Thursday, October 13, 2005
Recently, those folks who have either read or heard me describe the plot of my Madonna Key book SHADOW LINES have mentioned how eerie the recent news has been about the Bird flu.
Last May when I signed on board with the Madonna Key continuity, the blurb from which I had to develop a story was basically my heroine was an epidemiologist and an outbreak kills off a small Switzerland village. I had to come up with the disease and everything else for that aspect of the book that is stand alone. I did extensive research, rejecting bubonic plague and Ebola as having been done a lot. I came across a few articles about the Spanish flu and the 1918 Pandemic. After killing off an estimated 50 million people, the Spanish flu petered out and hasn't been seen since. I also came across an article that mentioned scientists were trying to recreate the DNA.
I did an 'aha' and a 'what if' and used a resurrected Spanish flu strand to kill off the village. Then, as my book developed, I also wrote about an international health congress in Vienna, Austria that is threatened.
Hmm, if you've heard the recent news, reporters have compared the Bird flu to the Spanish flu pandemic and there's been a health congress in New York to address a new pandemic.
So a number of events in my just completed book are currently playing out in real life. Spooky indeed.
Carol Stephenson
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2 comments:
Oh, Lord, I'd forgotten about that aspect of your book, Carol, but now you've reminded me of when you were researching this. Spooky, indeed, but also an indication that you've come up with a scarily plausible plotline!
Isn't it though, Bron? I'm sure the current events will be generating more than a few outbreak books, but mine was created before all these happenings. :) Carol
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