Episode 41: Behind the Scenes of Moderation Online

Hello, and welcome to episode 41. In the final behind the scenes episode of the year, I wanted to talk about my most unusual series, Moderation Online, and the story behind it.

Now, if you haven’t heard me talk about my Moderation Online series, here’s the idea: a group of terrorist vegetables attempts to take down an empire of processed foods.

Before you run away laughing, I promise I’m not crazy. Far from it.

I like to tell the story of how I spent time in the hospital in 2012 due to an illness. Well, when I was in the hospital, I was on a heavy dose of morphine, and one of the side effects of morphine is hallucinations. It makes you incoherent, and you see things.

I couldn’t eat solid food, which made the problem even worse because I didn’t have a full stomach, so the hallucinations were intense.

I remember being on my hospital bed one night, wishing I could eat. Seriously, I would have done anything for a cheeseburger.

What happened next completely changed my life and made me into an artist. I promise that everything that you’re about to hear actually happened, and that I’m not crazy. I am not making this up.

I was laying on my bed, and I heard someone whisper my name.

“Michael.”

I looked around but didn’t see anyone.

Then I heard my name again.

“Michael.”

Sitting in my room was a giant cheeseburger. He had arms and legs, and greasy eyes. He had teeth, which were dripping with cheddar. He was seven feet tall and probably six feet across. And he had a New York accent.

“Hey buddy, let’s get out of here,” he said.

“Get out of here?” I asked. “Where are we going to go?”

I don’t remember what happened after that. All I remember was the cheeseburger standing in my room, grinning at me.

Later that night, as I tried to sleep, I couldn’t. I kept dreaming about a huge city. It was one of the biggest cities I’d ever seen, and it was lit up with lights under a dusky sky. But the odd thing about the city was that the buildings were made of food—the skyscrapers were made from cereal boxes. Blimps shaped like TV dinners flew over the city, with cryptic messages flowing across their TV screens.

Something about that city scared me—it had a bad energy, like a place you didn't want to visit.

I kept dreaming about it. It loomed on the horizon of my dreams, and I didn't know what to make of it.

After I got out of the hospital and recovered, I remembered those hallucinations. For years I couldn't stop thinking about that talking cheeseburger and the scary city.

I decided to write a novel about it, which ended up being Food City, Book 1 in the Moderation Online series.

The series follows Kendall Barnes, a citizen of the near future, where obesity and heart disease are ravaging the world, to the point where doctors don’t know what to do about it. A group of doctors devises a unique strategy—a virtual reality video game where humans interact with anthropomorphic vegetable characters and go on quests with them. By doing this, humans subconsciously learn that vegetables are good, and it prompts them to eat better, and improve their health.

Kendall is an obese African-American man, and he is enrolled in this experimental game after having a heart attack for the first time. While he’s being uploaded into the game, hackers inject malicious code into the game, corrupting it. That code is a civilization of processed foods who take the vegetables hostage and trap the humans in their city of salt, sugar, and fat under the false illusion that processed foods are their friends and vegetables are evil. Vegetables live under the city as second-class citizens, starved of food and sunlight.

Instead of an idyllic world with friendly vegetables which was the intent of the game, Kendall ends up in New Eaton, the dangerous city of processed foods, and he falls under their spell. The ruler of the city is a sparkling cloud of salt named Sodius, and Kendall pledges allegiance to Sodius and his race of processed foods in exchange for a life of partying, fun, and gambling.

The book begins at a festival where Kendall and humans hunt vegetables and kill them for pure pleasure. A gang of vegetables orchestrates an attack that claims several lives, led by a mysterious stalk of broccoli named Brocc. Brocc is hell-bent on destroying the processed foods and restoring balance to the world. During the attack, Brocc takes Kendall hostage, using him as collateral, and the two clash big time.

Brocc seems like a villain, but Kendall slowly learns the truth about the evil city and the processed foods’ true intentions, and he realizes that maybe the vegetables aren’t the bad guys after all.

Yes, I know, it sounds crazy, but really, the story is a statement about our dangerous relationship with food. It’s also heavily inspired by the Final Fantasy series, anime, and comics. Moreso than most of my series, this one is out there—it’s fast-paced, fun, and unforgettable.

I have a tough job marketing this series, as you can probably tell. The premise scares most people off, but when those who stick around read it, they usually enjoy it because it’s so different and fun.

I didn’t help myself with the first round of book covers, either. They were pretty ugly, and that was my fault for not giving my designer better clarity because the designer was amazing. The first covers had Brocc on the cover, and he’s a stalk of broccoli in a leather jacket, a gold earring, and red Chucks. But seriously though, can you imagine a book cover designer seeing a book like this coming into their email inbox? I did NOT make this easy on him.

The second designer though did a much better job, primarily because I understood the marketing a little better. The covers now have Kendall on the front, with a futuristic city in the background. The cover for Book 3, Delicious Zeal, is probably one of my favorite book covers in my collection. So yeah, I’ve had to learn how to market this book over the years, because it’s a challenge. But for me, it’s worth it.

Anyway, that’s the story behind Moderation Online. So if you haven’t stopped listening to this episode yet—which I suspect many people have already, check it out. You can find it at michaellaronn.com/moderationline. You won’t be disappointed.

Sound/Music Credits:

Intro/Outro Music: “Kick. Push” by Ryan Little: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/RyanLittle//kickpush