Vampires, Viruses, and (Im)mortality
By Mercy’s gravestone.
Just because it’s one day after Halloween doesn’t mean we can’t still be thinking about vampires. Jason Zinoman in The New York Times has a great article about the connections between vampire legends and times of plague and pestilence…at one time, vampires were seen as creatures who spread deadly diseases rather than pale, sparkly romantic antiheroes. He didn’t mention, but he could, the vampire legends of 19th century New England, in which the undead were blamed for the spread of the white plague–tuberculosis.
Those legends and the true story of how belief in vampires affected the life and death of a nineteen-year-old Rhode Island girl named Mercy Brown became the basis for Mercy, my one and only horror novel to date. (More eerie than horrible, really.)
Read MoreAmanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman recites “The Hill We Climb” during the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Take note, young writers–she is 22 years old. Start practicing now–this could be you!
Read MoreTaia Morley to Illustrate A PANDEMIC IS WORLDWIDE
Delighted to announce that the talented Taia Morley will be illustrating A Pandemic Is Worldwide! I love Taia’s work; it’s warm and rich and childlike. I thinks she’ll bring a nice balance to this serious topic.
The Real Heroes
Jennings inoculating his first patient, eight-year-old James Phipps (who deserves a statue, too)
We put up statues to politicians and generals, but in a just world, people like Edward Jennings would have a statue on every corner. He created a true vaccine for smallpox, and the more I research pandemics, the more I understand how amazing his achievement was. This disease had been with us since ancient times and was capable of wiping out civilizations. Now? It’s gone. (Except for a few samples in laboratories which should be destroyed yesterday, if you ask me.)
Interestingly, he based his work on folk medicine practiced in Asia, where patients were immunized with pus taken from smallpox sores (it worked, though it was risky) and from the folk knowledge of farmers near his home, who insisted that, if they’d had cowpox, they were immune to smallpox (they were). So it was not just an individual epiphany, but an achievement built on observation and experimentation by countless others whose names science and history do not remember.
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews