The White Lake (work in progress)

SKATE THE WHITE LAKE! EARN FAME AND COIN!
IF YOU FALL—YOUR LAST DAY, A DIAMOND.

In the White Lake, that once was Budapest, microscopic robots eat air, and whatever else falls in, to make diamonds that daily wash ashore the broken islands of Pest.

If you’re desperate, collect the diamonds. If you’re really desperate, figure-skate the Lake in mag-lev boots: jump and spin, solo or in teams, for a global audience seeking elegance and horror.

Just don’t fall.

Embargoed by a dying empire, Pest is still essential: a sink for carbon, a source of diamonds, a chance for the poorest and a rite of passage for the richest.

But lately, the White Lake grows unstable—or maybe, smarter.

Dömötör is a Lover, a high-class sex worker trained to become anyone’s ideal partner. A skater himself, and a bauble for Pest’s newly rich, Dömötör sees what others don’t. He suspects one of his clients is behind the Lake’s new behavior — but who, and why?

And why does it feel like Dömötör himself is part of their plan?

A story of surviving the worst of circumstances and still finding a way to live, The White Lake is a fast ride to a brutal future, an cyberpunk novel mixing Old World and New Weird style, for fans of Catherynne M. Valente and Jeff VanderMeer.

Just don’t fall.