Paused – A Reading

I did a reading a few months back of Chapter 3 from my bio-horror novella, Paused. Although this is set around a pandemic (viral or other cause you’ll have to read to find out), it was written before Covid. In this particular chapter, the daughters of the doctor faced with this mystifying ailment, face their school bully. At the end of the reading, I do make a somewhat cynical comment about how I think people will behave when faced with events referenced in the book.

The idea for the book came to me after reading about Locked In syndrome and the horror of that situation remained with me. It must surely rank amongst one of the most terrifying situations to be in. In addition to this, I came across an article which showed advances being made in allowing sufferers to communicate, the basis for the ‘thinking cap’ referenced in the story. You can read that article here. Science and technological advance is a great source of inspiration for writing!

Paused Blurb:

A terrifying pandemic sweeps the world, rendering its victims completely immobile but leaving them conscious with their minds intact. The victims are helpless against the environment, completely at the mercy of wild animals, weather, out of control fires, and other dangers. There’s no hope for those safe in their homes either, as they slowly starve to death, unable to feed themselves or drink.

Dr. Alex Griffiths leads a team racing against time to find a cure before it’s too late. Will he succeed?

Get Paused here.

And as a total aside, that little teddy bear behind me I remember getting when I was about five years old. I can still remember standing in front of the shop window trying to decide between this one and one with brown paws. It makes him 54!