Enza
The first time I remember hearing about the 1918 Influenza Pandemic was while watching a documentary on PBS. My first thought was how was it possible I'd never heard about this? Listening to the words, written by those who experienced the tragedy, gave me chills and I knew Ihadwrite about it. And thus began several years of research. After countless hours spent reading actual papers at a newspaper office, even more time scrolling through microfiche at state and local libraries, looking through death records at city hall, and going through phone books and other information at the historical society, I was finally ready to get started. Since I'd had copies made of everything, I was able to reconstruct the town in the book on a huge poster board, making sure everything was laid out accurately. The businesses in the story were actual businesses then. It was a lot of work, but more than worth the effort. It's easier to write when you know what you're talking about. It took a long time to write Enza because there were so many things I had to research. From the ice harvesting expedition to the the horrible fact that casket supplies were quickly depleted because so many people were dying. At least one man was shot and killed trying to steal one for a family member. This pandemic was different than other strains of the flu. Most deaths occur in the very old or the very young, but this one tended to claim the lives of people in the prime of their lives, teens and young adults. It was also unusual in that a person could be healthy in the morning and dead by nightfall. Depending on the source, the worldwide death toll ranges between forty and a hundred million people. In the United States alone, the Spanish flu took more lives thanallof the American soldiers lost inallof the wars in the twentieth century. This wasn't an easy book to write because my goal was to make it true to life. I even went so far as to draw the names of the victims out of a hat because the flu struck down people at random, and I knew that in order to keep it real, I needed to do the same. So that's some of what was involved in making Enza come to life, and I'd love to know what you think after you read it.