The Forever Contract excerpt
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In the very near future, the country is plunged into drought and unrest. Scarce resources and constant heat are making life completely miserable. Casey doesn't think she can stand slugging back another gel pack or working one more shift at the wells. Fortunately, there's a solution: anyone over the age of seventeen can sign the Forever Contract and enter a utopian paradise. While people's minds take a permanent vacation, their bodies get warehoused and hooked up to a complex array of sensors and feeding tubes. As Casey's brother says, "You upload your consciousness to the system and you're free to live as long as you want, however you want. No more pain, no more heat, no more awful dust, no more work. Just pure thought. It's what our species has always been meant for. Suffering is for philosophers. Not for me."
Casey's ready to sign--a permanent vacation is just what she needs. There's only one problem: her boyfriend James doesn't trust it.
Told from his and her perspectives, The Forever Contract is a 17,000 word (60 page) novella suitable for readers in grade 8 and above.
Would you sign the contract?
About the Author
Under the pen name Avery Sawyer, Laura Schaefer is the author of Notes to Self, a young adult novel about a teen with a traumatic brain injury, and The Forever Contract, a young adult dystopian novella about escaping from hardship by loading one's consciousness into a digital paradise.
Schaefer is also the author of The Teashop Girls (Simon & Schuster 2009), The Secret Ingredient (Simon & Schuster 2011), and Planet Explorers Travel Guides for Kids. Learn more about her by visiting teashopgirls.com and planet-explorers.net. Look for Laura on Twitter: @teashopgirl
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