Mark Wagstaff

Winner of the 45th Annual 3-Day Novel Contest In a future hotter than today, people meet their needs through tailored forms of intelligence. From the cyborg security at the food mart to the ever-learning, ever-loving forms that can effectively, and acceptably, be a life partner. The processing nous of an AI spouse is all the more valuable in a world where everything's a game. An actual game. So We Blush Less When The Phone Rings presents a world where differences hinge on whether we're organic or customised, whether we're physical creatures or a controlled visualisation.
This is a world where power dynamics are hazy and the old uncertainties of romance mean nothing in the face of reliable engineering. But no society can be all winners. In this world, "scarcity value" haunts everything and staying wholly natural is the only sure way to lose. Who benefits and who goes without is determined by iron rules, while commodities are acquired via an ongoing bidding game. The purpose of this society is to hold a bright blanket around chronic scarcity.
The world is too hot to do anything more. And even a respectable happy married couple, once they step outside the game, find themselves talking to bullets.