 2 nonfiction books issued by major publishers. One about Adm. Byrd's 1st antarctic expedition, which won me recognition as Virginia's author of the year. The other about the story of the Boeing Co.
Can you tell our readers a little about yourself?
Adolphe: I'm married with 2 kids and 2 grandkids. I studied chemistry and earned a B.S. At Villanova. I then joined the US antarctic expedition as their scientific PR guy and went 2 years going back and forth between Antarctic and Washington. Then I got a mob as director of public relations for the Westinghouse Research Labs. This led to other writing jobs in the energy field. I became a speech writer for the execs of IBM and United Technologies.Then I started on this novel.
Do you have other books planned that feature a second life type world?
Adolphe: Not at the moment. I'll wait to see how much success I have with this one.
Where can our readers get a copy of your book?
Adolphe: At Amazon, Barnes & noble, Kobo, and really just about any ebook seller.
If you’re looking for an exciting, edge of your seat summer read, ‘Femme Fatale Online’ just might be what you’re looking for, especially as a resident of Second Life!
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
URL: https://www.kobo.com
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