The FEAR Machine

She enjoys living by the ocean in Victoria, British Columbia with her husband, daughters and black cat, Angel. She was inspired to write this cautionary tale while completing her teacher librarian diploma and being alarmed by the growing use of media to spread mis and dis information targeting blame of others. She saw consistently how so quickly, especially in our digital world, fear and hate can spread and has throughout our humanities history. With her Bachelor of Education degree, she has taught children and youth for many years within the public and Montessori environments and strives to keep learning and asking the deep questions.She believes that with teaching critical thinking skills and digital literacy education, we can spot and stop fake news and lies and most importantly open our minds and hearts towards courage and compassion for others whom we have formed hateful bias and stereotypes. Instead,she hopes for a world where we ask Those Differents, " How's life for you?" and Face our humanity on common ground together.

"The nose knows," as the saying goes, and nowhere is that truer than in Cyber Cosmos, a world that is utterly dependent on its flower fields and the renowned perfumes that are made from them. Although this highly lucrative industry should benefit everyone, in Cyber Cosmos, some noses are considered "cleaner" than others. While the narrow-nosed Supremacy Sames and their esteemed leader, Dittohead, enjoy a life of luxury at the top, their fortunes have been built on the backs of the Nosers, whose large, hooked noses make them second-class citizens. The Supremacy Sames' cozy situation is turned upside down, however, when a pandemic renders them unable to smell, thus threatening to unseat them from the top of the food chain as quality-control sniffers.Fearing he will be blamed for the disaster and that the Nosers, who are somehow immune to the virus, might take over, Dittohead initiates a smear campaign against them. Using his powerful Fear Machine, he propagates a barrage of lies that convinces the Supremacy Sames that the hapless Nosers are responsible for the crisis and that they must be rounded up and eliminated.With the Nosers' survival, not to mention the fate of Cyber Cosmos, hanging in the balance, all hope rests on two scientists-one Supremacy Same and one Noser. They hold the answer to the pandemic and every other problem plaguing Cyber Cosmos in their hands. Now all they have to do is stop Dittohead's Fear Machine before it's too late.