Q: What is the book about?
A: The book is about how my family survives the bird flu pandemic. We become self-reliant (giving up on government assistance). We relearn traditional family values and we become stronger by rediscovering the long forgotten American pioneering spirit by living in the mountains.
Q: Avian flu isn't in the news anymore, is it still something to worry about?
A: According to Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Desease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, "We are going to have another pandemic. It will occur. It's something we can't emphasize enough. And to add to that, we still have time to prepare.
Q: How can the book be purchased?
A: There are three ways to buy the book. First, the publisher will have a web site for ordering the book at Trafford.com, (search on title or author name) and a credit card can be used. Second, an “author signed copy” will be available for purchase at outlivingtheflupandemic.com, using a check or money order. Thirdly, the book will be available as an E-Book for portable electronic readers and arrangements for this option are still pending.
Q: Will the book be published in hardcover?
A: There are no plans for an expensive hardcover edition. As a paperback and E-Book the price will be more affordable to more people. The more people that can be helped by the book the better.
Q: What made you want to write this book?
A: Three things came together in the month of October 2007 that motivated me to start writing down notes and from that I developed an outline for a book. First, I was reviewing my professional career and I thought about how self-serving my career had been. It had been a rewarding and successful career, but there were no lasting significant accomplishments that I really stood out. I wondered how I could make a contribution to society, perhaps even to humanity. And then, there was a single paragraph article under the Earthweek section in the newspaper (along with earthquakes and hurricanes), that said university lab tests showed the bird flu had mutated to a strain that can grow in the upper respiratory system of humans. This meant that the virus had evolved another step towards a pandemic, facilitating the efficient transmission of the virus between humans through coughing and sneezing, similar to the common flu. That alarmed me. Equally alarming was how this was not newsworthy and how the media ignored the significance of this event. Lastly, I watched the video of Carnegie Mellon’s dying professor Randy Pausch give his last lecture and at the conclusion, he said it was dedicated to his children. So I decided to write a book and dedicate it to my children and perhaps, at the same time, make a contribution to society by sounding the flu pandemic alarm.
Q: Where did you get your source material for the book?
A: I read the World Health Organization’s webpage, “Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response (EPR) bulletins almost every day. For two years I have followed the news reporting of bird flu and I research historical materials on the 1918 Spanish Flu. I purchased Dr. Grattan Woodson’s book, “The Bird Flu Manual” and compared his medical predictions to my vision of what a pandemic would be like, and found them to be similar. However, in some of his predictions, like the number of years that a pandemic could last and the total US deaths we could reasonably expect to see, his predictions are much more grave than mine. For anyone wanting to know more about the Bird Flu, I recommend his book.
