Guest Post by Simone Pond

Simone Pond is an award-winning author of young adult dystopian fiction.

Imagine living inside a utopian city with every modern convenience at your fingertips. The weather is always perfect. People are beautiful and healthy. Everyone has a secured position in society. Pristine dwelling units. And clean food and air.
But what if you discovered your utopian city is actually a prison? A human breeding ground? A place where you only live to be thirty-six years old?
THE TORRENT is the fourth and final book in the New Agenda series. The story continues following the main character, Ava, as she fights against her enemy Chief Morray. He wants to keep society locked away, but Ava refuses to let him win.
In THE TORRENT, Ava is trapped inside the mainframe network with Chief Morray. Meanwhile her daughter, Grace, is in the real world fighting her own battles. I wanted to see what would happen if I separated the mother and daughter team. How would they find a way to work together even though they were in different worlds? Would their love be strong enough to break through the barriers of time and space?
I think dystopian readers expect the story to have some underlying social commentary. To say something about the future, as a warning or a red flag. Stories with heroes who stand up against oppressive authorities. I loved creating and working with this cast of characters. My series spans over three hundred years, while linking together many characters and their backstories. The consciousness upload procedure is a device I used, which gave me room to explore multiple worlds – reality and virtual – over many generations.
All of my books have the underlying theme of spiritual warfare––the evil forces trying to control and manipulate on physical and spiritual levels. Pride versus humility. Death and rebirth. Redemption. Forgiveness. To me, Morray represents the oppressive dark forces in life, while Ava and Grace represent God’s soldiers, fighting the good fight.
Check out the New Agenda book series and the Voices of the Apocalypse short stories collection at simonepond.com.

Book Summary
Grace has survived Chief Morray’s attempt to keep her trapped inside the mainframe, but at a terrible cost: leaving her mother behind. Giving up training at the academy in order to wait for Ava’s return. Grace wants to do the right thing, but it’s never that simple. While Ava struggles against Morray in the virtual reality, Grace is left alone in the real world to fight her own battles. There’s a new corrupt authority figure. A regional council to sway. A war to stop. And a promise to keep to a precious young soul. How can Grace save everyone, including herself?
Amazon
Website
Goodreads
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Mailing List

Simone Pond is an award-winning author of dystopian fiction. Her current series includes The City Center, The New Agenda, The Mainframe, and The Torrent. She also has a short story series called Voices of the Apocalypse.
She grew up in Kensington, Maryland - a small town just outside of Washington D.C. As a young girl, she loved writing in her journal and making up stories, but after reading S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, everything changed. Amazed that a woman could write so convincingly from a teenage boy's perspective, Pond became determined to become a writer as well.
Pond currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their Boston Terrier. Follow her blog at Simone Says...
Be sure to join the mailing list for updates on new book releases.