Musings

Thanks to my amazing cousin, Nicole, who made this first book trailer for Infection, I’m now on a book trailer kick! She inspired me to make a few of my own. Nicole’s is so good, it’s hard to follow her, but I’ve been having a great time doing a few of my own that I’ll post in subsequent posts.

Infection: Book 1 (Sympatico Syndrome Series)

My Facebook memories this month keep popping up with posts from 2 years ago. It was a very weird time. I remember feeling scared and worried. I was worried about my parents and my own family, as I’m sure everyone else was too. In the midst of that fear, many of us drew on humor from silly memes to get us though another day.

Many people were home as offices shut down, with quite a few businesses still working out their work from home plans with their employees, so any posts about Covid tended to get quite a few comments. None of us knew what to expect from even the next few months, let alone the next few years but what I thought of today is that there are ONE MILLION PEOPLE, many who probably partook of those FB posts with their own friends and family who are no longer with us.

I can’t help wondering how they felt when they got sick–how scared they must have been. In my own experience treating COVID patients I never actually had anyone ask me if they were going to die or, later when vaccines came out, show regret for not getting vaccinated. I also never talked about vaccination with patients I treated. By the time they saw me, they were usually on significant amounts of oxygen and discussing vaccines would have been pointless and, honestly, cruel.

There’s a weird sense you get though, when treating these patients, where you start just knowing which ones will succumb even while they’re still very much alert and talking, albeit, in short sentences as their respiratory rates are usually pretty high. And you’re looking at them and in your head, you’re thinking they’re going to die but you can’t show that on your face so you keep talking about the weather or baseball, as you’re also explaining how this BiPap will hopefully help ease their breathing. I saw too many men around my age or my brothers’ ages, and often I’d see them in the ER first, or maybe when they transferred up to the unit I would have that day. All I could think was they are middle aged. They should be able to beat this, but I don’t think they will–but that didn’t stop me from trying my best. It didn’t stop any of us from trying our hardest.

Some patients would be there for weeks, a few, even months, before COVID finally claimed them. This scenario was repeated at every single hospital in the country to some degree. I wonder how many other healthcare workers would get that feeling when they would be talking to and treating their COVID patients? I’m curious. I’ve worked in my field for decades and can’t recall any other time it happened to me, or at least not the same weird feeling I’d get as I’d adjust their high flow oxygen yet again to try to get a decent O2 sat on them. I’ve seen plenty of COPDers not make it and cancer patients, but most of them were on a long path to the end. For COPD patients, it was often years that we’d see them and it would become much more frequent at the end. While still very sad, it was different. It’s hard to explain. All deaths are sad and tragic, but it happens to all of us eventually. I think with COVID it’s just that so many went from healthy to very sick so suddenly. Thankfully, not everyone died and there were some happy recoveries. I just hope we’re through the worst of it.

Photo is of me going in to do an EKG on my very first COVID patient. A coworker snapped my picture. That was the only time I ever wore a PAPR. (I look like Austin Powers! lol) After this, it was an N95. The first 3 months or so we had a handful of N95s issued to us. I kept mine in a Gladware-type covered bowl and wore a drawstring bag with my bowl and my face shield in it. Even though we now have plenty of N95s, I still grab an extra here and there to have just in case…

Our summer haven during the pandemic.

I know someday I’m going to regret not keeping a journal during this pandemic, so here’s at least a few thoughts I have regarding it. If you’re on my blog reading this, it’s probably because you’ve perhaps read some of my books, and maybe even my books about an apocalyptic pandemic that wipes out most of civilization. I started the first series with Infection, and gave the series the title, Sympatico Syndrome Series in 2016. I’m continuing with the same virus I cooked up for the first series, but with all new characters in my Sympatico Syndrome World. So, basically, different people with a different set of circumstances.

I finished the first book in the SSW series just as the real pandemic was beginning. It was a crazy time for me as my day job is as a respiratory therapist. In the beginning, there was a lot of fear, especially as the first few patients came into the hospital. I have a health issue and my work had an exemption anyone who was at high risk could apply for. I did so but was told that they needed me and that I should just not take COVID patients. Uh…yeah. That hasn’t really worked out. While I’m not usually in the ICU with them, (though I have been.) I still see them on the COVID floor or in the ER pretty much every shift. In one day, I might see from 8-10 COVID patients—but not in the beginning because it took several weeks for us to see the first wave. I’d say late April and early May, things were pretty crazy. It’s all a blur to me because I was moving and trying to finish up edits for Alone at the End of the World.

June came along, and things quieted down. I felt I could breathe a little bit and so, started on my next book. However, our new house has a pool and the summer was hot with nowhere to go. I think I swam a little bit almost every day. The pandemic wasn’t as scary then because where I lived, numbers were down a bit. I will admit that the prospect of coming home from work and writing about a pandemic while treating patients from a real pandemic wasn’t nearly as appealing as hopping into the pool and floating around on a pool noodle.

I keep seeing people say healthcare workers are heroes. I gotta tell you–we don’t feel like heroes. Most of us just asked that people wear mask and socially distance as much as they could. If we all did it, then we could beat this. It would have been a huge accomplishment, but it would have only happened if the whole country was on board. I imagine during WWII there was a unity and a feeling of everyone working to beat the Axis. That unity never materialized and instead we got accused of the pandemic being fake and deaths from anything being attributed to Covid. I gotta say, those patients I saw sure didn’t look fake and I didn’t pretend to take care of them.

November was horrible at work and not only was I terrified I’d get sick, but that I’d give it to my family, especially my husband, who is high risk. I was also going straight from work, to my parents’ house because my dad had his own health emergency that ended up with him on a ventilator, then to rehab (not Covid related). My mom needed help 24/7, so my siblings and I took turns staying for 24 hrs at a time. Good thing there’s so many of us! Thankfully, my dad is probably 90% recovered and is even back to driving. It’s like a freaking miracle!

But, I guess I feel like every person who refuses to wear a mask has no regard for anyone. They don’t care about their own family getting sick, or friends, or coworkers, so why should they care about strangers who work in healthcare? I don’t think they care about the exhaustion, the daily fatigue from stress of caring for COVID patients. The physical discomfort from wearing an N95, face shield, gowns that I swear were raincoats in another life, or fatigue from running from room to room, and down to the ER. It’s not like our regular patients went away either.  Some days I’m taking care of Covid patients and then running to the NICU to assist with a neonate. If we could see a light at the end of the tunnel, I guess that would help, but all I can see now is a never-ending stream of patients and people in stores wearing their masks under their noses.

I’ve worked in my field for 34 years and have seen plenty of bad winters with flu patients. We get our usual COPD patients every year too. Those are almost the worst because we get to know them. They ask about our family, we ask about theirs. I can still remember many of my COPDers names who died years ago. We’re always saddened when we learn of one of them passing. So, we’re not unused to people getting sick and not making it. Or of running our butts off from one end of the hospital to the other (we cover the whole hospital, although one might have just ICU, sometimes they have to cover another unit in addition to ICU.)

No other year has compared to this, and we’re not even into January yet. February and March tend to be the worst for some reason. How will it be this year? I just saw someone on Twitter complaining about new restrictions in Harris county, Texas, and I just have no sympathy for them. None. It was clear they are one of the anti-maskers and it pisses me off.

As reviews came in for Alone at the End of the World in the summer, I was struck by the contrast with the appreciation from readers for my stories, vs. what feels like disdain from those who won’t listen to healthcare workers. Obviously, I think what I do during my day job is more important, but I guess since nobody sees it unless they are a patient, there is no recognition. It really makes me re-think my career choices, that’s for sure. I daydream about becoming a bestseller so that I could quit being a respiratory therapist, but that hasn’t happened yet. I flirted with it a few times, but always, sales spike and then plummet. I don’t write fast enough to have dozens of books to sell so that even if I only sold a few of any one book, I would still be okay because I would have lots of books. Meanwhile, Monday will come and I’ll don my N95 and go put some poor soul on an Airvo or Bipap, and hope that I can help turn them around.

At least I have my first vaccine dose already doing its thing with the second in a couple of weeks.

This interview was originally posted on 08/05/2013 on my previous blog. Reposting.

I briefly posted about my recent experience with someone who was interested in the film rights to my book, No Good Deed. As you can imagine, when I read the email, I felt a thrill of excitement. Within minutes daydreams fired up with visions of how No Good Deed would appear on screen. Who would be cast as Mark Taylor? What about Jim Sheridan? Would I get to watch filming? *sigh* Sadly, my little dream bubble popped this morning when I couldn’t come to an agreement with the guy who asked about the rights.

As soon as I was approached about the rights, I activated
the BethSignalto get in touch with Beth Orsoff. Beth is not only a bestselling author, but also an entertainment lawyer. I learned from the would-be matchmaker (known from here on out as John Doe, or JD for short) that he wanted to basically option my book so that he could pitch it to some big name producers. He has interviews lined up for a PBS series. The producers he listed in an email are seriously legit, so I was really getting excited but I’ve learned to be wary over the last few years. JD already had produced one short series where he interviewed successful business owners who started small businesses.

Beth has graciously offered to be interviewed for this blog post, so, I’ll begin with my first question right after I received the email where JD named the producers and outlined his idea. Of course, it sounded good, but I knew there were things I should ask him, but I had no idea what those questions should be. Am I the only one who is clueless? (Hey, I see you nodding!)

All joking aside, we’re talking about my book here, and I didn’t want to screw it up so I asked Beth some questions. Here they are along with Beth’s replies:

Before I answer questions I just have to state for the record to anyone reading this that I am NOT giving anyone legal advice.  You, reader, are not my client and I am not your attorney. That said, as someone who works in the entertainment industry and has drafted many book option-purchase agreements, I can give you some general pointers so you (hopefully) don’t get scammed.  It’s important to remember that anyone can call himself or herself a “producer.” It doesn’t mean they actually know anything about how the industry works, have any contacts, or have any ability to get your book made into a movie.  Hundreds of books are optioned every year; only a handful of them are ever produced as feature films or TV shows.

What is the first thing an author should ask someone who approaches them about film rights?

Ask for a list of their credits/credentials.  You should also google them and look up their name on IMDB. If you can find no information about this person other than their Facebook page and Twitter handle be suspect. Producers are not generally known as humble people who try to hide their accomplishments.

If, as in my case, the interested party doesn’t have money to pay an option, is that a deal breaker?

No, not necessarily.  But in that case you’re better off entering into a shopping agreement. This document would give the interested party the right to “shop” your project to other interested parties (e.g., studios, major independent production companies, major producers with a track record) who have the money to actually option your project and develop it. Three important points to remember when negotiating a shopping agreement is: (1) it should be for a limited period of time (i.e., 6 months)—you can always agree to extend it if you want to; (2) you are only granting this person the right to shop your project, you are not granting this person rights in your project i.e. there should be no language assigning rights or copyrights, and all deals should be subject to your approval; (3) you should not be paying this person anything – if he/she incurs costs, they are his/hers to bear.

I know that there is probably no such thing as a ‘usual’ film option, as the terms can vary, but can you give us an idea what kind of option that would be something to consider?

I work for studios and major production companies so those are the sorts of agreements I am most familiar with.  These are not parties who are going to make a feature film for $500K and then enter it into film festivals hoping to find a major distributor.  That’s an entirely different scenario.  In a typical deal with a major studio/production company/producer (I’m going to use the term “studio” to represent all three) the studio will option the book for a 12-month or 18-month period with the right to extend for an additional 12-month or 18-month period. The first option payment will be applicable against the purchase price, extension payments usually are not.  Option payments vary, but a good rule of thumb is 10% of the purchase price. In terms of actual numbers, these vary hugely depending on the book, the producer, the studio, whether lots of people want to buy your project or you were lucky to get one offer.  It’s a negotiation. A purchase price of $100K would be on the low end.  A purchase price of $1M would be on the high end.  And often times when the option-purchase agreement is with a producer instead of with a studio or production company the deal will contain a “set-up bonus” i.e., an additional payment to the author when the producer sets the project up with a studio or production company.  Deals can also include bestseller bonuses, box office bonuses, profit participations, and passive payments for additional productions; plus there are lots of other non-monetary points that have to be negotiated including the all-important rights grant i.e. what rights are you, the author, keeping and what rights are you granting to the studio.

One thing I didn’t care for in the option offered me, other than the $1 payment, was that there was a purchase price already written in the contract. Is that normal?

Yes, that’s normal. It’s not an option agreement, it’s an option-purchase agreement. There can be some variance in the purchase price e.g., a percentage of the budget of the film with a floor of a certain dollar amount and a ceiling of a certain dollar amount, but there should be a purchase price—and more importantly, that purchase price needs to be for an amount that is acceptable to you.

If someone offers one like that, how do they arrive at the purchase price?

I don’t know how the person who approached you arrived at the dollar figure that he did. Usually these deals are negotiated by book-to-film agents (who represent the authors) and business affairs executives (who represent the studios). The number will be based on all the items I noted above (i.e., who the parties are and how much interest there is in the project), plus everyone will look at their precedent –what they’ve received/paid out on other similar deals. The point is it’s a negotiation. The person who approached you made you a take-it-or-leave-it offer. That’s not a negotiation.

General comment – As I mentioned above, I come at this from the perspective of a studio lawyer.  But there are hundreds or perhaps even thousands of low budget films produced every year by passionate people who enter their films into festivals and competitions with the hopes that the film will get picked up by a major distributor.  And sometimes they do.  It may not be likely, but it’s definitely possible.  So, if you’ve been approached by one of these people who has passion for your book but not a lot of money, don’t dismiss them out of hand. And if you want to option your book to one of these people for little to no money, that is your choice.  Just understand what you’re giving up—which is the right to maybe one day sell your work to a major for substantially more money. Because once you assign your rights to someone else in perpetuity those rights are gone for good—unless you negotiate a reversion clause and/or benefit from a copyright termination, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.

And just one more myth I’d like to dispel: There seems to be some oft-repeated rumor out there that in order to get a studio interested in your book you have to write a screenplay (or hire someone to write it for you).  THIS IS ONE HUNDRED PERCENT FALSE.  In fact, the existence of a screenplay written by the author/author’s friend/author’s cousin/random stranger just complicates matters.  The studio only wants to option the rights to your book. The studio will then hire a screenwriter of its own choosing to write the screenplay based on your book.  That’s called “development” as in “my book has been in development hell for ten years!”  If you retain nothing else from this blog post retain this:  DO NOT WRITE A SCREENPLAY BASED ON YOUR BOOK—not unless you’re actually a working screenwriter (and no, reading Syd Field’s entire collection of screenwriting books does not make you a working screenwriter).

Thank you so much, Beth, for taking the time to answer my questions as I’m sure you have helped a lot of authors out there.

Beth Orsoff  has been been published by Penguin, Amazon Publishing, and has also self-published. 
For more information about her books, visit  Beth Orsoff.

I committed the cardinal sin for an author, especially an indie author, I responded to a review. The review on Invasion was a 3-star, so not horrible, but the rating wasn’t the problem for me. I don’t care if it was a 1-star or a 5-star. It was what the reviewer tried to call me out on. It wasn’t about my writing or even the plot of the book. I can deal with those. We can’t please everyone, right? No, this was about a comment one of my characters made. My main character, Cole Evans, is an epidemiologist, so he was speaking from a voice of authority in the book, so anytime he made statements addressing diseases or health-related things, I would double and triple check to make sure what he said was true. I won’t promise that everything I stated about being an epidemiologist is true (because it seems to depend on where they work) but this particular statement was fact-checked. Here’s the statement the reviewer had an issue with:

“there’s never been a disease that disappeared without a vaccine”

Here’s what she said in the review regarding that:

“Please do some research on vaccines. The statement you made, that “there’s never been a disease that disappeared without a vaccine”, is utterly false. In fact, every so-called vaccine preventable disease was on the decline PRIOR to the introduction of a vaccine for it. Proper nutrition, shelter, and most importantly, Hygeine (sic) were responsible for the decline in diseases today, in developed countries.”

First, let me point out that even including good hygiene, proper nutrition, and shelter, my statement still stands. Tell me one disease that doesn’t have a vaccine that has been stamped out? I’ll wait…

There are plenty that have treatments, but in order to be treated, they have to occur first, so those can’t be considered eradicated.

While I’m waiting, let’s discuss the rest of the review:

“Even polio is a mild enough illness that most people who’ve had it, don’t even know it! Furthermore, think about diseases like scarlet fever, for which there isn’t a vaccine, yet it has declined. The truth is out there, so stop spreading propaganda for the pharmaceutical industry! Research, don’t regurgitate.”

Hmmm…”polio is a mild disease…”. Technically, that is true in the majority of cases, but if you were one of the 15,000 people in the U.S. who were paralyzed every year prior to the introduction of the polio vaccine, that statement would bring very little comfort. Did you know 1 in 200 cases led to paralysis? That may not sound like many to you, but let’s put it this way. Picture a big sporting event. Let’s go big and make it the Super Bowl. Let’s say the attendance is 60,000. That sounds about right for a Super Bowl. Now, if they had a lottery to win a million dollars and 300 people in the stands would randomly be selected to win, would you buy a dollar ticket? Chances are, you would. I know I would. While my chances would be slim, 300 winners are a lot of winners! Let’s gather those lucky men, women, and children on the field at half-time. This is a special lottery and there is no minimum age so even children can win. How awesome is that?

Now, have them all drop to the ground, paralyzed. This is what that scene looked like in 1952.

The machines are different now, but no less terrible. It would look something like this but multiplied 200 times.

And that’s just for every 60,000 people who get it. I did the math, and it looks like to get those 15,000 people paralyzed every year means 3 million people caught the disease. This was in the 1950s, not the 1550s. It happened in suburban towns where mom stayed home and kept house, made home cooked meals and doctors made house-calls. How much different was hygiene and sanitation then compared to now? If anything, it was probably cleaner! (Hey, I’ve watched a lot of Leave it to Beaver–that house was super clean! I’d eat of June Cleaver’s floor without giving it a second thought!)

Keep in mind, this is just the U.S. Polio is still not eradicated world-wide. There are still countries where it exists and the main reason is due to conflict. That makes it very difficult to vaccinate all the children if the families are in a constant state of upheaval due to civil wars.

And Scarlet Fever? Really? You do realize that’s caused by a bacteria and is treated with antibiotics, right? The same bacteria that causes strep throat, which is WHY it’s treated–to prevent Scarlet Fever from developing.

I won’t argue that hygiene doesn’t play a role. Of course it does. It does for every disease, but it won’t cure anything, just slow the spread.

seen patients with post-polio syndrome and I’ve treated people with pertussis. I also know all about hand-hygiene and how to curb the spread of infection. I’m tested on it yearly as part of my job. I wash my hands and use hand-sanitizer dozens of times a day–but when I was exposed to a baby with pertussis a few years back, I was still required to get a booster dose of the vaccine. Claiming I had washed my hands would not have changed that requirement because that would not have been enough to protect me or anyone who came in contact with me if I came down with the disease. I really don’t want to give a baby this disease.

So, yes, dear reviewer, in regards to vaccines, I have done my research. Have you? And by research, I mean real research with peer-reviewed studies, not regurgitated autism, anti-vaccination theories.

(7/3/18  This is a reposting of a blog post I did about my research for No Good Deed on my previous blog. The cover over there is the old cover. I’m keeping it here for old time’s sake. 🙂 )

In light of the recent declassification of the CIA Torture Reports, I’ve been thinking a lot about the “enhanced interrogation” I depicted in No Good Deed. The more I read of the reports, the more I think I got right. Caveat– I have not seen anything saying that torture was used against an American citizen as it does in No Good Deed. That part is fiction. Probably. 

However, that picture right over there?

That is an actual photo of Jose Padilla, one of the three American citizens held as an enemy combatant. He had no trial until something like seven years after he had been held in a brig. I believe that photo was taken when he had to be escorted to see a dentist. The one below is after they put the blackout goggles and sound canceling earphones on his head. To go to the dentist. Anyway…

And as I read the reports, I thought of a review No Good Deed recently received that said: 

“…the post-9/11 enhanced interrogation was old news. Not that it isn’t horrific, but it’s just not current. Terminology such as ‘enemy combatant’ is endemic to the vernacular of anyone who reads any news in 2014.

I normally wouldn’t call out a less than stellar review, because, really, what author wants to put any spotlight on a review where the reader didn’t connect with the story? However, in this case, I’m mentioning it because of the remark that the topic is “old news”. Heh. I just was at Google News and here is the sidebar list of Top Stories: 

• Top Stories

TortureGolden Globe AwardsRepublican PartyArizona CardinalsCaliforniaEbola virus diseaseAngelina JolieLos Angeles LakersKabulSony Corporation

No Good Deed: Book One 

…Whatever possessed our country’s policy makers to give a green light to the torturing of others? …

…I will never think of torture in the same light again. ..

…How do you deal with government incarceration, physical torture and mental dismantling? …

…The author also makes you sit back and think about what is going on in the world of our anti-terrorism policies…. 

… The author’s description of waterboarding & other inhuman torture methods is chilling and all too believable. …

…Fluid writing style with an in-depth look at what its like to be tortured by your own government. … The torture scenes are not overly graphic and you can easily skip the most gruesome parts. …

…One thing that I really liked was how the author handled the political question of whether torture is a viable means of getting answers and information from terrorists. …

 …regardless of your politics, should get you thinking. Are the responses to 9/11 making the US a better or worse place to live?…

However, I also did try to show the other side to the story, as noted in the review snippet below:

…The character development in this story is superb. Mark is the main character, but McDonald does a great job of showing the point of view of several other characters, including one of the interrogators who is involved with Mark and his situation. I liked the depth of it in showing what Mark was going through, as well as the turmoil and ethical issues the investigators were enduring…

…No Good Deed reveals the good and the bad about our government and the desire to take care of us. …

…This book is a real eye-opener about the Govt. Enhanced Integration program and the zeal of certain people get when doing their job of torture…

***

Here is another even older blog post:

I have no sympathy for terrorists. When I first heard the term enemy combatant, I thought, “Hell yeah! Give ’em what they deserve!” I didn’t go much beyond that. As far as I was concerned, out of sight, out of mind. I remember reading about the ‘dirty bomber’ Jose Padilla. He was accused of plotting to detonate a ‘dirty bomb’ in a U.S. city. The guy, in my mind, was the lowest of the low, and no punishment would be too harsh.

Then I saw a picture of Padilla taken when he was taken out of his cell for a dental visit.

The ‘swat team’ surrounding the chained guy, and the blackout goggles and earphones seemed like overkill. What can’t be seen in this pic, but I read descriptions of, are the mitts used on his hands too, so that basically, the only sense he has is smell and taste. Touch is only through his feet and if any of the guards hold on to his arms.

While I thought the security was a bit overboard, I still didn’t think too much about it. Then came the controversy of water-boarding. Maybe because I’ve seen people gasping for breath too many times, seen the fear in their eyes but that form of interrogation made me sick. I still didn’t think it was too harsh for terrorists, and in fact, even with all I know now, I don’t think it should be totally banned. Btw, I’ve never come across confirmation that this happened to Padilla. His lawyer–when he finally got one–said yes, it happened, but Padilla says no, that he was treated well. (As he looks over his shoulder to make sure nobody is lurking.)

See, the thing that gets me is Padilla is an American citizen, but he was held for years without a trial. Yes, there was some evidence, but it wasn’t ‘smoking gun’ ironclad, as far as I could tell.  The guy is no choir boy, that’s for certain. He’s a former Chicago gangbanger, and for that alone, I wouldn’t care if he was locked up for the rest of his life–after a fair trial and guilty verdict. That’s what was missing. Even if Padilla is 100% guilty of everything they initially accused him of doing, there still should have been a trial or Padilla given the right to waive a trial if he decided to plead guilty. Then he should have been formally sentenced to whatever term that crime deserves. That’s how the judicial system works. Only he never really got into the judicial system. Once he was designated an enemy combatant, he no longer was entitled to those rights. That is a terrifying outcome.

What if an innocent person was caught in that endless pit? How could he/she fight for their freedom if they are never even given a chance?  If the person ever did get out, how would that affect them? What kind of life would they return to?

So, that was where my muse for NO GOOD DEED came from. An interesting thing came out of writing it. I have a ‘bad’ guy in the book. He’s one of the interrogators. The more I was in his head, looking at it from his angle, the more I realized what a difficult position it was. As the book progresses, even my protagonist has a moment of revelation about how hard it would be to have that kind of responsibility.

Just for fun, I wrote this alternate ending to the Sympatico Syndrome series. It came about when my daughter scolded me for procrastinating on my writing and I said something like I’m just going to end it with they all lived happily ever after, or something to that effect.

* * *

Cole blinked awake, disturbing images from his dream fading so quickly, he wasn’t sure what he’d dreamed about, just that it left him feeling uneasy. He shook off the feeling and glanced over at Brenda, still sleeping beside him. He bent and kissed her warm cheek. “You go ahead and sleep in. I’ll get Hunter ready for school.”

She mumbled a thank you and turned the other way, pulling the covers up over her shoulders.

As he spread peanut butter on a slice of bread, he heard snippets of news from the television on in the living room. Hunter hadn’t yet turned on SpongeBob as he still sat at the kitchen table, playing with his oatmeal. “Hurry up and eat, Hunter. You don’t want to starve later in school.”

Cole chuckled…as if the kid would even know what starvation was. The longest he’d ever gone between meals, not counting sleep, was a few hours. He’d survive on a few bites of oatmeal between now and snack time at school. As Cole tucked a mini juice box in Hunter’s lunch.

“The flu virus is expected to be widespread this year and the vaccine isn’t going to be as effective as normal.”

“Thank you, Dr. Jackson. How bad do you think it’ll be?”

Cole glanced at the screen as he grabbed a pack of Twinkies from the pantry, the short hallway between the kitchen and living room affording him a view of the screen. The doctor was pretty and petite, but for some reason, he expected her to be a redhead, not a blonde. He paused, golden cakes in hand.

Dr. Jackson smiled. “Well, it’ll be the usual flu, nothing too severe. Not pandemic level, certainly. We’re not talking the Spanish flu or Ebola. Just your typical fever, aches, pains. But I always encourage vaccines to protect the old, the young and those with compromised immune systems.”

Cole froze. Spanish flu? Ebola? He had glimpses of an island and … something about pandemics.

Brenda came into the kitchen, yawning as she tightened the belt on her robe. “Cole, you really need to turn off the television before you to bed.”

“I’m sorry. I forgot. Did it wake you?” He had a bad habit of dozing off, then getting up to get a midnight snack before heading to bed. She then recited flu statistics. Cole’s paused as he returned to the counter. “How’d you do that?”

He stuffed the Twinkies in Hunter’s lunchbox and added an apple. The same one he’d taken out yesterday after school. He looked at it critically. It wasn’t too bruised yet. It’d be good for another day or two. At least it made him look like a good father providing healthy food even if his kid didn’t eat it.

Brenda laughed as she started a pot of coffee. “I only heard it repeated about five times through the night. I was too lazy to get up and turn the damn thing off, but you left it on and I bet the volume is all the way up.”

Now that she mentioned it, he had turned it up last night so he could hear the sports scores while making himself a bowl of cereal. Oops.

“Now that you mention it, I had the weirdest dream last night about pandemics and people dying…”

She took a couple of mugs out of the cabinet and set them beside the coffee maker. “Sounds more like a nightmare.”

“Yeah…it kind of was.” More images from his dream came to him. Dead people and his brother, Sean. “And my brother and his family were in it too. Everybody was dying, but get this, they partied themselves to death, sort of.”

“Sounds like one of your frat parties when we met.” She grinned at him as she handed him his steaming cup of coffee.

* * *

So, that’s the alternate ending. If you want to be sure to get the REAL one, just put in your pre-order now. Invasion: Book Three

Invasion: Book Three

First, a huge thank-you to Bookbub for featuring my book, No Good Deed in the 11/27 newsletter.

 Love the Bub!  

To help kick-off the holiday season, I am offering a special price on March Into Hell and Deeds of Mercy. They are each normally $5, but from 11/27-11/29, they will each be just $2.99! And of course, both are also in KindleUnlimited, so if you have that, you can read them for free.

Mark’s life takes a dark turn when his heroism becomes the subject of a newspaper article. The media attention and a harrowing encounter while saving a young woman, puts him in the sights of the ruthless cult leader who covets the secret to Mark’s power.

Uncomfortable in the public spotlight, Mark suspects he’s being tested by the force behind the camera’s prophetic magic. Battling his own self-doubt, he must maintain the secret or risk certain death.

In Deeds of Mercy: Book Three, an unexpected visitor from Mark’s past brings him unwanted attention from the authorities. Unable to decide who is friend and who is foe, Mark becomes a fugitive from the law, but with thousands of lives at stake, he is forced to put aside his fear of capture, and instead, seek help from his pursuers.

We’ve all heard the jump-roping rhyme,

Lizzie Borden took an axe
She gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.
Lizzie Borden got away
For her crime she did not pay.

But, what if there was a supernatural reason for her actions?
Just in time for Halloween, we have another Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter mystery.  It’s only $2.99 and is also available in Kindle Unlimited. 

The Haunting of Dr. Bowen: A Mystery in Lizzie Borden’s Fall River (Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter)

Gruesome deaths haunt the industrial city of Fall River, Massachusetts.

Dr. Seabury Bowen—physician to the infamous Lizzie Borden—swears he’s being stalked by spirits, though his beloved wife thinks it’s merely his imagination. But the retired doctor insists that neither greed nor anger provoked the recent sensational axe murders in Fall River. Rather, he believes the city is poisoned by bad blood and a thirst for revenge dating back to the Indian and Colonial wars.

Now, two years after the Borden murders, Dr. Bowen is determined to uncover the mysteries stirring up the city’s ancient, bloodthirsty specters. Can he discover who, or what, is shattering the peace before Fall River runs red? Or will he be the next victim?

Part mystery, part love story, The Haunting of Dr. Bowen reveals the eerie side of Fall River as witnessed by the first doctor on the scene of the legendary Borden murders.

A supernatural tie-in to the book, Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter, but without the zombies. Based on real-life events and historic documents, though some parts have been fictionalized to fit the story. * Contains some light horror details.