 |
||||||||||||||
|
|
May 4, 2001 Mr. Bruce Beresford Dear Mr. Beresford: I’m certain you’ve taken note of the Academy Award nominations for “Traffic.” It’s an exciting movie, and despite fine acting, a top-notch screenplay, a creative film style and excellent parallel cutting, it is forced (through no fault of its own) to falter on a less than satisfying ending. That ending, in essence, says: “Parents; since the war on drugs is futile and frustrating, and the drug producers so invincible—just pay more attention to your children; because they are taking drugs while you are out to lunch!” At the end there is no cheering, not even a scattering of mild applause. On the other hand… Buzzword’s end is positively stunning! Plant derived drugs cease to exist! A fairy tale ending? Think again! Then imagine the conflict when a highly respected plant pathologist agrees to develop lethal plant pathogens that will wipe out the world’s two major drug producing crops, the coca shrub and the opium poppy. What powerful forces will combine to stop just such a person? Crazy? Buzzword is important because the biotechnology it describes already exists! The BBC’s Tom Mangold (Panorama) recently showed proof that biocontrols for the opium poppy and the coca shrub do work! Scientific academia’s research not only can destroy narcotics producing plants but also cut off the principal revenue stream of international criminal enterprises, which far too often include sovereign governments. This was confirmed by Rand Beers, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State. At the end of this movie there is wild cheering and applause. Motion picture rights are available. An advance readers galley of the book (to be published July 4, 2001) is enclosed. Thanks for your interest. Feel free to call me. 1-814-466-8747 Website: http://www.buzzwordbook.com If you’d like additional synopsis information, it’s enclosed. Very cordially, Walton Cook
BUZZWORD is a breakthrough bio-thriller that unveils in startling detail exactly how total victory in the 'War on Drugs' can be won in both the fictional and real worlds! BUZZWORD is high-concept; a technological first. It details Dr. Alex Wyckham's permanent destruction of the South American coca (cocaine) crop by bioengineered plant pathogens spread by insect vectors. Alex unleashes the power of rDNA technology as a means of achieving personal, political and societal goals. Although Alex Wyckham is a fictional researcher, the secrets of this book are not fictional. They have been evaluated and declared viable by highly respected major university researchers in plant pathology. (Currently proposed to State of Florida for marijuana control and proposed to several nations) When renowned plant pathologist Alex Wyckham is joined at Peru’s International Potato Institute (CIP) by his plant geneticist wife, Sharon, neither suspect that an altruistic motive like developing heat-resistant potatoes to feed the world’s tropical poor will destroy their life together. On a routine field trip to the Peruvian Amazon in search of native potato cultivars, Sharon’s chance encounter with drug traffickers proves fatal. Only her team’s pilot, Roverto Rios, survives to detail her tragic fate. Alex’s crushing devastation soon turns toward retribution; an alchemy transforming tears of loss into hard diamonds of purpose. Hasn’t he said so many times before that the same technology that can be used to improve a plant can also used to destroy it? Wasn’t that his exact thought when a natural attack by Fusarium oxysporum wiped out 15,000 acres of Uchiza’a coca fields? After months of feverish experiments, Alex will stake his professional reputation on the results of his research. But, will the government listen to his proposal? BUZZWORD is the story of Alex’s graveside promise to Sharon; to overcome all obstacles to win a victory over drugs in her name. All too soon he will be opposed by his own government, then the combined criminal powers of the international underworld. Much as Tom Clancy brought the non-fictional world of modern submarine warfare alive in the fiction of The Hunt For Red October, the exciting non-fictional world of applied agricultural biotechnology becomes vitally real in the fiction of BUZZWORD. BUZZWORD’s reader (viewer) can’t help asking: “Were
I to have the technology to end the ‘war on drugs’, would
I do it?” It’s a gale force genetic shakedown cruise. In the
hierarchy of life, are plants a lower level of biological organization?
Do plants have inalienable rights? Controversial questions are the ‘right
stuff’ of great movies. “BUZZWORD is intelligent and bold, an astonishing final solution to the trafficking and use of plant derived narcotics.” “Highly innovative!” “A compelling read with all that’s needed to turn fiction into real world fact!” “It’s a book history will remember.” “I couldn’t put it down.” “A brilliant defense of a biological solution to the ageless problem of drugs and a spellbinding trip into the inner workings of organized crime.” “Great characters!” “A real bio-thriller; biotechnology at its best!” “I thought the‘War on Drugs’ couldn’t be won. I was wrong!”
Comments?  ©2001-2008 Public Policy Press
Website design by Packetrat Communications |
 |