Tom DeWitt
Retired Army - Entrepreneur - Contemporary Science Fiction author
Welcome to my page, and thank you for visiting. I hope you will find the site information helpful and the book descriptions intriguing.
I was attending a recent event and was asked, “What genre of books do you write?” to which I replied, “Contemporary science fiction.” The person looked confused and then asked, “What’s that?” I had to think a moment before responding.
This was my answer. “In the SOUP Trilogy, contemporary science fiction is created by using today’s cutting-edge technology as the backdrop for the story’s plot, then, in my case, weaving in 40 years of experience supporting the federal government to create the drama and excitement for each book. In my definition, contemporary science fiction seeks to portray how people and governments react to new advances in technology. Will they favor using it to gain more personal power, to benefit the nation, or a combination of both?”
My first three books: Evil Walks Among US (2019), The Nature of Man (2021), and A Time to Stand (2023), comprise the SOUP Trilogy. It is a story about the United States’ most innovative technology that could solve our country’s crime and revolutionize our criminal justice system if things are done correctly.
As things go wrong and the unexpected happens, the story highlights the good intent found in people and the evil outcomes that emerge.
Set among action, political intrigue, and vengeance, each book reveals new possibilities for a hopeful future. I hope that each reader looks inward and evaluates their place in a rapidly changing world and contemplates how they will respond to future challenges. The books do not present a right or wrong answer; each reader decides that for themselves.
I hope you enjoy the story.
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely… Great men are almost always bad men.”
John Acton and others
The Virtual Life Solution (VLS) is a secret government program created to incarcerate the nation’s worst criminals by placing them into a virtual reality world called the Special Operational Unfenced Prison (SOUP). Criminals in the SOUP create their new reality in prison by building upon their own memories and sharing the experiences of others that share their fate. VLS offers substantial cost savings to taxpayers and transforms every aspect of our incarceration system. It utilizes the newest technology with the potential to create a future limited only by the Nation’s imagination. It is the perfect solution.
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Alec Richardson is selected by the White House to write the story revealing details of the program to the American people to enhance the electability of the sitting President. Richardson, Network Executive Adelle Hall, and DC police officer Jefferson Grant discover there is more to the VLS Program than revealed and find themselves embroiled in action, politics, suspense, and murder as they seek to find the truth behind one of America’s greatest achievements.
"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one."
Marcus Aurelius
It is two years after the Secure Operational Unfenced Prison (SOUP) is established, and the Virtual Life Incarceration Program (VLIP) has expanded across the country. An earthquake rattles the Los Angeles facility, releasing three of the country's worst criminals with a secret too crucial for the nation's top leaders to ignore. An international incident with China brings the United States to the brink of war. Surprisingly, the escaped inmates hold the key to diffusing the international crisis. The Program Supervisor, her Chief Scientist, Dr. Sandra O'Neal, and the Program's Chief Medical Officer, Mr. UT, race against time, politics, and murder to prevent the VLIP technology from being exploited and abused by those in power.
"Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind."
Plato
A Time to Stand is the last book of the SOUP trilogy. A triad of senior government officials wants the capabilities demonstrated by the SOUP's escaped inmates used to resolve the Taiwan Straits incident. The United States Vice President, acting as a member of the Virtual Life Incarceration Program (VLIP) governance committee, sees the value provided by these criminals as critical to National Security and Intelligence collection. Along with other top administration officials, the Vice President convinces the President to sign a classified Presidential Directive moving the VLIP from the Justice Department to the Central Intelligence Agency. The Supervisor realizes the risks of unleashing the unknown power created accidentally by the SOUP's technology. She and her team oppose the directive and the presidential authority to subsume her program for power and political gain. Each side, believing they are right, pushes for its goals without understanding the consequences of its actions and the impact on the human experience. A Time to Stand paints a contemporary picture of human conflict fueled by the desire to control unknown powers and the realization that every action has consequences.