Endemic follows a book smart woman that is wanted for her intelligence in a collapsing society, she has to figure out a way to survive her traumatic past and her bleak current situation. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?

I share a lot of Ovid’s issues. We both have a sensory processing sensitivity and we both worked in the book publishing industry. I don’t have her green thumb, but Ovid’s kind of my surrogate through much of her ordeal. The pandemic was a profound inspiration that allowed me to capture the realities of a viral apocalypse from the safety of my blanket fort. I guess you could say I went into lockdown, wrote in isolation, and extrapolated.

Ovid wants to survive but has limited survival skills at the start. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?

Extraordinary people using unlimited resources to survive aren’t interesting to me. I think too many apocalyptic books load up on easily defended fortresses and ammunition. A nerdy book editor who discovers her capabilities and deals with the real demands of the end of the world is compelling. Ovid is an outsider, but her struggles with her troubled past and daddy issues make her relatable. By the end of Endemic, readers cheer for her.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

I wanted to do more than make Endemic solely a survivalist narrative. We’ve seen all that already. Instead, we discover Ovid was a survivor long before the pandemic hit. She didn’t know how tough she really was until more was demanded of her. Many people wanted to tell her what to do and keep her weak. She’s much stronger than she thought she could be. Readers relate to those issues. Call it a therapeutic apocalypse, especially for book nerds.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

I’m devoting all my writing time to a new epic fantasy. Mostly, I write apocalyptic suspense and crime thrillers, but my editor encouraged me to play in a new pond and I’m having a blast writing it. Not sure when I’ll pull the new series together, but probably not until the new year. I’m supposed to be working on making audiobooks, too. I already have a big catalog, so I’m swamped.

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