Humans are parasites
This blog post of mine originally appeared on Jo-Ann Carson's Lovin' Danger Blog on October 11th, 2013. (I wish WordPress and Blogger had a reblog button that allowed for reblogging WP posts on Blogger sites - if you know how to do this, please enlighten me).
I'd like to thank Jo-Ann Carson for the opportunity to be a guest on her blog. She's a writing colleague of mine, and also happens to be my mother! Her love for books and the craft definitely inspired me to take up writing.
Humans Are Parasites:
MIND BLOWN
I'd like to thank Jo-Ann Carson for the opportunity to be a guest on her blog. She's a writing colleague of mine, and also happens to be my mother! Her love for books and the craft definitely inspired me to take up writing.
***
Humans Are Parasites:
In “The Hot Zone,” author Richard Preston makes an argument that hit me hard. He postulates viruses are a part of Mother Nature’s immune system and human are really the parasites. After all, it's only when humans try to delve into uncharted territory or cultivate
pristine wilderness, that we are exposed to extremely deadly viruses, such as
Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Marburg Virus and Lassa Virus (to name a few). There
are other arguments for why that is, but I like Preston’s:
Viruses are Earth’s natural
defense against the human infection.
As a biologist, I LOVE that argument. I sit around and think
about it all the time, just geeking out by myself. I even made my husband read
the book, so I could talk to someone else about it. Sadly, he liked the
military side of the book more than the biological one.
As a writer, it got me thinking.
What a great premise for a new world! I write Urban Fantasy
(with strong romantic elements), and in the world where my Carus Series takes
place, all supernatural beings have been exposed after a period of time
referred to as The Purge.
"During The Purge, a series of natural disasters and deadly viruses swept the world. As the fragile human population declined, the death defying presence of the supernatural led to one preternatural group after another becoming exposed—Werewolves, Vampires, Fae, Demons, Skinwalkers, Witches, Angels, everything from our dreams to our nightmares. Pandora’s Box had opened." (Excerpt from Shift Happens: A Carus Novel)
Essentially, Mother Nature got so pissed off
with humans, she tried to kill a bunch of them off using what powers she could
- natural disasters and deadly viruses.
Shift Happens, the
first book in the Carus Series takes place roughly eighty years after the
Purge, and it was a lot of fun to write.
Is there a book you really enjoyed that had an
interesting premise or unique world? What was it?
J.C. McKenzie
Shift Happens: A Carus Novel will be published by The Wild Rose Press.
Release Date, TBA
@JCMcKenzie
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