Author Aften Brook Szymanski, isn’t the first author to have faceless characters roaming her novel, but she’s the rare author that lives in a faceless world every day. Aften has prosopagnosia, also referred to as facial recognition disorder, and it affects her world significantly. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, “Prosopagnosia can be socially crippling. Individuals with the disorder often have difficulty recognizing family members and close friends.” Aften has written blogs on the severity of her disorder, telling about her embarrassment with not recognizing friends or even her own face on the big screen at sporting events. In one of her blogs, Aften writes, “I try to smile, but sometimes I still end up embarrassed and offending someone who feels I ‘should know’ them. It’s hard to be friendly all the time. I’m not perfect at it. But, it’s my best defense for not having a damn clue who is in the room with me at any given time. I’ve committed worse offenses than not knowing someone’s name. Not recognizing my own children (on more than one occasion) are the moments that I feel the most shame.”
In Aften’s Science Fiction novel, “Cheat Code,” releasing from publisher Immortal Works on April 10th, the main character doesn’t know who she is and has a constant feeling of out-of-placeness. Her biggest fear as she navigates a fearscape in her virtual reality world is that she will be faceless, a dread Aften lives every day. When it comes to writing characters, Aften said she struggles with descriptions. “It’s difficult to balance leaving readers with some physical description, so as not to compromise the ability to visualize the story.”
The book, “Cheat Code,” is set in a virtual reality world where people with terminal illness compete to stay alive through artificial intelligence. The players must level up or they will die, encountering perilous obstacles on each game level. Trusting opponents can be deadly, especially when everyone wants a spot on the leaderboard. The novel follows player GenE, the only player who doesn’t have a code number tattooed to her arm. When she finds out her closest ally is keeping secrets, she decides to take gameplay into her own hands, because rules are made to be reprogrammed.
Aften speaks publicly on prosopagnosia in and around Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. Up to 2 percent of the population has some form of facial recognition disorder, according to a study by Harvard University and University College London. Resources like FaceBlind.org are available to help individuals navigate prosopagnosia.
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