In Endemic, the protagonist is Ovid Fairweather, a neurotic book editor who becomes an urban farmer in the viral apocalypse. Guided by her dead therapist, she has to deal with the many dangers other survivors pose, but deep down, this is about how we change and how we don’t.
Endemic has won the Literary Titan Award and earned first place at the New York Book Festival and the Hollywood Book Festival.
Bulletin! This is just in!
“We are excited to inform you the following title is included in the Prime Reading program on Amazon.ca from 1-Dec-2022 to 1-Jun-2023.” ~ Amazon
SoEndemic is in PR now! They said it would be three months, but apparently, this goes all the way to June! In case you’re wondering, the internet goblins can define the situation for us: “Prime Reading is a benefit for Amazon Prime members that makes over a thousand eBooks available for borrowing, at no extra cost. You can keep up to ten eBooks at a time and there are no due dates.“
Some readers have asked me what the power and the curse is in the subtitle to Endemic. It’s the same element: memory. Our experiences make us who we become. Our memories burn us and forge us.
A local photographer was a fan of This Plague of Days. The parent of two kids on the spectrum, he really dug Jaimie Spencer’s role in the zombie/vampire apocalypse. His hobby was to take pics of local artists of all stripes, so he reached out to ask to take photos of me. I still use one of his pics for my author photo.
When he walked into my chaotic office, he paused, maybe in shock. Surveying my many crammed bookshelves, he said, “This is an interesting creative space. Your mess says a lot about you.”
Me: “Uh…thanks?”
The Seed of the Idea
We started talking about end-of-the-world potentialities, and he told me an interesting story. He had a friend who worked on Toronto’s police force. The photographer said there is a viral research lab in downtown Toronto. The cop swore his priority in the worst-case scenario was “containment.” That meant that if a virus in the vault started infecting the research staff, he’d be tasked with keeping the infected in the lab. If any medical personnel tried to escape the vault, they would be shot in hopes of protecting the city.
AFTER LIFE INFERNO, PURGATORY, & PARADISE is Born
I attended the University of King’s College Foundation Year Program. It’s basically the history of philosophy and the survey course included everything from the Bible to classical literature and modern jazz. We’d sit around entertaining questions like, “What is the definition of the soul?” (My favorite answer: The essence of the whatness of the being.) That’s where I got introduced to Dante. Inferno is great. I didn’t enjoy Purgatorio and Paradisio as much, but Dante’s vision of Hell was fascinating. So, with that loose structure in mind, I sallied forth with my take on weaponized brain parasites escaping a military lab.
Setting it in Toronto, I brought Artificial Intelligence and the future of humanity into the mix. The trilogy puts an infected police officer and a brilliant research scientist on the same side, but maybe not for long. (Wink!)
I love how this story evolves as the AI goes from attacking and taking over humans to learning more about us. When you get to Paradise, the AI is out to invade America and improve us against our will. Humans are a problem to be solved, and the story winds up going to very compelling places.
I know! I know! I should say “inexpensive” entertainment, but 99 cents is really cheap for great novels that can take years to create. For the next couple of days, I’ve got This Plague of Days in a Black Friday promotion along with a bunch of other horror books.
Literary Titan reviewed Endemic very favorably recently. Now it’s won their Silver Award.
From their website:: The Literary Titan Silver Award is bestowed on books that expertly deliver complex and thought-provoking concepts. The ease with which ideas are conveyed is a reflection of the author’s talent in exercising fluent, powerful, and appropriate language.
After just winning its category (Science Fiction) at the New York Book Festival, this is a nice boost for Endemic.If you haven’t read it yet, it’s the story of a bookish and withdrawn woman finding her way through New York’s viral apocalypse.Haunted by her past and guided by her dead therapist, Ovid Fairweather must rise against her enemies. She was a nail. She will be a hammer.
First off, many thanks for all the congratulations that flooded in for Endemic winning its category at the New York Book Festival. I treasured every note and email. I also discovered how often my posts and tweets are utterly ignored. Folks I hadn’t heard from in years popped up to say hi! That was nice. This is also your friendly reminder that I’m a scintillating delight all the time, not just when I win a literary award. (wink!)
Second, I have a fresh interview about Endemic over at Literary Titan. It’s about the demands of writing relatable apocalyptic fiction in the middle of a pandemic. There I was in my blanket fort, masked up and hypervigilant, washing groceries, and as paranoid as a squirrel on cocaine. What to do? What to do? Write the drama and trauma, of course!
An actual viral apocalypse was on like Donkey Kong. Bodies were filling freezer trucks outside my local hospital. In hindsight, it might have been cheerier to try a different genre. Sweet romance might have been easier to sell when readers were looking for a cheerier escape. However, the themes of Endemic run deep. Although I wrote a fictionalized bio of my criminal exploits in New York (Brooklyn in the Mean Time), it is Endemic that claims the prize of being my most personal book.
This week, I’m outside my comfort zone, away from the blanket fort, and working on an epic fantasy. Strictly speaking, this is a new genre to me. However, there are so many commonalities with the apocalyptic and dystopian genres that it’s definitely adjacent. The writing is coming easily. I have always enjoyed creating worlds, especially those with philosophical or theological complexity. Amid the action and chaos, there is the reaction to action and chaos. That’s where the tears and laughter can really flow.
As I sit in this cozy cottage (our first vacation in many years), I’m grateful my wife insisted we get away. For a while, someone else can worry about the broken clothes dryer and that funny noise the air conditioner makes. This week is just for us, and of course, filling up the blank page with suspenseful stories full of swords and mayhem.
Each day, I write little daily updates about the work and my reading and writing life in my fan group. If you’d like to join my inner circle of people who dig what I do, join my Facebook group here:
Makes it sound like I’m storming Zuckerberg’s mansion with a bunch of ninja commandos, doesn’t it? It’s 5% less awesome than that. For one night only, I’m taking over a FB group dedicated to science fiction and fantasy. I’ll be at Destiny’s Lighters from 5:30 pm to 10 PM EST tonight, Saturday, July 16.
Here’s the group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lytonians/
Want to come see what I think is wrong with a bunch of apocalyptic fiction? Or what’s right? I’ll even tell you who cares. To get in, all you need is an invite and I give those out freely.
