Tonight I have been working on the final draft of the paperback version of “A Tale of Hell and other Works of Horror”. I took a break to talk with the fiancée (over the phone), have dinner, and watch one of my favorite episodes of House entitled “A Pox on our House” involving a suspected case of smallpox. Somehow I hit upon the idea what if it wasn’t a meteor/asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, but a virus? The story could be called “The Chicxulub Virus” after the Mexican location where the meteor/asteroid struck in the current Bay of Campeche. The virus could have been brought to Earth by the meteor/asteroid, spread quickly by air in the particulate cloud that the meteor/asteroid generated, and which encircled the Earth. A few mammals and other critters survived for whatever reason, to evolve into the species we have today or the virus could have started the evolution that created today’s species. Now, in a sort of Jurassic Park stimulus, instead of scientists finding “dino DNA” in amber, they unleash the virus and race to prevent it from spreading (reminiscent of The Andromeda Strain) or they struggle to fight its spread once it is airborne. This could be a very complex work even for a good sci-fi writer.
This is just a very rough idea and I haven’t worked out anymore details than you see here.
I have a long list of things to write and so I recognize that I will never write this. Therefore, I offer it out there to whoever wants it at no cost. If you do use it, and if you would be so kind, I would like to be listed in the acknowledgements as the originator of the basic idea.
Comments? Suggestions?
Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 