Cathleen Ross looks at 'Redaction' by Linda Andrews

Welcome to the Romance Writers of the Apocalypse. Today we have Cathleen Ross's interview with Linda Andrews, writer of the Apocalyptic tale 'Redaction'.

Six months after an Influenza Pandemic swept across the globe, the world is starting to emerge from quarantine. But Pestilence Free Day is short-lived. For an unseen enemy has just been unleashed.
Five people. Seven days.
A brilliant scientist with an apocalyptic forecast
A soldier that needs an enemy to fight
A college student venturing into a changed world
An insurance salesman who exploits every opportunity
A juvenile delinquent desperate to leave his past behind
Redaction: Humanity is about to be erased from the Book of Life

How did you come up with the idea?

It was a story that took several years to germinate. First was my last visit to my grandmother who described the 1918 pandemic that took the life of her father and the baby (never did learn if it was a sister or brother). Then there was a release of radioactive steam from the nuclear generating facility near Phoenix and the fact that the news release didn't come out until days later. Lastly, it was the shutting down of my daughter's school when the swine flu hit. Pieces snapped together like Legos and characters walked onto my mental stage, ready to tell their story.

The book has terrific army personnel. Did you have this background yourself? How did you do the research for it?

Robertson is loosely based on my Uncle Ed, who witnessed and survived the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. While my family has a long tradition of military service (leading back to before the US was a country), my father, a Korean War Vet, raised us to question everything. Not exactly a good trait in a soldier. Fortunately, my family likes to talk and some of my co-workers are vets and are willing to answer my questions. I did learn that saluting had changed from my dad and uncle's generation to the current one, so I had to make some changes to keep the book current.

Tell us about your main characters. How you developed them.

I have 7 main characters to tell the whole story of Redaction. Each was developed differently--Manny and Mavis arrived as fully formed—gifts from the universe. Trent was a mixture of personalities types I've met over the years--none of them good. David is an impression of Dr. Watson in the BBC series, Sherlock, that stuck with me after watching A Study in Pink. In it, Dr. Watson has just made an impossible shot through two windows to kill the bad guy and saves Holmes's life. But Watson, being Watson, doesn't do anything to draw attention to himself or take the credit. He lets Holmes get all the glory and is satisfied knowing he did the right thing. That's a real hero.

What attracted you to writing an apocalypse story?

I love deadly disaster books and movies but lately I've been irritated at how humans have been betrayed. Anyone who's studied history or even human behavior (and I have both nearly earning a BS in history while I earned mine in Biology) knows very few humans behave like detritus when the storm is raging. It's now how our species managed to survive or evolve. I've read tons of accounts of 9/11, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the Black Death, Katrina, and other disasters that reaffirm the basic tenets of human behavior. The actions of ordinary people are what I wanted to stress in the book.  Of course, after the disaster has struck and things are beginning to return to normal is another story.

It's a terrific read.

Thanks so much! That means a lot coming from another author.

Why did you decide to self-publish? Tell us about that process.

I have four small press publishers and I really enjoy working with 2 of them but they couldn't publish my books as quickly as I write them. Then I met Bella Street through a blog and she was nice enough to strike up a conversation with me after I reviewed the Z Word and liked it. I joined Indie Romance Ink and learned from others who'd undergone the experience. Through a series of trial and error, I finally took the plunge and did it. I've learned a lot along the way, probably the most surprising is that I enjoy self-pubbing and will continue to do so alongside my small press books.

Cathleen Ross is the author of:

Highlander (Forbidden Fantasy) 
http://www.amazon.com/Highlander-Forbidden-Fantasy-ebook/dp/tags-on-product/B005L388OG
Her Prisoner (Forbidden Fantasy)

http://www.amazon.com/Her-Prisoner-Forbidden-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B007FQE