ZERO AT THE BONE: It Can and Does Happen Here

by Carol Snow

I have a BS in journalism with a minor in government and politics from the University of Maryland and have been the director of several political organizations. I have written news and features for newspapers and wire services and a blog. Though this manuscript is an autobiography, it is a horror story because it is true.
Russia, China, India, France, Germany, England and every other country that is rich enough has spy technology along with many large corporations, scientific and medical research organizations and criminal cabals that use secret procedures. That I can write this in my shabby, cheap little walk up with free access to any amenity I can get my hands on speaks of democracy in action. In other countries I’d have been offed by now if not incarcerated in a cell with little to eat or quite possibly tortured to death.
There are serious problems with spy technology in the United States presented here, and I understand the first importance of not permitting another nuclear (new clear) war on a scale that would wipe out all living creatures. So keep in mind before submitting to outrage that this does happen here, that like it or not, other countries have as much at stake as the U.S. in trying to force each of us to conform to their values or lack of values...
The fact that we have always thought what happened to me could not happen here makes us more peculiarly at risk than everybody else in the world who realizes that it could happen there. Hiding in the basement is not the solution. Silence is not the solution. Blind obedience to an unseen dictator and inquisition with a wiretap on our phones is not the solution. Going berserk, killing yourself and taking as many other people with you as possible is not the solution. It can only be found in a free country where the rule of law – our law prevails in the U.S. Knowledge is the key to defense. Only names of living persons have been changed. That this critique can be published in this country is proof that the Bill of Rights still stands.

411 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2015

About the author

Called “an author to watch” by Booklist, Carol Snow is an American author of contemporary women’s fiction and young adult literature. After graduating from Brown University with a degree in psychology, she spent many years writing literary short stories before accepting that she couldn't go more than a few hundred words without cracking a joke. She eventually turned her attention to crafting humorous, heartfelt stories with a wider commercial appeal, and In 2006, Berkley/Penguin published her first novel, Been There, Done That, which Publisher's Weekly called “humorous, wise . . . romance with a bit of social commentary.” Since then, she has written four more books for adults, Getting Warmer (2007), Here Today, Gone to Maui (2009), Just Like Me, Only Better (2010), and the upcoming What Came First (2011), about which Laura Fitzgerald, bestselling author of Veil of Roses, said, “Carol Snow mixes her trademark humor with tenderness and understanding in this good-mom/bad-mom tale of unexpected twists and turns.” Carol has also written two young adult books for HarperCollins, Switch (2008), an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, and Snap (2009). Foreign rights to her books have sold to publishers in Germany, Norway, and Romania.

Carol Snow grew up in New Jersey. Much of her childhood was spent immersed in books; the rest was focused on avoiding dodgeball. In addition to her psychology degree from Brown University, she holds an M.A.T. in English from Boston College. Before getting her first book published, she had the typical (for a writer) assortment of odd jobs: tour guide, tutor, chambermaid, waitress. She worked for a T-shirt company, a child services agency, and a vanity press. She even had a short stint in local politics. Her campaign brochures were really pretty, with flawless punctuation.

Since leaving New Jersey, Carol has lived all over the place: Rhode Island, London, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Utah, Arizona, and, now, Southern California, where she shares a cat-fur-coated house with her husband and their two children.