High Tech Professional Leaves Business World to Become a Fiction Author

WRENTHAM, Mass. - March 16, 2017 - PRLog -- After a twenty-five-year career in high technology marketing and sales, John Murzycki decided to take on the job he always wanted. He published his first major novel, a science fiction and fantasy thriller about a computer virus that becomes both mortal and deadlier than the world ever expected.

His novel, titled Elthea's Realm, has enough technology references garnered from his years in the industry. Bots, antivirus programs, networks are all elements he uses to bring the reader into a magical world with a race of people called the Astari, and places such as islands that are supported high above the ocean by a single column.

"I always wanted to write fiction, but earning a living took priority," said Murzycki. "Over time I finished a half-dozen manuscripts, but I knew they weren't good enough to see the light of day. I would think about plot ideas while I worked as a manager at various technology companies and how technology could be used for good as well as for harm. That idea persisted and made its way into my novel."

The nemesis of the storyline is an evil race called the Bots, who gained physical form after beginning their existence as a destructive computer virus. They pursue five friends who, united by a college course called The Utopia Project, had drifted apart since graduation years earlier. These friends are brought to a land called Elthea's Realm They are befriended by the Astari, a race who had their beginnings as antivirus programs on Earth.

"I enjoy writing about places that have just a bit of magic in them so that you know they are different, but not so unbelievable," explained Murzycki. "In many ways, Elthea's Realm could be Earth. The underlying intent of my story is to portray how five ordinary people, just like you or me, react when not only they are threatened, but the Earth itself is endangered. What are they feeling and thinking? But mostly, how do they respond."

He adds, "My characters are unlikely heroes who struggle with frailties and imperfections as they face dangers they would never have thought possible. Only then do we find out what we are made of. I like to explain that the book is a story about what makes us human."

Murzycki is currently working on the next book in the series. Elthea's Realm is available in both paperback and eBook. Sign up for his newsletter at www.johnmurzycki.com.