Fragmentary

It takes as long as it takes. Hard to believe that I've been working on  Deciphering Zach  for eight years. It started out with a different title, and a plot that barely resembles the story as I now see it. In all that time, though I've piled up tons of notes and questions to be answered, I've written only one chapter. I've never felt, until recently, that I knew how the novel should be structured. Nor did I feel that I really knew the two central characters: Zach and Harte. Now I'm close enough to solving those problems that I can move ahead and let the two boys reveal themselves fully.  Even though I know them better than I did at the start, I don't know everything about them. If I did, all I'd be doing is dictating, not creating. No one ever knows anyone completely, and that's just as true for writers as it is for anyone else. What's important is the discovery, which can take a lifetime, if you are lucky enough to be granted such a long relationsh...

    https://theconversation.com/how-do-pandemics-end-history-suggests-diseases-fade-but-are-almost-never-truly-gone-146066 The answer is "yes" and "no." Pandemic diseases do fade away, eventually, but can recur over time. The "Conversation" article turns to history for a brief, concise history. I suspected that something like Covid-19 could pop up somewhere down the line even after vaccines and stricter public health measures seem to have defeated it. That idea is something I've been intending to include in  Deciphering Zach , but hesitated for lack of specific knowledge.  The truth is that infectious diseases simply don't go away once they've appeared. Their danger may not be as great as in the past, but that is due to the continuation of conditions that favor their suppression: sanitation, medical interventions, vaccines. Bubonic plague still exists and takes a few lives most years, in the American southwest. Given the right circumstances, it...