White Pulse

About the Book

White Pulse: A novel By Scott W. Alten (word count- 100,000) swalten@yahoo.com White Pulse A novel by Scott W. Alten Overview: What happens when a national conglomerate begins buying up local cable television providers all over America? What happens when they increase service quality, reduce consumer costs, and, in an act of ‘charity’ provide free service for those less fortunate? And what if their ultimate goal is really to kill them? In White Pulse, the Universal Cable Company is doing just that in a suburb of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and they’re doing it to save the world from the mongrel masses. A very wealthy and very secretive white supremacist group is quietly converting basic cable boxes into radiation emitting killers and tens of thousands of minority television viewers are watching all their favorite shows while cancers grow and reproductive organs wither. It’s a long term final solution and it seems to be working; until they hire the wrong man with the right credentials. Ben Marlon has just been released from prison after serving three years for grand theft auto. Inside he accomplished two things; the first was to master a correspondent’s course on cable television installation and repair, thus assuring him gainful employment upon release. The second was to join the local white supremacy gang inside in order to avoid being raped or killed. Once out, he returns to the New Jersey area he grew up in, where his younger brother, his only living family, resides with a wife and son. His plan is to get a good job, move out of the half-way house he’s been placed in, and start over. He applies at the local Universal Cable office in Pleasantville, a small town just outside of Atlantic City and, after lying on his application by using his brother’s unsullied social security information, he gets hired. And after his second day of installing ‘free’ cable to the disenfranchised citizens whose meager welfare stipends couldn’t afford the luxury of cable TV he is already discovered in his ruse. But instead of being terminated he is embraced. It seems his new employers know just how hard it is for a ‘white man’ to get a break. Ben keeps getting breaks, but at the same time things at Universal just don’t seem to add up. How can free cable really be profitable? What did they mean by ‘know just how hard it is for a ‘white man’ to get a break?’ And why is the tech shop guarded like a bank vault? Over time he puts the pieces together as he rises up in the company. Eventually all will be revealed and when it is, all must be risked. This novel deals with a myriad of issues and problems that are extremely prevalent in today’s society; racism, poverty, the use of technology as a weapon, genocidal terrorism, corporate conspiracy theories, and many more. Setting it in the southern New Jersey area allows for the perfect mix of cultural, racial, and socio-economic variety. In addition, it has a very human side to it as we join our protagonist as he faces his own difficulties and comes to terms with his own issues, all the while trying to save the lives of countless others. Through the use of sympathetic characterization, suspense, humor, non-linear storytelling, and ironic twists the reader is kept enthralled and entertained.

About the Author

Scott Alten resides in southern New Jersey with his wife, Andrea. He has worked as an English teacher for thirteen years. This is his first novel. He welcomes comments at swalten@yahoo.com.