Love in the Age of Coronavirus

So it appears this is another pandemic — and by "another" I mean "it's only been 100 years omg" — and things are feeling oddly reminiscent of a book I wrote over a decade ago now. And not in a good way.

This isn't so much a marketing tie-in as it was a sense of dread, because the plot to The Vector is still highly unrelated to covid-19, but I can't help but wonder how similar the two plots will end up being. I'm really hoping they end up not similar at all...

See, in The Vector, the world is beset by multiple artificial pandemics that kill people in horrific ways, but the scarier part is how society starts to fall apart under the weight of that kind of terror. Borders close, discrimination is commonplace and ruthless, and everyone turns on anyone without warning. It's the purest dystopia I've ever written, and I was starting to feel pretty good that I had left that part of my life behind.

And now here it is, becoming real.

I really hope we don't end up there. I really hope the various governments of the world act smartly and decisively to contain covid-19 before it can spread too far, too fast. That was one of the things I learned while researching The Vector: once the virus escapes a quarantine, it's basically game over. Wuhan has taking the brunt of things now, but I have a really bad feeling that's just the beginning.

All of which is to say: we're headed into perilous times... and I hope we can get out the other side in one piece.