I recently took a hiatus from The Scent of Sex because I was working on other stories. Those are done, and I am working on Scent once again. However, I am leaving the country for a month and will not take my computer, so no writing. I will continue on my return. Cheers, DM
Some readers have been kind enough to comment on the technology described in this story. It may be relevant to explain that the IBM research project mentioned in chapter 3 was real, and was the inspiration for this story. Thus, I began writing this in 1996. I never found a publishing home for it, so it has languished in my computer until now. Although much of the technology described up to this point and in future chapters may seem pretty 'old hat' by now, it was cutting edge then. If you wonder how authentic the science may be, I had a neighbor who was a physicist at Lawrence Livermore Labs who read it and reassured me that I was nearly exact in my explanations, and had some complimentary thoughts on my theory of how the TDM might be powered (black hole technology), although that is of course totally theoretical even today.
I have read a number of stories on this site that deal with pheromones and their sexual connections. Although they are no more fantastic as a story element than magic or space aliens, they are actually a real thing. So, given my professional and personal interests, I decided to do some research on the subject. I found it really fascinating, and branched out to the commercial applications that are connected with it. Therefore, all of the technical information is as accurate as I could relay it, although I have of course fantasized about the potential repercussions of “What if humans really …?” That latter thought was the genesis of this story, so that’s why I have and will continue to base all of the plot on this tiny aspect of genetics.
By the way, I want to thank those readers who have been kind enough to politely point out my errors in the subject of law, which I have tried to correct. Although I actually do have some slight background in that field, it is no longer of great concern to me, so I did not bother to research what I had included in this story.
I hope you enjoy it. Cheers, DM