Meet Simon McQuade

Kris Jugler grew up in South Ogden, Utah — a kid who learned early that the world does not always meet you where you are.

At fourteen, he was homeless in Ogden. Athletics did not fix everything, but it gave him structure when little else did: discipline, teammates, and proof that effort could open doors that seemed permanently closed.

A track scholarship took him to the College of Eastern Utah. A football scholarship later brought him to Weber State. Sport was never the whole story, but it was part of how he survived — and how he learned to compete without losing himself.

He went on to work for the U.S. government, including two years at the Pentagon. That experience did not make him cynical. It made him watchful. He saw how politics, media, influence, and public opinion interact when the stakes are real — and how easily a narrative can replace the truth if no one pushes back.

Today he is a husband, father, grandfather, and coach. He writes because stories are how he makes sense of what he has seen — and because readers deserve fiction that respects their intelligence.

The Agnes Protocol is fiction. The questions it asks are not.

Kris spent years watching how information moves — who shapes it, who benefits, and how quickly a crowd can be steered when curiosity gives way to certainty. Politics, media, influence, and artificial intelligence all play a part. The novel sits at that intersection: truth versus narrative, and what happens when the two diverge.

It is not a manifesto and not a prediction. It is a story that lets readers sit with uncomfortable possibilities — and decide for themselves what matters. Simon McQuade exists to tell that kind of fiction clearly, without preaching and without pretending to have every answer.

Kris Jugler publishes nonfiction under his own name. His autobiography, Death Couldn't Convince Me, tells his life plainly — a different kind of truth, and a different contract with the reader.

Fiction needed its own lane. Simon McQuade is that lane: a separate brand for suspense, a clear signal about what you are picking up, and room for the work to stand on story rather than biography.

The name is on the cover. The person behind it is real. That separation is intentional.

Death Couldn't Convince Me — Kris Jugler's autobiography. A firsthand account of survival, faith, and the long road from homelessness to a life built piece by piece.

You do not need to read the memoir to enjoy The Agnes Protocol. But if you want to understand the author, both books point at the same conviction: truth is worth the cost of telling it.

If you're wondering what all the excitement is about, don't take my word for it. Read the first four chapters. By then, you'll know whether this story is for you.