Innervate


Fiction - Short Story/Novela
36 Pages
Reviewed on 12/26/2022
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Author Biography

Liza is an award winning, innovative contemporary performer, composer, producer, lyricist and multimedia narrative author.

They were awarded the cross disciplinary boundary breaking Fusion Fund by Help Musicians UK to create a narrative audiovisual work. They have built their own instrument, the roborecorder, which is on display in the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.

Liza co-wrote ‘Spinning Dance’ with acclaimed electronic artist James Holden. They created the ground breaking audiovisual multimedia narrative EPs INNERVATE and Beyond the Blonde, writing and producing the score, lyrics and narrative.

Liza worked as Assistant Musical Director under renowned producer Kuljit Bhamra and composer Yu-Peng Chen on the Genshin Impact 3.0 soundtrack. They were selected for the ECSA (European Composers and Songwriters Alliance) and AEC (Association of European Conservatoires) Mentorship Programme with multi award winning gold selling composer and songwriter Hélène Muddiman and award winning BASCA-nominated composer and author Sorana Santos, the Ivors Academy Mentorship Programme with international creative producer Martel Ollerenshaw and Sage Gateshead Summer Studios. Liza currently produces original serial fiction podcast Spiral Dial.

Liza studied clarinet performance at Trinity College London where they were awarded a Distinction and the Hambleton Clarinet Prize.

Their professional performance career was cut short after the devastating diagnosis of a rare form of epilepsy, triggered by playing certain patterns of notes, after which they qualified as a medical doctor on the Graduate Entry programme at King’s College London.

Highly accomplished, they also hold a Masters degree in Geology from the University of Oxford.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite

Innervate by Liza Bec is a short story told from two points of view. Sarah is a brain that has been engineered, and as an engineered brain, Sarah is expected to be perfect. And Sarah is perfect in many, many ways. Sarah the brain learns quickly and becomes a source of pride to her musician-loving owners. Unfortunately, a flaw in Sarah's construction is revealed when Sarah begins making musical mistakes, and, as a result, Sarah transitions to obscure and contemporary tunes to hide the bits that are out of tune. When this proves impossible, Sarah returns to the second point of view character, Hans, whose quality control measures are secondary to a much more lucrative side hustle.

Liza Bec has crafted a wonderfully engrossing story with Innervate that packs a huge punch despite its compact size. The underlying theme is neurodisability and the lengths we go to cover this up, as well as a plot so well developed that proves how amazingly talented and perceptive we are even as neurodivergent or with a neurodisability. It took me some time to piece together what made Hans part of the puzzle beyond a superficial fiddle. Still, the external forces that impact internal growth and acceptance are as important a part of the journey as anything we do ourselves. The writing is clean, tight, and engaging. The narrative is pitch-perfect and I didn't even realize until I finished the story that it is a narrative in its entirety. Overall, this is an excellent read. Very highly recommended.