Having fun while saving the world "Modern Surprises is] a delightful adventure story.... This book is tremendous fun, and has a lot of really strong, fascinating characters, most of whom happen to be female. Really groovy stuff, and you should check it out." -Keith R.A. DeCandido, author of Dragon Precinct"Joan's prose is always cool, it's a majority female team and that's such a good title." -Paul Cornell, author of London Falling, The Severed Streets, and Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?The women at Modern Surprises LLC, needed someone to answer the phones. Jay Ecklund was hired. From the very first day, he found this was no ordinary company: the science division there had secretly developed a portal that would allow them to go to anywhere on Earth. Madeline Chang, a military veteran and owner of Modern Surprises, had a plan: to use the portal as a device to help those in need. However, billionaire industrialist Charles Vance found out about the portal, and was willing to lie, cheat, and steal to get it for himself. But Madeline, Jay, and the rest of the team were not about to let him have it. A note from the author: if you enjoy television shows that show how science works, Modern Surprises is for you. I definitely had fun with the novel, and intended for the characters to have fun, as well--because I believe science is fun (I have a physics degree). Through the novel, readers experience how technology needs to be tested, how there are are unexpected effects, and how technology doesn't always work in the way the original design indicated it might (and that can be delightful). When the characters find that the portal, Arachne, responds to music, it adds yet another dimension to the technology. I hope you'll have fun with the story, too.