Wonderland

 

If you think the world has gone insane in 2020, just wait until you see what Alice encounters in 2021!

WONDERLAND... A descent into madness.

Available for pre-order.now!  Publication date: January 29, 2021.

 

 

A 15-Year Anniversary Retrospective

Fifteen years ago this month, I submitted my first book for publication. Issues in Internet Law became the flagship title of Amber Book Company in December 2005. Nowhere on its cover did it proclaim it was the first edition: it never occurred to me there’d be another edition, let alone ten more.

In fact, I had begun to doubt it would even be published. The first typesetter we hired screwed up the book. They used InDesign to create the book but, as I later figured out, they didn’t know how to use the program properly. InDesign has two settings, for printing either documents or books. They used the document setting instead of the book setting and the result was spaghetti text between two covers. When they wanted to charge us more to fix their mistake, I decided we’d bring the project (and all others since) in-house. With only weeks before the deadline to get the book published in time for the winter school term, Larry, Marc, and I set out to learn InDesign. I’m not saying there was a steep learning curve but the reason I have less hair today definitely stems from having pulled out half of it during those frustrating weeks.

More books followed. My next two were on web design: The Web Designer's Client Handbook; and Putting Your Business on the Internet: Your Website, Your Web Designer, & YOU! My fourth book was the novel I had started 30 years earlier. Some famous writer (I think it was Hemingway but I’m too tired to look it up) said after completing a first manuscript, one should take a celebratory sea voyage, lean on the ship’s railing and toss the manuscript into the sea… then return home and write a second novel that would be worthy of publication. Regrettably, I didn’t follow this sage advice.

I returned to what had been successful: I wrote the second, third, fourth, and fifth editions of Issues in Internet Law (now subtitled “Society, Technology, and the Law”). From the fourth edition forward, the book was published in both softcover and hardcover, and somehow holding the hardcover copy in my hands made me feel like a true author.

In 2009, I published my second hardcover, this time with a dust-jacket. Randoms was a short story collection. I was interviewed by the local newspaper and did book signings across the country. The printer had enormous difficulty with the dust-jackets, though. No two covers were quite the same color. To resolve this, we published a paperback edition.

About that time, I pulled two typed pages out of my desk drawer. They had been sitting there for several years, remnants of my failed attempt at writing a play about Heaven and Hell. Playwriting, it turns out, is surprisingly difficult. I decided to turn it into a short story instead. It became a lengthy short story but at least I was able to finish it. But had I? The open-ended conclusion was actually an enticing premise, so I wrote a sequel. I wanted it to be about gangsters but somehow during my research it morphed into a completely different story. Yet I still wanted to write the gangster story, so I had to write a sequel to the sequel. By then, the characters had started to grow on me. They had taken on lives of their own and they had more stories to tell. Enough to fill a book. And so, Paved with Good Intentions was published.

I went back to writing Issues in Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law. The 6^th edition was published in both paperback and hardcover. During this time, I joined (and later ran) a local writers group at which we would present a short story each week. I collected the stories I wrote into a 560-page book called Shards. A small selection of these tales would appear in 2012 in Careywood, a charity book published with all proceeds going to benefit repair of a famous Rhode Island mansion.

But people kept asking when I was going to write the sequel to Paved with Good Intentions. “What sequel?” I’d reply. As far as I was concerned, it was done. After all, I had turned two pages into a novel. But I had left nagging questions (like “Who’s the father?”) unanswered. And so I wrote And a Child Shall Lead Them in 2010. This time, I knew the story wasn’t finished. I ended with a cliff-hanger, possibly the best cliff-hanger ever written (even topping the ending of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in which the Earth is blown up yet they still managed three more sequels).

Then it was back to writing an updated edition of Putting Your Business on the Internet: Your Website, Your Web Designer, & YOU! and Issues in Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law (7^th edition). I wrote the storyline to conclude my fantasy series but it was so long I decided to break it into two books: To Hell in a Handbasket (published in 2011) and The Witches’ Cauldron (published in 2012). The four-book series was rebranded as “Halos & Horns.”

I had told my Heaven and Hell story, albeit over four books, yet in the process I had created an entire fictional universe and intriguing ancillary characters. I decided the four books comprising Halos & Horns would be the first arc in a much larger saga. The second arc would be called Fangs & Fur and focus on what had been the supporting characters in the first arc. Written in 2014 and published in 2016, the initial book Flashbacks picked up where the first arc had left off, revealing the origins of the key characters through a series of flashbacks while advancing the present-day storyline.

You may be wondering what happened during that two-year gap. Besides writing the eighth and ninth editions of Issues in Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law, three other significant events occurred. The first Halos & Horns story arc was collected into an omnibus edition with lots of extras: interviews, essays, and 61 magnificent illustrations by various artists. As an omnibus, the book was already large, about 900 pages. That meant higher printing and shipping costs. Additionally, we were printing two versions: both paperback and, for the first time, Halos & Horns would appear in hardcover. When the proof came back from the printer something was missing. All those beautiful illustrations appeared washed out in black and white. I shook my head. I said, “These artists worked as hard on their drawings as I did on my writing. They deserve to be seen in all their glory, in color.” I was immediately told that wasn’t feasible. It would mean tripling the retail price of the book. But I insisted it be done right or not at all. While retailers are free to mark up a book at any price they choose, Amber Book Company published the full color Halos & Horns Omnibus Edition at only one dollar above cost.

In 2014, I published a collection of essays selected from my blog, entitled Collected Essays of a Reluctant Blogger. The third significant event during the gap was that I wrote my young adult science fiction trilogy, The Adventures of Mackenzie Mortimer. In 2015, the first book, The 25^th Hour was published and met with much praise. The Tomorrow Paradox was released in 2016, and the conclusion All the Time in the World (considered by many to be my finest novel) in 2017.

The year 2016 also saw publication of the tenth anniversary edition of Issues in Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law. The previous year Amber Book Company had entered into an agreement with VitalSource, the world’s largest distributor of textbooks, to offer a digital version beginning with the ninth edition. The book was used as a textbook on four continents and received glowing reviews as far away as India.

Cops and Robbers, published in 2016, was my first entry into the quirky crime drama genre popularized by David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Befitting its irreverent and serious duality, it was published with two covers, which we referred to as “the grim cover” and “the whimsical cover.” That same year, the second collection of my essays was published in More Essays of a Reluctant Blogger. Cub: The Story of a Boy Reporter, a book I had worked on for 40 years containing my photographs of, and interviews with, famous actors and actresses, athletes, authors, comedians, politicians, producers, and other celebrities was finally published in 2017. The eleventh edition of Issues in Internet Law: Society, Technology, and the Law was also published that year.

Nightstalkers, the second book in the Fangs & Fur arc, was published in 2018. My third essay collection, Return of the Reluctant Blogger, was also published that year. The year ended with publication of Nosferatu, Inc., the final book in the Fangs & Fur arc.

This year, 2019 was a banner year with the publication of the first three novels in my new young adult science-fantasy series, Vampires Vs. Aliens. Shards was updated with new material and reissued as Shards: The Omnibus Edition featuring 900 pages of short stories. The Adventures of Mackenzie Mortimer Omnibus Edition, collecting the entire trilogy in one volume was published this year. The three books comprising the Fangs & Fur story arc were also published in a single volume, Fangs & Fur: The Omnibus Edition. The third Halos & Horns story arc, entitled The Age of Magic began and the first book, Alterverse, was published in 2019. And all four books in the first Halos & Horns arc received new covers for their international editions.

 

 Of course, 2020 has been a difficult year for all of us. Yet Amber Book Company continued publishing new books. In April, my science fiction time travel novel Justin Tyme came out. It was followed immediately two months later in June by another science fiction novel, the dystopian young adult book The QuaranTeens, about teens emerging from lock-down in a post-coronavirus apocalyptic future. September 2020 saw the release of Warriors & Wizards, Book Two in The Age of Magic story arc.

 

It’s been a productive 15 years but we’re not slowing down. The first quarter of 2021 will see publication of the quirky crime drama Wonderland in January and Return of the Djinn, Book Three in The Age of Magic story arc, in March. Then, in June, Vampires Vs. Aliens, Book Four will be published as the series hits its stride. In December 2021, expect to see Oz, the second book in the Wonderland trilogy. We'll also be releasing a Vampires Vs. Aliens Omnibus and an Age of Magic Omnibus in 2021.

I’ll be doing some writing in 2021 as well. I’m working on Absalonis' Emporium & Curio Shoppe (a themed short story collection); another collection of essays; a book of quotations; and a few projects I can’t reveal yet. I expect I'll be writing Vampires Vs. Aliens, Books Five and Six, as well as Neverland, the conclusion of the Wonderland trilogy.

Fifteen years. On behalf of Amber Book Company I’d like to thank all the individuals who’ve helped us along the way, starting with proofreaders Jennifer Jackson, Kayla Martinez, Jeff Kupfer, Margaret McDermott, Michelle Krane, and the late Eido Cohen. Thanks also to the fantastic people, past and present, at LightningSource (Judith Woodall Tonan, Joan Williams, Gayle Cantrell, Natalie Mozingo, Jim Patterson, Carrie Smitty, Brent Spears, Heather Henderson, Carol Egan, Adam Hughes, Sherry Holland, Ann Decker, Amy Yates, and Jenna Hall); VitalSource (Kevin Hoyle, David Bernheisel, Sheena Morris, Maureen Prosser, Margaret Mathis, Tanya Wick, and Zach Harris); Draft2Digital (Tara Robinett, Dan Wood, and Kevin Tumlinson); CreateSpace/KDP; MBS Textbook Exchange; Quality Books (Bill Hennis, Tiffani Griffin, and Stephanie Hilton); The Distributors (Patty Walsh); Coutts Information Services;  Follett Higher Education Group; Diane Kaczmarczyk; Chris Finan; Larry Brown; Margo Berman; Ellen Reid; Colt Taylor; Lisa Cutter; Michael Dasch; Faith Jackson; the late Batton Lash; Daniel Reed; Vanessa Montes; Jeremy Pound; Rino diStefano; Schamell Padgett; Lynn Glascoe; Jason Freeman; Alain Gomez; our web hosting company; Google for hosting this blog; and anyone else I’ve unintentionally forgotten to thank for aiding our success during these 15 years. And of course, Amber, who was there from the beginning and who will remain in spirit. See you in 2021.

Just Published: Warriors & Wizards

"In The Age of Magic, Anything is Possible."

314 pages. Paperback (Amazon) Paperback (Barnes & Noble)  Kindle EPUB

Taking place 15 years after the conclusion of the Halos & Horns story arc, The Age of Magic marks Lucifer's return to the series but much of the story follows the next generation: the children of Samantha (witch) and Lucifer (demon) Cypher; Pandora (vampire) and Cody (werewolf) Fenris; and Kita (kitsune) and Reggie (mortal) Forster. Alaric Cypher spends his summer before starting college in Japan with the family of the kitsune Kita, where he finds love and danger. Lucifer travels back to the ancient land of Thenesia to aid the barbarian King Caliban and the wizard Balthazar in their fight against the Dark Gods. Bartholomew follows twins Quinn and Ursula Fenris through a dimensional portal to the Otherworld, where the Morrigan is preparing for final battle with Hecate, the goddess of all witches. A traitor is discovered at Nosferatu, Inc., and Asabi returns to Siofra after Alterverse... but in a dramatically different form. *** Book 9 in the Halos & Horns fantasy series *** Book 2 in The Age of Magic story arc *** Available in paperback, Kindle  and EPUB e-books.

QuaranTeens Interview

Q: Tell me about The QuaranTeens.

A: It’s probably the most timely novel I’ve ever written. All of us. . . the whole world is in the grip of the devastating and deadly COVID-19 pandemic. No matter where you live or what language you speak, the coronavirus is constantly on the minds of every human on the planet right now. COVID is an acronym for COronaVIrusDisease and 19 indicates the year – 2019 – it was discovered. It’s a unique virus mankind’s never seen before and has no immunity against, and the worst part is scientists and epidemiologists say we can expect several new strains of coronaviruses in the years to come.

In The QuaranTeens, mankind has faced another of these in the near future, COVID-25, and they think the worst is over when, four years later, a super coronavirus – COVID-29 – comes barreling in and wipes out 80% of humanity. One of the Earth’s governments, realizing they’re facing an extinction-level event, rapidly constructs a massive underground biosphere they call “the bunker” and selects fifty infants and young kids to be the mankind’s last hope.

Q: Which country?

A: (Laughs). Well, that’s left open for the reader to decide.

Q: And you say “last hope” in the event there are no other survivors?

A: Right. So they’re sealed up in this bunker with a few adult scientists, all but one of whom die in the first months. The book opens a dozen years later–

Q: 2041?

A: Right, in the year 2041, when the kids are now teenagers and the only remaining adult has just died.

Q: So the kids are now in control of the bunker; sort of a Lord of the Flies scenario?

A: That’s one possibility. They obviously need to establish some sort of social order or society. But without adult supervision, they may also be curious about what lies outside the bunker’s titanium hatch.

Q: The virus? Other survivors? Zombies?

A: (Laughs). No zombies. Definitely nothing supernatural. This is strictly science fiction.

Q: But for a Young Adult audience?

A: Of course. The story revolves around teenagers so I think younger readers will relate to the characters. But I believe anyone 13-and-up will enjoy it. I had beta readers in their 30s and 40s that went wild over it.

Q: Tell me about these characters.

A: There are the twins: Covid, the quintessential hero, and his sister Corona, the adventurer. Kai is the rebel. Corbin is a cross between Dickens’ Artful Dodger from Oliver Twist and Michael J. Fox’s character Alex P. Keaton from the Family Ties TV series. Coralie is the loner. Lucian and Tristan are the entertainers, a vital role when you’re locked away in quarantine for your whole life. Lucian writes songs while Tristan is the group’s jester. Fiona’s a fair-skinned redheaded girl who becomes the group’s empathetic caregiver. Esme’s the needy girl who has to be in a relationship and will do anything for love. Blaine’s the needy boy who simply wants to belong and be accepted by the others. Nessa’s the youngest: she’s the innocent, filled with optimism and naïveté until reality comes crashing down on her. Ian’s the jock. Varian’s the older, authoritarian wannabe leader.

Obviously there’s no television or Internet, but they do have a library. Destine and Keiana are the most well-read of The QuaranTeens but while they’re the smartest, they have different motivations. Destine believes Covid should lead them and she endeavors to serve as his mentor.

Q: Sort of an Obi Wan to Luke Skywalker?

A: Yeah, or Merlin to Arthur but obviously her wisdom comes from book learning, not from age.

Q: A subtle plug for the benefit of books and reading. (Laughs).

A: (Laughs). Of course. Keiana, meanwhile, sees herself as more of a puppet master, manipulating those around her for her own agenda. Then, there’s Dax. She’s a mysterious character. Arlo and Nico are pair of sociopaths who would have felt right at home at Columbine.

Q: So those are your bunker rats.

A: Ouch! (Laughs). I like that term. I may steal it.

Q: Feel free. Does the story take place entirely inside the bunker or do we get to explore the post-apocalyptic world?

A: Both. One plotline follows what happens at the bunker while other plotlines follow the adventures of what we might call the ‘away teams’. The year 2041 isn’t that far from now but life has been changed dramatically as a result of the COVID-29 pandemic and its aftermath.

Q: In what way?

A: Having to survive in a world of scarce resources leads people to do things they ordinarily wouldn’t. There are scattered outposts of Raiders like the former trailer park where teen siblings Archer and Robin reside. There’s a domed city taken over by far-right authoritarians they’ve dubbed ‘Utopia’ . . .

Q: It sounds more dystopian.

A: One character asks what Utopia’s like and the response is, ‘It depends on who you are.’  (Laughs). I’ve written some fairly evil characters, especially in my Halos & Horns series, but Proctor in The QuaranTeens may be the worst yet.

Q: One last question. You just mentioned your Halos & Horns series and I know you have several other series—

A: The Adventures of Mackenzie Mortimer; Vampires Vs. Aliens;  Fangs & Fur; the Age of Magic; and my Reluctant Blogger series.

Q: Exactly, so will The QuaranTeens be an ongoing series or is this a one-off?

A: Or as we say on this side of the pond, a one-shot? That’ll be up to the readers. There’s no cliffhanger but the ending is left open to imply there are more stories that could be told. I enjoyed writing The QuaranTeens and if enough people enjoy reading it, then I’d certainly write more. But I am doing several series at present, so there’d have to be a fair amount of demand. 

Justin Tyme Now Available in EPUB Format

Justin Tyme is now available in EPUB format for Apple, Kobo, and Nook! Order your copy today!

Justin Tyme  –  Just published! Finally! No pun intended but this has been a long time in the making. I started writing Justin Tyme 10 years ago and it's finally published. You can download your Kindle ebook now or order the paperback edition from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I think it's fair to say you've never read a time travel story like this.

Justin Tyme: Impulsive, brilliant, protégé, physicist. He's the brains.

Elizabeth Madison: Martial arts fighter, polyglot, government agent. She's the brawn.

Together they'll make history…  while hopefully not changing it.

When the government pulls the plug on Dr. Daniel Spencer's Top Secret time travel project his brilliant young protégé, physicist Justin Tyme, impetuously sends himself into the timestream to prove Project Chronos' viability, undeterred by the fact they haven't yet figured out how to return a chrononaut safely. Fearing the brash scientist might inadvertently change the past, the Defense Department sends agent Elizabeth Madison to join Justin Tyme as his time-traveling companion. She's perfect for the job: she speaks 15 languages and is skilled in hand-to-hand combat.Elizabeth is proficient in judo, karate, jujitsu, aikido, kendo, tae kwon do, and wushu, the shaolin form of Chinese kung fu. Now Elizabeth must keep Justin Tyme out of trouble and prevent him from altering history – even if that means terminating him.

When the Lockdown Ends, the Danger Begins!

2025 – A new coronavirus, COVID-25, spreads across the globe killing hundreds of thousands before disappearing. They thought the worst was over… until four years later, when the more virulent COVID-29 strikes, wiping out 80% of the world’s population. The government rapidly constructs an underground complex – the bunker – to safeguard 50 specially selected infants and young children to be mankind’s last hope. When the bunker’s last adult dies 12 years later, the quarantined teenagers must form their own society within the bunker or venture out into the post-plague world.

The QuaranTeens hits bookstores today, June 19th.:
Paperback from Amazon

E-Books:
Kindle
Nook
Apple Books
Kobo

In Australia: Angus & Robertson

Available from Amber Book Company, in Paperback and e-book.

"It's 2041: Do you know where Your children are?" 

The QuaranTeens are Here!

When the Lockdown Ends, the Danger Begins!

2025 – A new coronavirus, COVID-25, spreads across the globe killing hundreds of thousands before disappearing. They thought the worst was over… until four years later, when the more virulent COVID-29 strikes, wiping out 80% of the world’s population. The government rapidly constructs an underground complex – the bunker – to safeguard 50 specially selected infants and young children to be mankind’s last hope. When the bunker’s last adult dies 12 years later, the quarantined teenagers must form their own society within the bunker or venture out into the post-plague world.

The QuaranTeens hits bookstore June 19th.  But you can pre-order your Kindle and EPUB copies now!

"It's 2041: Do you know where Your children are?" 

Earth Day

As billions of Planet Earth’s human inhabitants lock themselves indoors, sheltering in place to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus that has infected more than 2.6 million people and killed 186,000 worldwide, the devastating pandemic appears to have had a beneficial side effect on the environment.

An estimated two billion people -- one-quarter of the world’s population – have placed themselves in lock-down mode. Concomitant with the ensuing shutdown of heavy industries and factories, China has seen a 50 percent decrease in nitrous oxide and carbon monoxide. Levels of nitrous oxide and carbon monoxide have also dropped sharply in the U.S. due to the near cessation of automobile traffic. Airborne concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in Bergamo, Italy are 47 percent lower than normal; levels in Rome were 26-to-35 percent lower than in 2019; and Milan saw a 50 percent improvement in air quality. With most airplanes grounded, another pollutant has been curtailed. The murky waters of Venice’s canals are now so clear a jellyfish could be filmed swimming in them. Los Angeles skies are clear now, as are those surrounding the Himalayan Mountains. Maybe damage to the Amazon Rainforest can be reversed as it enjoys a respite from mankind’s deforestation. Perhaps the drop in greenhouse gas emissions may slow global warming enough to give us a chance to reverse that, as well.

All of which started me thinking: What if the coronavirus isn’t really a virus, after all? What if COVID-19 is actually an antibody? Mankind has inflicted enormous damage on the Earth’s ecosystem in the past century. We have polluted the air, the oceans, and the land; deforested the rainforests; and even shaken the planet’s core with fracking. To the ecosystem, mankind has become a harmful invading virus. Perhaps like any other biological entity, the Earth’s ecosystem has unleashed antibodies – COVID-19 – to destroy the harmful human virus attacking it.

It makes sense: nature unleashing her antibodies to save the planet from the human pestilence that is destroying it. A world with significantly fewer humans would result in a healthier ecosystem. After all, a healthy patient is the result of antibodies defeating a virus. Maybe we’ve been looking at COVID-19 all wrong.

With the 50th anniversary of Earth Day today, this would be a good time to reflect on what mankind can, and must, do to ameliorate the damage it has inflicted on the planet. Not only because we need a healthy planet to live on but also because if we continue destroying it, the planet may realize it doesn’t need us.

Barnes & Noble is Now Accepting Pre-orders

Barnes & Noble is now accepting pre-orders for the Justin Tyme paperback! Order your copy today!

Justin Tyme  –  Just published! Finally! No pun intended but this has been a long time in the making. I started writing Justin Tyme 10 years ago and it's finally published. You can download your Kindle ebook now or order the paperback edition from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. I think it's fair to say you've never read a time travel story like this.

Justin Tyme: Impulsive, brilliant, protégé, physicist. He's the brains.

Elizabeth Madison: Martial arts fighter, polyglot, government agent. She's the brawn.

Together they'll make history…  while hopefully not changing it.

When the government pulls the plug on Dr. Daniel Spencer's Top Secret time travel project his brilliant young protégé, physicist Justin Tyme, impetuously sends himself into the timestream to prove Project Chronos' viability, undeterred by the fact they haven't yet figured out how to return a chrononaut safely. Fearing the brash scientist might inadvertently change the past, the Defense Department sends agent Elizabeth Madison to join Justin Tyme as his time-traveling companion. She's perfect for the job: she speaks 15 languages and is skilled in hand-to-hand combat.Elizabeth is proficient in judo, karate, jujitsu, aikido, kendo, tae kwon do, and wushu, the shaolin form of Chinese kung fu. Now Elizabeth must keep Justin Tyme out of trouble and prevent him from altering history – even if that means terminating him.

Note to Bloggers: E-mail me if you'd like to interview me about Justin Tyme for your blog.

Together they'll make history… while hopefully not changing it!

Justin Tyme  –  Just published! Finally! No pun intended but this has been a long time in the making. I started writing Justin Tyme 10 years ago and it's finally published. You can download your Kindle ebook now or order the paperback edition. I think it's fair to say you've never read a time travel story like this.

Justin Tyme: Impulsive, brilliant, protégé, physicist. He's the brains.

Elizabeth Madison: Martial arts fighter, polyglot, government agent. She's the brawn.

Together they'll make history…  while hopefully not changing it.

When the government pulls the plug on Dr. Daniel Spencer's Top Secret time travel project his brilliant young protégé, physicist Justin Tyme, impetuously sends himself into the timestream to prove Project Chronos' viability, undeterred by the fact they haven't yet figured out how to return a chrononaut safely. Fearing the brash scientist might inadvertently change the past, the Defense Department sends agent Elizabeth Madison to join Justin Tyme as his time-traveling companion. She's perfect for the job: she speaks 15 languages and is skilled in hand-to-hand combat.Elizabeth is proficient in judo, karate, jujitsu, aikido, kendo, tae kwon do, and wushu, the shaolin form of Chinese kung fu. Now Elizabeth must keep Justin Tyme out of trouble and prevent him from altering history – even if that means terminating him.

Note to Bloggers: E-mail me if you'd like to interview me about Justin Tyme for your blog.

We Interrupt This Blog for an Important Message

Twice a day, I provide a service to my friends on my private Facebook page, updating them with the latest Covid-19 numbers and my interpretation of them. As a public service, I’m sharing today’s post with you on my blog. This is obviously off-the-cuff so please forgive the typos. It’s just a quickie summary to keep people informed. Bottom line: Please take Covid-19 seriously. Stay home. Wear a mask if you go out. Stay safe.

**                **                 ** 

Good morning. Lots of important info so I encourage you to read this update fully.

April 5, 2020: We now have 1.2 million Covid-19 cases worldwide. I'm now rounding the numbers since they're so large. It's actually 1,202,777 people infected but we're going to round it down. Only three weeks ago, those 2,777 cases would have mattered statistically; not now. Of course, they still matter on a human level: they're someone's aunt, uncle, sister, brother, best friend, co-worker, mother, father, son, daughter, grandparent. But for the rest of us, they're data rounded to the nearest decimal. So let's go with 1.2 million.

Except 1.2 million is not an accurate number. It turns out the NSA has revealed the Chinese, once again, were lying to the world. They lied about the start of the pandemic and they're lying about their numbers. Don't necessarily blame the Chinese government this time: Local Chinese officials have lied to the Chinese government about the number of infections and deaths fearing they would be blamed for them. The truth is always the first casualty in war. So that 80,000 China case figure could be 800,000. The death toll is likely many times higher than what has been stated. China claims the virus is under control and diminishing. Fact: They don't even know their own numbers, and wouldn't reveal them if they did. Let's extrapolate: We expect 80% of any population to be infected (including many asymptomatic who thus do not appear to be infected). China's population in 2019 was 1.435 billion. That means 1.148 billion Chinese infected with Covid-19. Probably more due to poor sanitary conditions (remember, this began in Wuhan, China’s unsanitary “wet markets” where Chinese buy bats and other live animals to eat), no initial testing or tracking of those testing positive, and a government that not only downplayed the virus and arrested Dr. Li Wenliang, the doctor who brought it to light (he died from the virus). But let's go with 1.148 billion Chinese infected anyway. Assume an average 3.5% morbidity rate (it varies by many factors that differ by a country's demographic make-up -- Italy, with a high proportion of elderly will have a much higher morbidity rate, but we'll use an average for this example). That comes to an ultimate death toll in China of 40.1 million by the end of the pandemic. An enormous number, but still only a fraction of China's 1.435 billion population.

Worldwide infections (I'm not using the word cases anymore as it confuses people) are 1.2 million and rising. The US has topped 311,635. Spain and Italy are about 125,000 each. Total US deaths today at 8.454. Only Spain (11,947) and Italy (15,362)  have more Covid-19 deaths.

The only country with exceptionally high recovery numbers is China and the NSA says China has made up their numbers so we won't be counting them. So, 1.2 million infections and only 169 thousand people have recovered. Not good.

The US has nearly 300k of the nearly 900k active cases. That's 1/3 of the entire world's active cases. Stop and let that sink in. The next highest nation has 88k.

The US and France have the highest number of critical (near-death) cases - almost 7,000 - nearly double the next highest nations.

That  US "Deaths per 1 million" number I told you to watch when it was 1, and, 2, and 3, and 4 and climbing? Today it's 26. This is an epidemic out of control. Mitigation efforts have not been applied in a timely manner and emergency production of essential supplies has not occurred. I extrapolate that number will be 260 by next week.

We have two new and very important columns in the chart : "Total tests" and "Tests per million". The US has done a whopping 1.6 million tests -- but in a population of 320 million, that's nothing.  (4,933 people out of a million). That's half of one percent. 99.5% of America remains untested! Stop. Let that sink in.

If 99.5% of America remains untested how many Americans have the virus? We don't know. No clue. We have to guestimate. Epidemiologists suggest 80% have or will have the virus. That's 4 out of 5 Americans. Some are asymptomatic and don't realize they have it. Those are carriers. Some have a mild case like the flu. Some are suffering. Some have been hospitalized. Some have died. And a few have recovered.

Eighty percent of 320 million is 256 million infected Americans. Wear a mask. Better yet, stay home. The official 311,635 figure is misleading. Try 256 million instead. Then act accordingly.

One of the most important factors -- and unanswered questions -- is How much of the increase in reported cases is due to exponential spread of the disease versus how much is due to pre-existing cases only now being reported due to increased testing? Despite the rising numbers, we still do not know the true rate of infection.

Of course, we could try to extrapolate from the death figures, but since the disease has a two-week incubation period, any calculation derived will be a lagging indicator-- and a two week lag renders it practically useless.

Time Travel Will Never Be The Same!

Justin Tyme  –  Now available for pre-order! Finally! No pun intended but this has been a long time in the making. I started writing Justin Tyme 10 years ago and it's finally about to be published. You can show your support for the project by pre-ordering the Kindle ebook now. There will be a paperback edition and about 90 days later the EPUB edition will be available. I think it's fair to say you've never read a time travel story like this.

Justin Tyme: Impulsive, brilliant, protégé, physicist. He's the brains.

Elizabeth Madison: Martial arts fighter, polyglot, government agent. She's the brawn.

Together they'll make history…  while hopefully not changing it.

When the government pulls the plug on Dr. Daniel Spencer's Top Secret time travel project his brilliant young protégé, physicist Justin Tyme, impetuously sends himself into the timestream to prove Project Chronos' viability, undeterred by the fact they haven't yet figured out how to return a chrononaut safely. Fearing the brash scientist might inadvertently change the past, the Defense Department sends agent Elizabeth Madison to join Justin Tyme as his time-traveling companion. She's perfect for the job: she speaks 15 languages and is skilled in hand-to-hand combat.Elizabeth is proficient in judo, karate, jujitsu, aikido, kendo, tae kwon do, and wushu, the shaolin form of Chinese kung fu. Now Elizabeth must keep Justin Tyme out of trouble and prevent him from altering history – even if that means terminating him.

Note to Bloggers: E-mail me if you'd like to interview me about Justin Tyme for your blog.

A Horse of a Different Color

I looked back over my blog posts and realized I haven’t written about my friend Stallion lately. It’s not that I’ve forgotten about him since our mutual writers group broke up; it’s just that I’ve, well, I haven’t remembered him lately. I’ve been busy writing several novels, editing, publishing, and distracted by a host of personal matters. Yet it’s wrong to neglect a friendship, especially in the midst of this devastating coronavirus affecting all of us, so I reached out to him. By phone, of course, since social distancing and quarantine preclude face-to-face meetings these days.

He sounded genuinely pleased to hear from me. We exchanged initial pleasantries and turned to the topic everyone is talking about: The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic and its effects on society.

Me: “I’ve been locked inside the house for four weeks now. No socializing, no parties… Not even my regular trip to the gym.”

Stallion: “It’s only temporary. Eventually you’ll be out and about again.”

Me: “It doesn’t feel like it. I’m going stir crazy. Four whole weeks! I have cabin fever. I haven’t seen any of my friends. All I see is the inside of the house, day and night. People don’t come over anymore. I can’t go to their houses, either.”

Stallion: “It’s only been a few weeks.”

Me: “A few weeks? It’s a month already! I’ve forgotten what restaurants look like. Everything is closed! I’m depressed and lonely. I haven’t showered in days. I don’t even bother getting dressed. I sleep at all hours. The solitude… The loneliness… I have no quality of life anymore. I don’t know how much more of this suffering I can take.”

Stallion: “I understand. I miss our weekly writing group meetings too. It was one of the few times I was able to leave home and socialize.”

Me (frowning): “What do you mean?”

Stallion: “Well, you know I’m disabled. It’s more difficult for me to get out and socialize.”

I cocked my head. “I didn’t know that. I’ve known you for years and you’re not blind or in a wheelchair. You don’t look disabled.”

Stallion: “And you don’t look stupid but obviously appearances can be deceiving. There are lots of people you know with hidden disabilities you can’t see.”

I gulped, duly chastened. I decided not to inquire further and simply accept what he had said.

Stallion: “How long have you known me?”

Me: “At least a dozen years, since you’ve been coming to our local meetings.”

Stallion nodded. “The ones around the corner from my house. I don’t go out much farther. I spend almost all my time at home because of my health condition.”

I gradually absorbed what he was saying. “How long have you been disabled?”

Stallion: “A bit more than twenty years. Stuck at home, just as I am now. I always looked forward to our group meetings as a chance to get out of the house and meet people.”

Me: “But surely your friends visited you in-between?”

Stallion: “Have you ever been to my house during the twelve years you’ve known me?”

I bit my lip as my mind flashed back through the years. “Well, I suppose not but…”

Stallion: “Don’t feel bad, no one else in our group has either – or any of my other friends, for that matter. Out of sight, out of mind. Like the aging relative packed off to a retirement home who you send Christmas cards to once a year.”

It started sinking in. “No one comes by? Not for dinner or to watch a movie on TV or anything?”

Stallion: “Imagine being in coronavirus quarantine; only not for four weeks but for twenty years. Solitude, loneliness; the constant silence becomes surreal. I use the TV for background noise. Some of the television characters are the only regular visitors to my home. I’ve begun seeing them as real people as I’m drawn into their make-believe lives on the small screen. It’s sort of like seeing what my friends are up to every day.”

Me: “That’s awful. Isolation is pulling you away from reality.”

Stallion: “Or it’s become my new reality. It’s my window into the outside world: to live vicariously through fictional TV characters who are leading the life I can’t outside these four walls.”

Me: “When this quarantine is all over, you need to start going out. At least, treat yourself to a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant and a movie in a theater with other people.”

Stallion: “I can’t afford those luxuries.”

I thought about how hard it was going to be to pay my monthly expenses and live on the one-time $1200 stimulus check the government would be sending me for a month of coronavirus pandemic loss of income. I certainly wouldn’t have anything left over for a celebratory champagne dinner. “I know, even if we could go outside, our stimulus checks him him won’t even cover the basics but in a month or two when this is over…”

Stallion: “You still don’t understand. I live on a disability check. I get $1300 a month: that has to cover food, medicine, rent, utilities, insurance, doctor visits… Even if I could physically handle an active social life like you, there’s no way I could afford it. Can you imagine living on $1300 a month for twenty years?”

I couldn’t live on $1200 or even $1300 a week, let alone a month. I thought about how my friends and I had been griping about our four-week ordeal. I tried to imagine it stretching out for the next twenty years. My instinct was to head over to see Stallion in person but then I remembered the stay-in-place shelter order. Not now, I told myself, but after the quarantine is lifted I’ll never forget this ever-present feeling of isolation and loneliness we’re all going through. I’ll make it up to Stallion. When things return to normal, I’ll make an effort to be a better friend, reach out to him more often, spend time visiting him and…

I stopped myself. That wasn’t going to happen. When things returned to normal, the horrible feeling of isolation and loneliness will be a distant memory. I’ll be inundated with work and lost time to make up. I’ll be busier than ever as life returns to the way it was. I’ll be doing all the things I used to do, the things I miss now, the things I love. Of course, there’ll be times I think of Stallion and I’ll call to see how he’s doing. “We’ll have to get together sometime,” I’ll say, and I’ll truly mean it when I utter the words. But days will pass and then weeks. You know how it is.

One day, eventually, the pandemic will end and life will return to normal. The daily routine of our lives will replace this lockdown and the mentality it brings with it. At least, for most of us. For a brief period, we’ve experienced life as the Stallions of the world know it. But unlike them, we’ll be released from this purgatory. The disabled, the elderly, the friends we don’t know as well as we think we do, and all the other shut-ins will not; and their silent suffering will not diminish, as ours does, along with our newfound empathy.

Dispatches from the Trenches

After three weeks of coronavirus self-quarantine, I ventured out to buy medicine and food. The streets had a third of their normal traffic. I hadn’t wanted to go out but mail-order prescriptions weren’t an option despite my repeated online enrollment attempts and no one at the pharmacy would answer their phone to arrange a delivery.  Fortunately, I thought, they had a drive-thru window so I wouldn’t have to wander about the drugstore or stand in line with sick people. I asked the clerk if she could add a box of face masks to my order. She said yes but I’d have to come inside for that. “Rather defeats the purpose,” I said. The irony was lost on her.

I entered Winn Dixie wearing a face mask and plastic gloves feeling like a refugee from a bad Halloween costume party. I passed a police car parked at the entrance. There’s something about walking past a squad car wearing a mask as you enter a store that creates an ominous feeling in the pit of your stomach. I hoped they didn’t think I was an inept, poorly-dressed robber. I pictured spending the night in jail and immediately regretted my hasty decision to wear my slippers to the store. The customers coming out weren’t wearing masks or gloves and I began to feel like the awkward kid showing up at the door of the fancy dress party and realizing that phrase on the invitation meant black tie, not funny animal costume.

I took a deep breath and wrapped my gloved hands firmly around the handlebar of a shopping cart and pushed it inside the store. See, I really am a shopper, I tacitly conveyed to the cops. I saw several shoppers, unmasked and ungloved. This was the dream where you stand before the class to read your book report and discover you’re still wearing your pajamas. Except I was fully clothed… and then some, conspicuously masked and attired as a Playtex gloves model.

Then, I saw a young woman turn the aisle. It was like staring in a mirror. Validation at last. I relaxed, feeling less foolish and becoming more confident. Observing her face mask and plastic gloves, I knew we were kindred spirits. I felt a bond and even though we maintained the mandatory six-foot distance between us, I felt oddly close to her. She looked cute in the mask and she was likely quite attractive beneath it and… Uh oh. I realized three weeks in quarantine was taking its toll.

I stopped at BJ’s. Another squad car outside. More empty shelves within. I left empty-handed, en route to Publix. Yet another police car parked outside a grocery store. I was sensing a pattern. Was this a precautionary move? Were they expecting customers to turn into a rioting, unruly mob fighting to the death for the last roll of toilet paper? My mind wandered. Do they even have toilet paper? If so, should I pick some up?

Everyone was masked here. I felt… accepted. It was the new normal. I waved a gloved hello. Everyone was courteous, keeping their six-foot distance. There was no panic shopping. Perhaps the panic shoppers had already raided the barren shelves that faced us. I mastered the art of substitution. I came in for chicken but bananas are sort of the same… if you don’t think about it too much. Or I could choose from their copious selection of wines and spend the evening in deep contemplation pondering the similarities of bananas to chicken, like a nostalgic 60s LSD trip. What else are you going to do alone at home, anyway?

A woman stepped into my aisle. I immediately noticed the sleek plastic face mask she wore. It was a white respiratory antiviral N95 face mask respirator and it put my flimsy surgical mask to shame. I was filled with envy. Three weeks in quarantine was definitely taking its toll.

"Party On!"

The younger generation exhibits a sense of entitlement combined with a lack of accomplishment. The Millennials (and their progeny) are the most selfish, self-centered, and blissfully ignorant generation in American history. What’s worse, they wear their ignorance as a badge of honor and their belief in Ayn Rand’s Objectivism (“Self-interest above all else”) as their adopted religion. (Are there exceptions? Of course, and maybe you’re one of them… but remember, it’s the exceptions that prove the rule).

Nowhere has this been more evident with the onset of the pandemic Coronavirus in February 2020. As the world faces a pandemic that promises to be greater in scope than the 1918 influenza – which lasted two years and infected 500 million people (a quarter of the world's population at the time) resulting in more than 17 million deaths – they blithely ignore warnings to stay inside and not interact with others so as not to spread the contagion. In fact, they deliberately do the opposite.

They congregate in public places; they hold “Corona parties;” they flood beaches and Spring Break spots in Florida – despite the fact Florida is home to the largest elderly population in the country. This is salient because initial reports from China and Italy (the first areas to be affected) show while victims under age 60 recover from the virus, victims over age 60 have a 15-to-20% mortality rate. Put another way, one-in-five will die. The mortality rate for those under 60 was reported at less than 1%. (The overall mortality rate for Coronavirus is 3.4%). So armed with the knowledge that they might get a bad flu bug but otherwise be okay, America’s youth adopted the mantra “Party On!”

The flaw in this reasoning is while their lives may not be at risk, they are spreading the virus to others – exponentially. For every individual they infect that person will go on to infect 3.5 more others; and those will infect 3.5 others. It’s like social networking or Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. This is how epidemics and pandemics (i.e., a global epidemic) spread. And eventually that mass of infected people will come in contact with an older person over age 60 (your parents, your grandparents, your neighbors, your coworkers); or someone with a weakened immune system (due to an immune disorder like Rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes mellitus, Guillain-Barre syndrome, polyneuropathy, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Psoriasis – there are more than 100 such conditions); or someone with an underlying condition like heart disease, diabetes, or hypertension; or someone who has recently had surgery or a prolonged illness or chronic condition that has weakened their otherwise healthy immune system. Know anyone like that? Because your “I’m not at risk. Party on” behavior WILL kill some of them.

It’s not all about you, Millennials. It’s about the people you are infecting and indirectly killing due to you selfish behavior. When you insist on spreading the virus in public gatherings because you are not personally at risk – that is selfishness to the extreme. Sure, you feel great; you don’t have symptom (although it takes 14 days for symptoms to appear during which time you may be a contagious carrier). Vanessa Hudgens, former Disney teen star, now 31 years old  tweeted: “Like, even if everybody gets it — like, yeah, people are gonna die. Which is terrible. But, like, inevitable?” That’s what passes for Millennial compassion and empathy. But when you hold “Corona parties” designed to spread the virus and post photos to social media tagged “#BoomerRemover” that’s beyond selfish: that’s malicious and a deliberate threat to public health that should result in criminal penalties. If someone with AIDS deliberately set out to infect as many people as he could, he would be prosecuted for attempted murder. The same rule should apply. Individuals need to take personal responsibility for their actions.

This is what happens when the “Me Generation” raises an even more narcissistic generation. Boomers failed as parents. They abdicated their parental responsibilities, opting to be their children’s “friends” not parents. They stopped spanking unruly children, both at home and in schools, thereby eliminating consequences for unacceptable behavior. Instead of awarding achievement, they gave trophies to kids just for showing up. Attendance was placed over actual accomplishment because God forbid their morale might suffer. So what was the lesson they learned? “I deserve it.” Why? Just because. Period.

They grew up thinking they are entitled to the best life has to offer without having to earn it, as every preceding generation has. Want to be famous? Start a YouTube channel. Want to write a book? Self-publish it. Want to be popular? Collect thousands of “friends” on Facebook. Looking for self-validation? Post your face pic or thoughts on social media, sit back and count the “likes” that come in. (Neil Armstrong went to the moon and snapped three photos; the typical teen posts three selfies a day!) This isn’t reality, folks.

Instead, we have college students who no longer view campuses as a place to broaden their horizons and debate opposing concepts in what Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes dubbed “the marketplace of ideas.” Today’s college campuses are now “safe spaces” where opposing thoughts are banned because students complain they are too fragile to hear ideas that counter their belief systems. They fear words or ideas that may “trigger” them – and faculty members who express them are routinely fired. That’s not learning. It’s not education. And this isn’t reality, folks. We now have a generation unable to cope with life in the real world.

But they’ll have to, as new information shows Coronavirus can have serious health effects on those aged 18-to-54. It might even kill some. Oops. It also turns out Coronavirus isn’t a one-hit pony. It will be linger for 12-to-18 months and then come back years later… when Millennials are older and more susceptible to dying from it. But don’t worry kids, I’m sure the younger generations that follow you will be just as concerned and diligent in addressing it as you’ve been.

So sorry keeping my grandparents alive is messing up your spring break plans.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

A few years ago I stepped into an elevator heading to the top floor of a South Florida office building. There’s a certain elevator etiquette one learns to follow. It’s acceptable for the person already in the elevator to offer to push the button for your floor but after that the remainder of the ride typically takes place in silence. Riders stare straight ahead at the gray doors, or at the consecutively flashing floor numbers above them, or even at the floor but it would be a breach of etiquette to stare at one’s fellow passengers, let alone engage in conversation. These days, if a conversation does take place, it’s likely between a fellow rider and the unheard and unseen person at the other end of the small earpiece/microphone protruding from his or her ear.

So it was unusual on this particular day when I stepped into the elevator joined by another man from the lobby and the great gray doors slid together sealing just the two of us in the square car that he struck up a conversation. Not simply a perfunctory “hello” but rather an actual back-and-forth exchange as the elevator slowly made its ascent to the top floor. I don’t remember what we talked about, other than one comment he made, because it was mostly idle chatter to mark time until the gray doors parted like the Red Sea making way for Moses and freed us from our claustrophobic confinement.

His comment that stayed with me to this day was a favorable one about my appearance. People seldom comment (at least to me) about my appearance – oh, a few may remark on my dimples, and my dental hygienist always compliments my teeth but other than that my physical appearance tends to be rather unremarkable. (The only exception being when I’ve gained weight and people ask if I’ve lost weight, which is either a snarky dig or a kind way of saying “You don’t look as fat as you used to.”).

But this man was a stranger with no basis for comparison, no “then” and “now” images of me floating through his mind. He told me he liked my hairstyle and how good my hair looked, which made me wonder if I should cancel my hairstyling appointment that afternoon and if going through with my planned haircut might actually change whatever was making my hair look so good that a complete stranger would comment on it in an elevator.

It turned out he was an expert on hair and hairstyling, and had been a leader in the field since founding a revolutionary business concept in 1976. When he told me his name, I immediately recognized who he was because as a teenager I had heard him introduce himself and his business in countless television commercials with the famous tagline “I’m Sy Sperling, and I’m not only the Hair Club president but I’m also a client” while holding up a photograph of his bald “before” self. It was brilliant marketing that made him an iconic celebrity and catapulted the former swimming pool salesman and son of a Bronx plumber to enormous financial success: in 2000, he sold the Hair Club for $45 million.

Sy Sperling and I ended up walking into the same office, where he bid me goodbye as he walked off with his party. I said to the receptionist, “Do you know who that was?” She did, as he had visited the office previously, but always accompanied by someone. She remarked it was unusual for him to come in by himself, as he had a terrible fear of elevators and refused to be alone in one. Suddenly, the unlikely conversation we had shared in the elevator made sense. It had been a distraction to take his mind off the anxiety and fear of what is a surprisingly more common phobia than one might imagine. He had probably been dreading having to ride the elevator alone to the top of the building and the appearance of someone else, anyone else, was a godsend. I have my own anxieties and phobias so I know what that’s like. Yet, I’d like to think he sincerely did like my hairstyle. After all, nobody knew more about hairstyles than Sy Sperling.

Sy Sperling, 78, died February 18, 2020, in Boca Raton, Florida. He was a philanthropist who formed the Hair Club for Kids to provided free hair to children who lost theirs from chemotherapy, and left a portion of his estate to the Jewish anti-hunger group MAZON.