Matchmaker: A Short Story

by James L. Wilber

I make people. I make your perfect match, your best friend, your true love. I make them alluring, breathtaking, hard as hell to resist. All the data that goes into a human being, memories, genetics, biochemistry, I collect and process that information. I put it together, mix and match to taste, and spit out the person you're going to fall in love with.

They're 100% real, and 100% virtual.

But is that enough? Where's the spark? What’s the thing that makes love true?

---

Matchmaker is a short story set fifteen minutes into the future where the rich buy online people to call their own.

Written by James L. Wilber, game designer, podcaster, and author of My Babylon, the serial novel about occult and dark desires,

20 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 17, 2013

About the author

James L. Wilber describes himself as Anne Rice and Chuck Palahniuk's bastard love child. He's a pretentious prick who claims to pen, "literary genre fiction." Which means he writes smarmy stories about wizards and vampires doing a poor job at hiding his symbolism and metaphor. He's turned to self-publishing on the correct assumption his stories are just too weird for mass consumption.

He has contributed to numerous books for roleplaying games from companies such as: Wizards of the Coast, Paizo Publishing, White Wolf Studios, Bastion Press, and Atlas Games. He was also a writer on the Origins Award nominated, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game by Eden Studios.

Along with Stephan Loy, James is a member of Mid-World Arts, a collective of indie writers dedicated to helping each other produce quality works. Check them out at midworldarts.com.

Mr. Wilber also assumes the roles of husband, ceremonial magician, podcast host, and owner of a 100-lb Alaskan Malamute.

He lives in Indianapolis, a dreary place built by masons obsessed with circles.

You can read his thoughts on politics, culture, and what he calls pagan chaos magick at scrollofthoth.com.

He only uses social media that he enjoys, which means tumblr. Get to know him at scrollofthoth.tumblr.com, jameslwilber.tumblr.com, and geeksoutafterdark.tumblr.com.

You can hear him on the podcasts Scroll of Thoth, and Geeks Out After Dark.

Get more of his writing at scrollofthoth.com and jameslwilber.com.

Check where James will be at the James L. Wilber Meetup.

Reviews

[Graham Downs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is quite an intriguing story, about a guy who works for a company that manufactures virtual people, for real people to fall in love with. I found the concept pretty good, and the direction that the author takes the story in, and the ending, quite surprising (although the ending was a bit abrupt, and left me wanting more).

The problem with this book is that the back matter is longer than the story itself! It goes into great detail about the author, his publishing company, and his other books, which just felt like one long advert. This back-matter also had the same typo over and over again ("Get if free wherever good e-books are sold"), which tells me there was a lot of copying and pasting going on.

I now know more about the author than I think I ever could have wanted, and although this particular story was good, I know enough about him to not want to read any of his other work (which is probably a good thing, as you really don't want readers who don't "fit" well with your own tastes).

[Candace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story of virtual love and dating. The references to pop culture fit the geek protagonist of the story. Plus,the descriptions of how much he hated his boss were fantastic. I could feel his loathing.

[Stephan Loy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sorry, I pushed the wrong button. But my comment below is a fair evaluation of the story. Philip K. Dick mixed with William Gibson. Interestingly, the story binds your attention even though it is essentially a static scene, a kind of one-set play. Well worth the read.