One of the frequent questions put forth from our great readers of Pandemic-19 is this: Why a story about a virus? There have been countless books about viruses. How is this different? It is a legitimate thought and one that can be answered, albeit for our story, tiptoeing around a bit so as not to divulge too much.
The unfortunate reality is the world today is faced with a pandemic reminiscent of the one that occurred in 1918, when millions of people died from the flu and associated complications. The death toll in 2020 is rising every single day with well over a 1.5 million causalities and over 67 million cases. The United States leads the pack, not something to be proud of at all, with almost 15 million cases and now over 300 thousand deaths. To drive home the severity of both pandemics, 1918 saw over 500 million affected, a third of the planet’s population, with 50 million deaths worldwide. The U.S. had over 675 thousand perish. Cases in 2020 continue to rise and people dying, so there is fuel to create a story around it.
Pandemic-19 weaves current events from the gross realization of what confronts us, with fiction taken from what we witness each day, and builds a tale worth telling and sharing with our readers. The virus is based on COVID-19 and the circumstances loosely as well. We then take a leap, thought is it really that far fetched to make the jump, to make the claim, that the virus decimated the world and now all that remains are pieces of a very dismal existence? If COVID-19 cannot be reigned in, who is to say that Pandemic-19 is not a fortune teller seeing into the crystal ball?
Another part of the puzzle in creating the novel is taking real news and even the fake news, and extrapolating, massaging, and utilizing the facts and outright lies to use as part of the framework for the story. The world has been presented with all kinds of information, both true and false with outright lies making counter claims. Many beliefs and information from both sides of the fence have been used for this book, so what you see is not necessarily what is real for the material.
Chew on that one for a moment.
The book presents certain and specific items and lays them at your feet as facts supporting what has transpired. The perception and experience of our main character, Ryan Carmichael. Politics play a role in what he has seen, witnessed, and been privy to, and have been sewn into the storyline as political observations from his point of view. Those are just to plant the seeds, since we are bombarded with information that may be accurate or not.
And, for those who take issue with what is said that may feel a certain skew or leaning against a particular party. First. It is just a book and a fiction one. Second, this novel, if you have read the opening paragraph on the main page of the website, it explicitly states that what our main character Ryan Carmichael thought was true is not necessarily the case.
So, think about that and take a step back.
A vaccine was just given on Monday 12/14/2020 in the United States. More people each day will take it, front line workers and the elderly at risk. Warnings have already been advised about side effects. Pandemic-19 has a premise that the vaccines as part of its story caused some of the population of people the turn into deadly psychotics. People went crazy and the world just went to anarchy and an ensuing apocalypse occurred. The ones not driven mad became survivors, trying to stay alive and make sense of what was left of society. In our reality, a vaccine was rushed to market without the breadth of research and testing that normally happens before being injected with a viable and trusted drug. We have never before seen this happen, and the consequences, or the celebrations, are a matter of time and wait and see.
Drum roll please.
How do we know that the vaccine will work? And here we go, the stretch of imagination that a writer uses, and not an attempt at fake news, who is to say that the side effects that begin to pop up will not be the fodder that Pandemic-19 had used to tell its tale? What if it becomes true? It is all very scary and fascinating all at once. Will what happens today become our fiction? Who knows.
Only time will tell.
But for our readers, we paint a picture and ask you to gaze at it. There are relatable details and information relevant to today and what could be tomorrow. So we ask, just relax and come with us as we tell the story, one that stretches the truth and weaves lies. Can you imagine what would happen, and think about if you would be a survivor, or one of the wretched? I know who I would be.
Do you?
Jason McDonald 