You Can't Have Too Many Cooks.

from evpersoneli.net

    "I've been thinking," my husband says as he comes into the room. Those of you who know us know that that is my line. At which, he rolls his eyes, puts down his book, and waits to hear just what scheme I've come up with now. 

    You notice I leave out the adjective "harebrained" which he would not be so rude as to say out loud.

    But, since it is he who has begun the conversation with that line I have no idea how to respond. He sees my confusion and explains, "Your mystery virus."

    Now I'm really confused. I was quietly working an online jigsaw puzzle with my brain (hare- or otherwise) happily parked in neutral.

    "For your book," he says. "You said you wanted a virus." There followed an interesting, in depth explanation of the corona family of viruses. 

    And he's absolutely right. I need an airborne virus for my new book. One that is likely to continue to evolve into the future and spread havoc among humans.

    Being a mystery writer, I'm always in the market for a poison, a sharp instrument, a lethal creature, any interesting mode of murder. And because my books take place in the future I need causes of death that are plausible -- a virus that might exist when we humans are living in colonies in space. 

    I talk to today's doctors, police officers, computer scientists, plumbers, cooks, everybody. They can imagine future changes in their fields. Those changes may seem fantastical today, but they just might happen. After all, it hasn't been very long ago that things we depend on daily didn't exist, at least not the way they do today.

    Like cell phones. I was trying to think of items that could be easily stolen and sold. The cell phone would be good. It's small enough to conceal and walk away with, but my daughter pointed out that the technology already exists to render a phone inoperable if it's stolen. And a phone that won't work has no value. Many electronics can be traced if they're stolen and in the future they probably all will be tagged some way, making them unsaleable. She suggested jewelry. Of course!

    I love it when my friends and family share their imaginations with me. 

    Stories that take place in the future need musical instruments that don't exist today, games, entertainments, sports, vices. 

    Safe to say, all the old vices will still be around, they'll just be marketed in different forms. And like I'm fond of saying, "Humans will always be human and murder happens."