![]() I had hit what writers call “research paralysis,” where I was obsessed with collecting and digesting more information than I truly needed to write the novel. I consumed every article or paper publicly available that could help me understand the various impacts of a pandemic on society. healthcare and medical infrastructure, U.S essential services infrastructure, supply chain dynamics. and world pandemic response protocols and detection capabilities, vaccine production, the U.S. I spent at least six months researching past pandemics, virology, disease epidemiology, U.S. Everything got in the way, but the biggest delay came from what turned out to be the novel’s greatest strength. Didn’t know what I was doing and wasn’t sure it would be worth the effort. The usual first time, part time writer challenges applied. However, despite my initial enthusiasm-the project barely got off the ground. And then the Swine Flu pandemic hit in 2008! Looking back, it should have come as no surprise to anyone, especially me, that my first stab at writing a novel would center around a pandemic. ![]() Max Brooks brilliant novel, World War Z a few years after that. DEATH ROAD TO CANADA PREPARED PREPPERS MOVIEThe book Hot Zone by Richard Preston and movie Outbreak was like a one-two punch, released a year apart in 1994-95. I burned through The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton in a single sitting. Captain Trips from Stephen King’s epic, The Stand, was burned into my psyche from an early age. The idea for TJP sprang from an already unhealthy obsession with viral outbreaks. A fear with its roots firmly planted in my first novel, The Jakarta Pandemic (TJP for short), published ten years ago. Unfortunately, one of my greatest fears has come true. A pandemic is not something you ever hope to be “right about.” You hope it never happens. ![]() I arrived at a rather unenviable and hopefully “once in a lifetime” position recently-having accurately predicted the pandemic now sweeping the globe. ![]()
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