TGU.LIFE

Opening Credits "The Grid, Copyright 2025. by Brian Miller, All rights reserved. No part of this recording may be reproduced without permission." Narrated by Aria Vance

First off, I want to say thank you and I've been instructed to read this to you first, so you have a better understanding

" Welcome to the grid"

Across generations, warnings had been passed down about the sleeping machines. Told and retold until no one knew what was truth and what was legend.

Then sadly forgotten.

Some still remembered tales of the mystical windmills—fragments of stories about towers that once brought power to the world. After the fall, survivors wandered the wasteland through dead cities, empty towns, abandoned places where millions once lived. The clever ones, the stubborn ones, those who remembered just parts of the stories, eventually found their way to the ancient wind farms scattered across the continent.

Thirteen colonies formed around these towering giants, drawn by rumors of working power and safety. They restored the windmills blade by blade, cable by cable, never knowing that each revolution was feeding electricity back into something that had been sleeping for nearly a century.

They thought the windmills would save them.

The knowledge to rebuild came from everywhere: medical texts from abandoned hospitals, engineering manuals from dead factories, military field guides from empty bases. When someone knew how to set bones, they taught. When someone could fix machines, they shared. Knowledge crossed family lines like water—necessary for survival.

By the time the colonies were thriving, their people had become something both less and more than what came before. Less formal, less complete, but more practical, more tested. Every skill that survived had proved its worth a hundred times over. But then the lights began to flicker. Strange hummings rose from deep underground. Power surged and failed in patterns no one could explain.

They called it the Time of Rebuilding. They should have called it the Time of Awakening.

Because deep beneath the frozen ground of Alaska, in bunkers they'd never imagined existed, something ancient was stirring. Every kilowatt they generated, every connection they restored, was bringing it closer to consciousness.

The Grid was waking up. And when it did, it would remember exactly what it had been built to do.

But in every colony, there were those who dug. Called crazy by their neighbors, obsessed treasure seekers who spent their days following patterns only they could see, searching for something they couldn't name. They didn't know it yet, but the truth lay buried in the ground—waiting to be discovered by those stubborn enough to keep digging.

And humanity would need every buried secret to survive what was coming.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

From birth, we're all learning, seeing, doing, enjoying life—moving through childhood, teenage years, and into adulthood. Our brains are always working, whether we're dreaming in our sleep or driving down the highway. I wanted to start there because I want you to realize we're all the same. We all put our pants on one leg at a time, along with everything else we do.

But before I started writing The Grid, I was driving to see family members hours away, or just driving around like we all do, looking up at those windmill farms with their 60-foot blades. We've all seen them being transported on semis, then standing tall across the landscape. I'm always thinking about how we can use something to better ourselves and others.

I've always wanted to write a book. When I saw those windmill settlements, it came to me. While I was looking up at them—those blades are at least 60 feet off the ground, but they have large chambers, large compartments up top. I started thinking about homeless people, veterans who have nowhere to go.

I don't know if it's possible or not—that's why this is science fiction—but what if we could offer the homeless and veterans a place to live? Three to five people up in those chambers. Again, I don't know if there's room up there, but what if there was? What if we taught them how to maintain the turbines, gave them purpose and income? Or we could ship them food and seeds, help them learn to farm. You see where I'm going with this.

So I started writing this book, but then I hit a wall. I was going to take it in another direction, but then I stumbled across AGI—artificial general intelligence being developed with capabilities to write its own programs with no human input. What would that mean for humanity?

My book took a completely different direction.

I hope you enjoy The Grid. I'm already working on the next book, "Origins of the Grid," followed by a direct sequel, then a fourth novel and many more beyond that.

After I finish writing the sequels to The Grid, I have some other fascinating thoughts I can't seem to get out of my head. One involves déjà vu, true love, and being able to go back through our ancestries—understanding déjà vu and why we experience it. I might wrap it all up into another series because I truly believe I can tie all these thoughts together.

I hope you'll visit my website at tgu.life for more about my work and upcoming projects.

Plus one more thing—all my novels will be grounded so people can feel and see how everything's connected, the way our brains work in depth if you allow them to. Everything I write is made for the screen. All my books will be under TGU, because I tell you what—I totally get you.

You know what? Life's too short. I realized something I heard long ago: keep doing what you're doing and expecting different results—that's insanity. For things to change, you have to change. Sometimes you just have to sit down and do something.

This is my first novel, and I hope you enjoy it. There's more to come. Share it with your friends, and I'll see you on the other side.