Three Degrees of Freedom

Below is a .pdf of an excerpt from my first manuscript. I’m using it as a vehicle to explore the publishing process, including self-publishing options. See the Self-Publishing tab in the main menu for information.

Three Degrees of Freedom is probably best described as one part H.P. Lovecraft, one part Douglas Adams, and one part National Lampoon’s Animal House. The main character, Nathan Allen Foster, begins dabbling in occult mathematics as a college student and gets dragged along in a current of supernatural affairs. His best friend and mentor is a demon named Matt Jenkins. The inseparable pair stumble through college parties and mystic rituals in an endless quest for beer, girls and fried chicken.

It was a bit of a challenge to find a suitable excerpt for Three Degrees of Freedom. It is kind of dense and there are a lot of bizarre things going on. Much of it won’t make any sense at all unless you’ve started at the beginning. The book is composed of many short chapters. I chose to post the chapter titled Gallowacks, which I believe is actually one of the longer ones. I like this chapter because because it has a few fun characters and it does a good job capturing the social dynamic that surrounds the two protagonists. Also, it stands on its own as well as anything from this novel can. That being said, there are a couple of small points that should help understand the setting.

• Nathan Allen Foster is a math student at Prence University. Matt Jenkins is his best friend and mentor.
• It is a point of etiquette to address someone by their full name in demonic society. I’m sure reading it seems a little weird at first, like Irving Welsh’s phonetically spelled Scottish accents, but I think it fits the narrative and won’t distract at all once the reader gets used to it . Furthermore, one of my favorite things about this manuscript is all of the unusual and unearthly names. By having characters use each others full names repeatedly, I was really able accentuate the oddness of them.
• Occult mathematics is not just for curses and black magic. It can used to play a variety of games. One subset of these is played with a deck known as Hara cards. Nathan Allen Foster and Matt Jenkins are habitual card players. The floor of Nathan’s basement apartment has been painted with arcane geometries with the primary purpose of playing cards. The two are frequently joined by other spirits for game sessions.