A Waste of Time, Bundled

My latest self-publishing project is entitled: “From Maverick to Statesman” and is a collection of selected writings – speeches, policy platforms, etc. – from my role-playing hobby in the American Government Simulation.

While in AGS from August 2004 to January 2008, I played the role of Mike Adams – a morally self-assured (some would call it overly whiny), technocratic centrist who specialized in Florida-specific “micro-initiatives”. I was also elected President of the United States twice – a feat never before or since accomplished in the game.

I built the AGS version of Mike mostly out of the Mike Adams from my novels, but also had him influenced by real-life politician Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL).

The AGS Republicans don’t like me – and in large part it is because I don’t fit into their little straight-jackets of ideology and because I like to call them out on their b.s. But mostly, they hate me because I’ve beaten their over-idolized leaders several times and they can’t understand why. Which is a shame because I’ve always operated as someone who is more likely to work with agreeable Republicans than the Democrats would otherwise like.

Anyway, in this book I’ve compiled over 87,000 words of original material I put into this game in the 41 months I’ve played this character. I’m still participating in AGS under a different alias (one that was mass-disclosed without my permission) but my interest is definitely waning and I may leave the game altogether at the next change in party control.

So feel free to read this book – it’s chock full of political material, and you get a sense of my overall thinking on government and ideology. (Although all iterations of Mike Adams are a bit more moderate than I am.)

P.S. And I should note that I will be getting an ISBN code for this book once I proof the hard copy I’m getting, so I do hope this will end up on Amazon.com before April, if all goes well.