Introducing: Splitting the Binary

Aug 29

Greetings, Programs!
I know what you’re all thinking. Where’s James? Where’s my favorite blog on my favorite website to visit from time to time? Did he vanish off the face of the Earth or has he been cooking in the shadows?

All great questions, all great questions. And today, I give to you answers, at long last! New job, new car, new year, new projects to reveal to the world… Welcome to 2026 and the grand lifting of the veil of one (1) of the two projects I’ve spent so much of the past year working on!
The first thing I’ve been working on, as many of you probably know (either from word of mouth or from looking at this site for longer than two seconds) is the premier game of Evil Pear Productions: Desert Bird. This post isn’t about that - though its time is coming, and it’s coming soon, I promise… This post is about the other project I’ve spent the past year (actually, the past years working on, but who’s counting): Splitting the Binary!

Oh yes indeed, programs, ‘tis time at long last for the release of my first novel, my grand debut into the written world! As with all great stories, Splitting the Binary is a deeply personal story to me in so many ways. It’s a story which has changed much since its inception in a machine learning class at CU Boulder many years ago, morphing and growing along with me in this phase of life. If you love science-fiction, this story is for you. If you are intrigued by larger-than-life philosophical questions that describe the nature of our reality, this story is for you. If you like stories that make you think and actively engage with them, if you’re scared or otherwise intrigued by the recent technological developments that now define our world, if you like dual narratives, if twist endings excite you, if you’re a fan of stories like Severance or Westworld or Heretic or so many other puzzle-box narratives: this story is for you. Here’s an official synopsis:

A man walks into an unfamiliar library. He knows the sole person who works there, and he has practically all his life. In the shelves lie the books and stories that uncannily tell his own. Reading between the lines of the pages, he begins to question if this personal museum he finds himself walking within is real or is some sort of purgatory. Why does his friend from the checkout counter always seem to know more about this place and about him than he does? What is he meant to find here? And if his story somehow lies within these walls, what will happen to him when he tries to leave?

Reynolds is a jaded developer at the helm of something big: a digital program that truly remembers without direct prompting, fundamentally altering human understanding of intelligence. As his project enters the final stages of production, though, his team begins to fear that the project is more powerful than the world is ready for. A power vacuum emerges in his company and Reynolds finds himself caught in the crossfire of a world on the brink of a war on reality itself, a project that may be its catalyst, and the looming feeling that he is connected to his work in far more ways than he knows.

Both men live separate lives in different times, yet they are joined in their search to answer the same key question: what does it mean to be real?

Okay, okay, I know that’s great and all, but why make a blog post about it? Great question, dear reader (and the very fact that you’re asking it means that I think you’ll really love this story, truly), and the answer is: there’s more. What better way to promote a narrative with a heavy emphasis on both technology and reality than by combining my love for both and making something a bit more interactive?

Oooooooooh, I have your attention now, don’t I?

I came up with an idea in February of this year that helped me take this narrative to the next level: an interactive epilogue. What I originally envisioned as a sort of scavenger hunt across the internet became much more of an interactive puzzle that uniquely brings readers into the world of the story. With how finnicky information on the internet is these days, I wasn’t sure how well my initial pitch of ‘click a bunch of links and tour through different webpages which may or may not be connected’ would stand the test of time (although the concept of connecting my old YouTube pages to inactive sites I coded back in college, I quickly realized how quickly any of those links can be taken offline and break the whole chain), so I decided to create my own concentrated experience/environment for it instead. It allows me to:

1) Expand the world of the story beyond the written pages,

2) Create a collage of sorts around the themes of the story,

3) Encourage readers to use their critical thinking skills to find their way through, and

4) Deliver additional components of the story to readers who enjoyed the novel.

The content of the experience lands harder if you’ve already read the story (who knew context has its benefits?) but I think the experience is immensely unique and is worth experiencing even on its own. This is a story designed to be actively engaged with, after all… So, think outside the box! Learn a thing or two about Splitting the Binary and this world we find ourselves in! This is something I’ve been planning for quite a while now, so prepare to get very meta. And who knows? Maybe there’s a reward in it for you when all is said and done (hint hint, point four)…

If you’re interested in reading this debut novel of mine, Splitting the Binary, you can find it virtually anywhere books are sold: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, Apple, Kubo, etc. (with some physical bookstores coming soon - stay tuned, Castle Rock and Boulder!). Below is a link to where it’s available (online, in person - both are important, get it wherever you’d prefer):

Amazon: https://a.co/d/08Hbnv55

Other ebook retailers: https://books2read.com/u/4j8BMv