https://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20200822/leland-author-pens-mystery-in-smokeless-world

“Leland author pens mystery in smokeless world” (by Ben Steelman, Wilmington StarNews, Sunday 8/23/2020

In this book, some vices are outlawed while another is appreciated.

Imagine, if you will, a world where tobacco and alcohol are banned but vaping is practically mandatory.

It’s not “The Twilight Zone” but a new young adult novel by Leland resident Gary Neil Gupton. (Gupton held an online release party Saturday, August 22) for “Natural Causes” (independently published, $16 paperback, $26 hardcover).

“Natural Causes” is set roughly a generation or so in the future. Cars are almost all electric; your phone is a bud in your ear. Also, all alcohol and tobacco products have been outlawed, although e-cigarettes are not only legal but nearly ubiquitous.

At colleges, hipsters called “Naturalists” experiment with tobacco and homemade wine and hang out in underground clubs (sometimes literally underground) reading actual paper books instead of tablets.

Thanks to Ben Steelman for helping support local, independent authors. Gary Neil Gupton

“Natural Causes” YA novel by Gary Neil Gupton, is available through local, independent bookstores (indiebound). Signed copies from the author (Leland) and Wilmington, NC, independent bookstores Pomegranite Books and Old Books on Front. Page 158 Books, Wake Forest, NC. Also available through Amazon Books and other national outlets.