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Imagine a world in which war, crime, hunger, poverty, inequality, prejudice, bigotry and arrogance do not exist.

Imagine a world in which everyone, without exception, has free access to the exact same quantity and quality of food, clothing, housing, medical care, formal education and social advancement opportunities.

Now imagine that, in this world, the words father, mother, daughter, son, brother, sister, family, marriage and religion do not exist, because the concepts themselves do not exist.

Imagine that, in this world, the inhabitants are occasionally transported to a place they never knew existed or required to do something, without having the slightest idea of what they are doing or why it must be done.

Can you imagine such a world? I did. If you choose to visit it someday, I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading about the world of Levels* as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Jim Vuksic - Author

*

*Available through 14 commercial vendors in: paperback (376 pages), e-Book download (Kindle/Nook/Tablet), audio book on CD (9 discs) and audio book download - 8 hours listening time, narrated by Stephen Rozzell.
Distributed internationally by Ingram/Spring Arbor.

Interviews

Interviewed by Michael Brooks for , a literary blog published in the United Kingdom. (Oct. 20, 2014)


Interviewed for Book Reader Magazine. (Sept. 10, 2014)


Interviewed for The Platinum Journal, a teen literary magazine published in the United Kingdom. (Aug. 11, 2014)


Interviewed by Vinny O'Hare for Awesomegang.Com, a literary website. (Dec. 3, 2013)


Interviewed by Heather Holtschlag for In Shaler Community Magazine (Nov. 15, 2012)
No internet address.

How Levels was Born

Writing a novel was just one of several items included in a bucket list that my late wife insisted that I create upon retiring in 2001.

I quickly learned that my first idea was seldom the best idea and that a few of my best ideas would come from others. It took me fourteen months to produce a completed, polished manuscript.

I made a copy for each of my four adult children. Two of them pleaded with me for months to at least make an attempt to have it published. We finally struck an agreement. I would send query letters to five mainline publishers. If all five rejected my offering, the matter would be dropped and never again brought up.

Within twenty-four hours of e-mailing the letters, I received polite rejection responses from three of the recipients. A few days later, the two remaining publishers requested a copy of the manuscript for evaluation. About six weeks later I received a formal rejection notice from one of them. The following day, I received a phone call from an acquisition representative of Tate Publishing. He informed me that the publisher felt that the novel had commercial potential, so I was being offered a contract. After having it reviewed and approved by my attorney, I signed and returned it to the publisher.

The next several weeks were spent learning from and working with the layout design artist, copy editor, and conceptual editor, assigned by the publisher to help convert my manuscript into a commercially viable book. Throughout the process, my ego was sorely bruised as I gradually began to realize that the completed, polished manuscript, of which I had been so proud, was neither complete nor polished.

By the time the process ended, the original story had been reduced from 126,000 words to 111,000. Then I was required to create an abridgemnt of the print version of no more than 85,000 words, so that the audio book would not exceed eight hours listening time.

Levels was officially released on August 9, 2011.