The Gateway, The True History and Expected Future of Social Networking – Or Not

In this gentle satire on social networking, and the get-rich-quick internet services business, Joe Angelli’s 10 long years of struggle are about to finally pay off as dawn approaches on the day his company, YourWorld, is set to go public.  YourWorld is a Silicon Valley giant that through luck, larceny, and litigation has come to dominate the social networking market.

Main Characters

Joe Angelli

A young, driven, slightly unethical, entrepreneur who suddenly finds himself in a world he can’t understand at the worst possible time.

Jane Devail

Joe’s fiancé.  The sultry sociopath and COO of YourWorld who shrewdly works her way to a position she has no talent for.

Victor Angelli

Joe’s father.  A rich venture capitalist who married money and used it to kick start the company.

Jennie Tsui

The Harvard educated, highly competent CFO of YourWorld who patiently waits for more.

Jack Clayman

The son of Senator Clayman,  Jack is Joe’s best friend and frequent bedroom companion of Jane.  He is a popular, well known, TV star who hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Bill Everman

The shy, unmotivated, co-creator of the YourWorld system.

The Story

Unfortunately for Joe, when he wakes on his big day, he finds himself in The Gateway, a vast DMV-like waiting room, the stopping off point between life and the afterlife, the result of a fatal traffic accident when he was texting while speeding to the airport.

As Joe makes his way through The Gateway, and on to the afterlife world, he vainly tries to reproduce the success he had in life, but his new neighbors are far more interested in gardening, dance lessons and village life, then in computers and getting rich.  Meanwhile, a battle ensues for control of YourWorld among those left behind.

When Joe finds out there’s a way to connect his new social networking system to the one on Earth, and starts sending messages to, at first skeptical, Bill, the battle becomes a war for much more, culminating in a showdown for the future of the, now multi-world, internet with Jane and Jack on one side and Jennie and Bill, who awkwardly find love, on the other.

Reviews

“… stupendous, amazing, hilarious, gripping, not bad, … rips the lid off the story of Facebook and other companies, then carefully puts it back before anyone notices…” Anonymous commenter, likely a close relative of the author.

… All you ever wanted to know about life, the afterlife, patent law, and more!”  Same reviewer

The Gateway is now available on Kindle and iTunes!