December 1

As expected my writing progress took a big nose dive after I broke 50k :( I did end with 51594 but I did not write anything after November 27 (which barely counts as it is <500!). It was a busy few days that encompassed both mine and my son's birthday so without the "oh my god i have to write or else I'll fail!!" pressure, writing got left on the back burner.

I traditionally have only blogged during NaNoWriMo but I would like to increase my writing time throughout the year. So I am considering continuing to post here as I slug through the re-write and editing phase. I do better when I publican set goals as the pressure to not fail is increased when people are watching. Perhaps if I can get this novel tightened up I can even start the sequel! I'm really sold on these science book ideas I have and would like to get more of them created.

Now, in honor of completing NaNoWriMo 2012, I present an UNEDITED (aka don't kill me for the messed up grammar!) story excerpt from this year's novel: Stratospheric Syndrome!

The alarm started buzzing on the small nightstand next to the bed. Kathy moaned a bit and rolled around to slap the nightstand until she found the clock. Her eyes opened slowly and the clocks large numbers started to take shape as her eyes focused slowly. She sat up quickly, her head spun for a moment as the blood rushed away from it. “Breakfast… can’t skip breakfast,” she muttered. She pushed herself up slowly and slipped off the side of the bed. Moving towards the bathroom, she quickly got ready for the day. 

The time clicked down, and she was ready in 8 minutes. She secured her hair in a tight high pony tail and skipped putting many make up on. Then she moved to grab the Droid phone off the dresser where it had been charging all night. It was a little after 7am and she should be back in the lab before 8, even with getting breakfast at the McDonalds down the street. It was too early to get an update from Nic on the patients, but maybe someone at the micro lab could give her some information.  She could make a quick stop at the hospital on her way to the CDC office, though it was quite a bit out of her way. Maybe she could just call the hospital instead.. she started looking for the number.  She had just decided to call main line of the Denver City Hospital instead of driving over there when her phone started to ring. 

“Dr. Traviston,” Kathy picked up the line. It was the Atlanta headquarters for the CDC. 

“Dr. Traviston, we’ve received word of another plane having a similar outbreak of respiratory Staph as the ones you have reported,” her boss, Dr. Cooper’s voice came over the line. 

“What?!” Kathy exclaimed. “Where?” 

“Another Soar Airlines flight out of Denver, this one heading to Puerto Rico. They had to make an emergency landing in Miami as several passengers were coughing up blood and one started convulsing,” he replied. 

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Kathy muttered. “Are all the passengers alive?” 

“So far,” her boss replied. 

“Dr. Ethan Smith from the Los Angeles office said the passengers on the San Diego flight started making a recovery with in hours, how long has this flight been on the ground?” Kathy asked. 

“It landed 20 minutes ago, our team from Miami is on scene. They were called in by the airline while the flight was in the air and diverting.”

“I want them to get sputum samples immediately and rush on processing,” Kathy said. “We have to get a culture and see if we can figure out what this thing really is. It’s not your normal Staph..” 

“That I know,” Dr. Cooper replied dryly. “There is something strange about it. I gave the team orders to do a thorough evaluation of the both the plane and the passengers. They will check everything looking for evidence.” 

“Can you get me the jet’s designation number? I want to check and see if any of the mechanics here in Denver worked on the plane recently,” Kathy requested.

“I will find out what I can,” he responded. 

“Thanks.”

“Since you were the first to hear about this disease, I’m putting you in charge of the investigation. I am having Dr. Smith from Los Angeles, Dr. Taylor from Miami and, of course, Dr. Cutter in Denver report to you from here on out. You’re taking point,” he said firmly. 

Kathy paused for a moment. This would be her first case where she was the point officer. Usually she helped out here and there, but to be coordinating a national investigation was a big deal. “Me?? … Thank you sir..” she finally squeaked out. 

“Don’t make me regret this, you’re still the young, new face around here.” 

“I won’t, I will get to the bottom of this sir.” 

“Good, keep me updated,” he said and hung up the phone.  

Kathy hung up the phone and dropped her head into her hand. “Ugggggg.” Another outbreak.. all of the planes were originated in Denver, why? Soar had flights going across the country, all of the time. What was special about Denver.. why was it only the flights these mechanics worked on.. or were the mechanics even the link between them? This flight might not have been in for repairs anytime soon. Kathy loved a good mystery but this one was getting ridiculous. And now it was her mystery, she would be the one responsible for answering this question and fixing the situation. The weight of that reality hit her like a ton of bricks and she sat paralyzed in the chair for a few moments processing the new information. 

What was the first step?

Should she go to the airport first? Check the log more intently for all the planes that had been repaired not just in the day leading up to Mr. Richards outbreak? Track down all of the employees that worked on any of the airliners? 

Should she go to the lab? By now the sequencer would have finished its run and she would be able to run a BLAST search of the 16s rRNA gene to compare it with all of the other bacterial 16s rRNA genes that have been added to the world wide database.

Should she go to the hospital? Interview the victims personally? Check on the Vitek results and get any other cultures that had grown from the patients. 

There were so many options and ideas to chase down and only one of her. So now, what did she do? She was in charge of the investigation, including the Denver office. Maybe it was time to try delegating.. something she did not do often. She had always worked under the guideline that if you want something done right, you do it yourself!  That rule would have to be broken if she was going to track down this outbreak in a reasonable time. 

Grabbing her purse she had made a decision. Walking purposefully out of the house towards her rental car, she planned her day in her mind. She would go to the Denver office and get teams together to take care of various parts of this project. Then she was going to call Los Angeles and Miami and get updates from both of the lead investigators. But first.. she needed breakfast.