John Clark is back to writing regularly and enjoying it. I produce between one and two thousand words a day, with the story scrolling through my head like commercial-free TV. I’m still undecided upon the title, but I think Sailing Past The Apocalypse is likely to be the one I use.

Writing a book about what happens after everything goes to hell allows one an immense amount of freedom since we haven’t quite gotten to a real one yet. (My money is on sometime in early September). Will there be mass hysteria? Will people band together, or kill each other off? How will elected leaders address such a situation? My friends, the literary possibilities are endless.

Mine begins with a rolling electromagnetic pulse-EMP, that starts somewhere in Asia and moves around the globe slowly enough so garbled news of what’s happening s broadcast before it does its damage.

For reference purposes, here’s what one is/does:

Electromagnetic pulse

• An EMP is a brief burst of electromagnetic energy that can be natural or artificial.
• EMPs can occur as a magnetic field, electric field, or electromagnetic field.
• EMPs can be caused by solar flares or nuclear weapons.

• EMPs can damage or disrupt electronic devices.

• EMPs are considered low probability, high consequence events.

• • EMPs can be a threat to the United States power grid.
• The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack assesses the risk of EMP attacks. (Although this bullet point has likely been eliminated by Elon Musk)

In my story, our fear(less) leader panics and pushes the nuclear doomsday button, sending more than a thousand missiles skyward. Just as they reach peak orbit, both their guidance and propulsion systems are fried by the EMP, leaving them floating high in the atmosphere until gravity pulls them down in random fashion. Some detonate, others create huge craters, fracturing bedrock, changing the landscape markedly, or if they detonate/fall at sea, create huge tidal waves.

As for what happens to humanity, I am not ready to let that cat out of the bag, but trust me, it ain’t pretty. There’s also a very strange phenomenon that occurs as people vanish (either dying, or migrating) Weather factors into the story in multiple ways, as does the scary question of what happens to nuclear reactors when an EMP wipes out the mechanisms that control the reaction.

Of course stories need characters. This has four. Seeker is a twenty-two year old guy who functions at the high end of the autism spectrum. Aurora is seventeen, and had to watch her religious fanatic parents suffer a horrible fate. Cygnet is ten, and like Aurora had to witness something horrible happen to her parents, but in markedly different ways, Mom mutated into a giant venomous spider and proceeded to drain Dad dry. The final character is Feather, a telepathic boa constrictor who bonds with Cygnet.

Their adventure begins when Seeker, living well underground in a cavern created by one of the falling missiles, accidentally throws the only remaining book he has in the fire, but is unable to rescue it. He can’t imagine existing without books, so he makes a trip above ground to find new ones. It is this initial small quest that sets in motion a most perilous and interesting journey.

One thing that has made writing this book so smooth is my new way of plotting. I have the luxury of deciding when, or whether to get out of bed. Likewise when to put down the book I’m enjoying and turn out the light. During those twilight periods between sleep and full awakening, I imagine the next portion of the story. Almost invariably, I have the script flowing in my head as soon as I sit down to write more.

One last thought, garnished with a new fancy term. For anyone writing, or wanting to write, literary consumption celibacy is an effort in futility. In other words read whatever the hell you want, whenever you want and it shouldn’t affect your writing one bit.