Homebrew - A Novel for NaNoWriMo
So what is "HomeBrew" about? It's about four people who are sick and tired of living in an increasingly restrictive and structured society. Dead-end jobs, lost or non-existent relationships, ever-increasing regulations, they're all beating down on my protagonists. However, there's one ray of hope, work on board OPS-1, the new multi-national Orbital Power Station, which is planned to be the flagship of a 'fleet' of orbital solar power stations that will eventually provide clean energy to the world below.
Only there's a fly in the soup. OPS-1, being a joint project between massive multinational corporations and various governments, formed under the auspices of the United States and the United Nations, 'upstairs' (on station) management is just as regulations-happy and conformity-conscious about the workers' lives as the protagonists suffer 'downstairs'.
So each attempts to break out of the mold by creating 'alternative' jobs, ones not conceived by the project planners yet which find eager customers amongst the workers. And this leads, eventually, to open conflict between the micro-managing project adminstrators and the protagonists, complete with betrayal, paranoia and real 'accidents' and sabotage - in an environment where the slightest error can kill!