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            Shawnee State University alumnus Brian Bays, author of his first novel, “Righteous Intent,” will be speaking at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6, in SSU’s Advanced Technology Center, Burke Lecture Hall, Room 134.
            Bays attended public schools in New Boston, Ohio, and earned a bachelor’s degree in English and Humanities at SSU with certification in elementary education. He earned his master’s degree in education from the University of Rio Grande in 2003. He is board certified in exceptional needs as well as having master teacher status. He has also worked as an adjunct developmental reading instructor for SSU.
            Bays was born with a genetic condition called dominant optic neuropathy. It is a generic diagnosis, much like saying "heart disease" but it doesn't specify what is exactly wrong with him. His daughters suffer from the condition also.
            “Nobody really knows how to treat it,” Bays said in a recent blog. “We suffer from visual acuity loss, loss of visual contrast, color blindness, and difficulties with lights and glare. There isn't any treatment. There is no surgery, no medication and no corrective lenses to help. Having this disorder has been difficult, and emotionally taxing, not just because of my own loss of independence and job security, but because my daughters suffer from it as well.”
            His book is set in the year 2015, when an ambitious young computer engineer revolutionizes wireless communications systems with the release of the DuoDrite chip implant. Implanted in the user’s brain and powered by electrical impulses, the DuoDrite chip quickly replaced personal computers, cellular phones, global positioning systems and home entertainment systems.
            But there was a simple defect that lay in waiting – a defect of unimaginable consequences given the right conditions. When Mitchell Hughes, a divorced and visually impaired schoolteacher, goes on trial for a murder he didn’t commit, the stage is set for a courtroom battle of epic proportions and a conspiracy that could easily send Mitchell to data storage, the equivalent of a virtual execution.
            According to his publisher AuthorHouse, “Bays expertly crafts a sci-fi thriller that fuses courtroom drama, murder mystery and a love story into one breathtaking adventure that will have readers captivated to the very last page.”