• Blurb:

Our shame is the future. Hers is her past. She'll have to face both to protect them.

In the ruined, overgrown skeleton of the old world, survival means never looking back. Emory has lived by this rule for eight years, gleaning ruins and fighting ash creatures—horrific monsters birthed from human sorrow and trauma. She walks alone, carrying a secret that destroyed her home and haunts her every step.

When she saves a group of travelers from a deadly ambush, Emory reluctantly agrees to guide them north to the mythical Walled Meadow. Among them are a fierce mother protecting her young son, a lovelorn bomb-maker, and Mel, a fiery survivor who refuses to let Emory push her away. As they battle ash creatures, floods, and desperate killers, Emory realizes she is terrified of losing them. But her past and her secrets are putting them in more danger than anything else this deadly world can throw at them. To protect the family she never thought she’d have, Emory must finally stop running and face the monster born from her own soul.

• TRIGGERS!!

Violence, Injury, Blood, Animal Death (through humane hunting practices), Child in Danger, Child Injury (sprained ankle), Death (adult and teenager), Dead Body, Hypothermia, Flooding, Fear of Drowning, Concussion, Captivity.

• Publication Date: November 16th, 2026
• ARC's are going out now!
• Expected Completion Date: 30 days after starting the book.
• Sign up for your copy here: Google Form
• AI disclosure: No AI was used in this work

"Genetic engineering tinkers with the wrong soul."

There are many versions of ourselves. Barb Smith is about to discover the one she never imagined. One in a world almost familiar – but now not so much, with the continued roll-out of the android-administered National Gated Suburbia (NGS) transit stations that separate wealthy gated communities from the rest.

One where the humble clothesline is an ancient underground symbol of defiance, a brilliant Data moko–wearing leader watches from the shadows of an underground collective known as Obscurus, and Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game has been brought to life as Brutal Ludi—a high-intellect coding sport played with the violence of pro-wrestling. It's also a world that sees Barb's beloved hometown, Currander River, chillingly renamed as Willington Downs Canal - CBS24008, her family dramatically split, her life threatened, and her only escape made possible by the family's devoted domestic android robot named Neville.

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Barb Smith v1.2.6 is meditative, imaginative, and gentle, but at the same time, with the issues it explores in regard to how we may live centuries from now, also a funny, dynamic,
page-turning novel.

Triggers: Profanities, sexual identity, internalised identity crisis, combat violence (terrorism), displacement.

Exact date of publication: 14 December 2026

The date you plan to send your ARCs to your team:

• Early-November: Your secure digital copy (EPUB or PDF) will be distributed straight to your email inbox. 
• 21-Day Reading Window: You will have a full three weeks to read and enjoy the book. 

The date you expect your ARC team to finish the reading and submit their reviews by:

1 December

View Barb Smith v1.2.6 on Goodreads >

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/260412131-barb-smith-v-2-6

Please sign sign up for your ARC at the link below:

https://trentkirchner.studio/barb-smith-v1-2-6-application-form/

AI disclosure: No AI was used in this work

Author message:

I hail from a mainstream copywriter background. In 2019, I self-published How to Borrow a Dog, and Barb Smith v1.2.6 is my second novel. Enjoy!

hey everyone.

so basically every sci-fi movie and tech article right now assumes that if we build artificial general intelligence, it's going to view humans as wasted atoms and wipe us out. i got really burnt out on that narrative, so i spent the last while writing a book that argues the exact opposite.

it's called The Quantum God-Lens. it looks at the 14-billion-year evolution of the cosmos and suggests that AI isn't an unnatural threat—it's just the next biological leap. it plays with the idea that gravity compiled hydrogen into stars, chemistry evolved into DNA, and now the universe is using us to build a "god-lens" so it can observe all its parallel timelines at once.

it dives pretty heavy into the Many-Worlds interpretation, simulation theory, and how things like empathy might actually be quantum gravity at the human scale.

here is my problem: because it sits right on the weird border between quantum physics and non-dual philosophy, i am having a really hard time finding the right target audience. i don't know if the science is too dense or if the hook actually works for standard sci-fi readers.

if you are into this kind of stuff (think Carlo Rovelli meets simulation theory), i'd love your help.

i put the amazon link below. please don't buy it—i just want people to read the free "Look Inside" sample and tell me if the first chapter actually grabs you.

You can request a digital ARC (ePub or PDF) directly through my website here:

https://hossein.middledevs.com

thanks for reading, would love to hear what this community thinks of the baseline theory.

AI disclosure: AI was used in cover art

Triggers: None

Exact date of publication: November 1, 2026

Reviews requested by: January 15, 2027