Coming Out of the Shell of Pandemic-19

I am finally a real human. Not a mysterious skull with a mask on it!

The last chapter of the #wip for my suspense thriller novel Pandemic-19 was released. I had promised to reveal myself at the end of the project. A promise is a promise. It is now just me in the flesh and blood. So what was this grand thing all about in the first place?

Well, that’s what you are here to find out.

2020 starts as a great year and then the coronavirus comes around and throws the world upside down. The concept for Pandemic-19 was born. Why not take the virus and everything surrounding it, then turn it all on its head? The whole premise of the book revolves around truth and lies. What you think you know or have been told is not necessarily the case. What if what you believed in were lies? What if all the lies actually had truth to them? Talk about twists and spins!

I have been a writer for a very long time, both for novels and also in the technology world. While my fiction works and children’s books have been unpublished, my work in technology and business is widespread and known in many circles. My work there is another story to tell. I developed the idea for Pandemic-19 and thought about what to do as far as writing it. People were losing their jobs left and right. People were losing their lives. I wanted to be a change, something positive. I decided I would share the working draft of Pandemic-19 for free. For a variety of reasons.

First, with so much loss, I thought why not let people go on a journey and see a book as it was being written? Do it for free to give something back during unprecedented times.

Second, post the chapters every few weeks as content was developed and written. Let people come and read and be entertained.

Third, take myself out of the equation. If I was Stephen King, Danielle Steele, or any other famous writer, people would likely read my novel no matter if it was great or horrible. Name recognition and previous works become a bias against unpublished writers. That is a horrible fact.

Fourth, I wanted the work to stand on its own. Focus on the content and story over me. Use a pseudonym and let people decide for themselves whether they liked it, loved it, or despised it.

So taking it all in and into account, I created the public Pandemic19 on Twitter and a website to experiment and see what would happen. I wrote chapters and published them as they came, all with the intent to let my readers go on a ride and be entertained. It was a working draft, so not polished by any stretch of the imagination. Close, but not the final end product that is being prepared for publication. As each chapter came out and I tweeted about it, I gained more followers. Now, numbers do not mean much. I was not doing this to gain millions of followers. Organic growth and word of mouth were all part of the experiment. The goal was always to strip away the mystique of writing and give something to people as a way to pay back. If you can why not?

The results were fantastic! Web traffic to the site and the metrics on the numbers of people reading along went far beyond my expectations. The Twitter comments, DMs, and website feedback all showed that people enjoyed the book. As a writer, those accolades have meaning and get taken to heart. These were all done with a Twitter username for the book and a profile picture of a skull. People responded to it still and that goes a long way.

I had promised from the start to out myself and reveal my true identity. So here I am. I can now share the real me and also more about who I am and what the future holds. And, what is that exactly? Well, it goes a bit like this.

Pandemic-19 was a #wip and is now undergoing a revision process. Under the guise of my pseudonym I participated in PitMad and other Twitter events. I received responses about the book and DMs showing interest in representing it from agents and publishers. Nothing quite felt right and real connections that I felt would represent the best interests of the book. As writers we long for an agent and a big publishing house.

I got some of those and appreciated the outreach.

However, this book and others I have need the right home and people who value not only me, but the catalog of work I have waiting to go. I am a long-time businessperson who has negotiated million dollar contracts and been an executive who has run efforts for global and large domestic organizations. Writing novels is my passion and future endeavor. So for me, a partnership is key. If it is one-sided, it does not work. As an executive I would never go into a contract or partnership where I was left in a place where I did not have success. Someone else profits and does not bring their A game to the table.

So, Pandemic-19 has options that I am pursuing and thanks to some great people, I am excited about. There is room at the table, so any agent or publisher looking to snatch it away or any of my others up before decisions take place, you have avenues to reach me.

As for more about what makes Pandemic-19 tick as a novel, that’s a story for another post! Stay tuned.