This local novelist's espionage thriller makes best-seller charts

A local author has been getting plenty of traction with the release of his second book.

West Kelowna’s Andrew Schaer is out with Cosmogenesis- Zero-Day- The Singularity Of A Species, a novel filled with espionage, intrigue, tech, and a fair share of cliffhangers, as he put it.

The novel has been floating around the top of the best-selling charts on Amazon in the Espionage Thriller, Humorous Post-Apocalyptic Fiction, and Federal Government genres.

Schaer put some of that popularity down to the recent events in U.S. politics.

“A lot of readers realized I’d predicted the outcome of the [US Presidential] election and I interwove some geopolitical events into the story line. It’s gripping,” he told Kelowna10. “Readers of the greats, like Ian Fleming, would instantly gravitate towards this book.”

The story focuses on the dire threat to humanity when an ice-covered microbial remnant from an historic meteoric event collides with an errant cup of coffee in a paleoclimatology cleanroom.

Schaer speaks five languages, including French, Italian, German and Spanish and also throws in a little Russian and Farsi too. He has a Masters in Business Administration specializing in corporate governance and project management.

But it’s his experience as a venture capitalist and corporate banker that has laid the foundation for his worldly yarns.

“I have many international contacts,” he said, although in true spy fashion would not divulge too much about those.

“I’ve had exposure to many industries along the way in areas like hi-tech, genomics and vaccine development: everything from wireless devices to hardware and software funding.”

Like his first self-published novel, the highly successful Deconstructing Justice, this latest work is meticulously referenced. Schaer said while the story was in his head and put into writing relatively quickly, it was the research that consumed most of the time to ensure scientific and technological credibility.

As for being an independently published author, he figures everyone has that capacity and the process is not difficult.

“Everybody’s got a book in them,” he explained. “If you’ve lived a life and have independent thoughts, you too can be an independent author.”

Schaer said Amazon’s world-leading platform and distribution system allows writers to easily upload their manuscript using Kindle Create.

“Once you’re there it takes around five to ten minutes of work.”

Cosmogenesis- Zero-Day, the Singularity Of A Species, is available through Amazon in paperback ($12.50), hard cover ($53.00) and Kindle ($4.00), depending on exchange rates.

It also will be carried by the Okanagan Regional Library as part of its Regional Reads Collection.