Hoarder in the Down Deep by Marilyn Peake

Release date: January 21, 2015

Subgenre: Dystopian science fiction

About Hoarder in the Down Deep

 

It’s against the law to have children without winning the lottery. Implanted with a birth control device as required by law, Evangeline Hubbard, a dirt farmer in the down deep, discovers that implants sometimes fail. But in a world strictly controlled by the authorities, one pays a terrible price for tampering with the established order. Consumed by fear and madness after things go horribly wrong, Evangeline hoards in order to hang onto things. She adds them to the nest she’s building in the down deep.

HOARDER IN THE DOWN DEEP is a novella based on the best-selling WOOL series by Hugh Howey, and was written with his permission. It’s set in the time when Sheriff Holston and his wife Allison had won the lottery, giving them one year to conceive a child. Investigating the case of Evangeline Hubbard, Sheriff Holston and Mayor Jahns are unprepared for what they find. HOARDER IN THE DOWN DEEP explores how psychological issues and emotional pain can lead to hoarding. It also explores the mental strain placed on women who have lost control over their own reproductive processes. 

Excerpt:

 

 The Evangeline Hubbard Investigation

Evangeline Hubbard did not believe they were coming.  For years, her next-door neighbors had told her they’d reported her to the authorities.  They had warned her, threatened her that Sheriff Holston was on his way.  At first, she had worried.  She had lain awake at night, jumping at every footstep on the other side of her apartment door.  Once asleep, she had woken repeatedly from her own nightmares covered in sweat.

But the authorities from the up top never came to her door in the down deep.  Not anymore.  They only seemed to make the trip for serious criminals or political rabble-rousers.  And Eva did not fit either profile.

She and her husband, Max, worked one of the dirt farms.  They had no criminal record.  And they were hardly rabble-rousers.  Eva thought of herself as a timid mouse hiding away in her nest of stuff.

 

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About Marilyn Peake: 

 

 

Marilyn Peake is the author of both novels and short stories.  Her publications have received excellent reviews.  Marilyn’s one of the contributing authors in BOOK: THE SEQUEL, published by The Perseus Books Group, with one of her entries included in serialization at THE DAILY BEAST.  In addition, Marilyn has served as Editor of a number of anthologies.  Her short stories have been published in seven anthologies and on the literary blog, GLASS CASES.  AWARDS:  Silver Award, two Honorable Mentions and eight Finalist placements in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards, two Winner and two Finalist placements in the EPPIE Awards, and Winner of the Dream Realm Awards.

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