The events described in this blog novel are framed by passages published five years after a terrible pandemic flu breaks out in New York City.

A young libertarian “do-it-yourself’ flu fighter huddles at home in the East Village, selling respirators and personal protection products on the Internet. As an evolving influenza strain kills its first New Yorker, he begins blogging and goes on to chronicle events that wrack New York and the nation.

A charming, vexing woman stalks our blogger while he delves into the mysteries of influenza and of society’s muddled response to it. At her prodding, he begins helping some colorful community activists, the Lower East Side DIY. Soon he is wondering why the government puts so much effort into channeling and controlling popular energy—treating vital Americans as if they were viral intruders.

As the pandemic waxes, wanes, and furiously rebounds, American society staggers into a kind of national Katrina amid weakened Constitutional constraints. With Chinatown a smoky ruin and Houston shattered in a gas explosion, this outspoken New Yorker becomes a victim of domestic rendition, a federal prisoner in a white room somewhere in Manhattan. Ultimately he must fight both the flu and the system to save his life and his love.

Composed in the most contemporary fashion—as a blog, a public diary that breathes and bleeds immediacy—American Fever tells of passion born in crisis. Drawing on years of intensive research into the nature and history of influenza and the human response to it, it reanimates the concerns of classic plague authors from Defoe to Camus to Saramago.

This live, linked, serial novel will flow online through the summer of 2009, a dramatic blueprint for survival as we all wait to find out what H1N1 swine flu will do to us.

American Fever will become available for purchase only after the entire work has been posted.

AUTHOR'S NOTE on the commercial question: I chose SquareSpace as a hosting platform in part because it enables commercial activity, fleshing out a key aspect of American Fever’s plot: the protagonist’s business. Readers can indeed purchase respirators, masks, gloves, goggles, disinfectant, and the Cultural Merchandise our blogger favors via Amazon.com at AmericanFeverBook.com, which will profit modestly from any such activity. There have not been—nor will there be—any product placements.

WELCOME TO THE INDEPENDENT NOVEL

In the Beginning was the Word, and soon it was Written.

It was controlled by the Priesthood.

Then came Gutenberg, and all Hell broke loose: The Reformation.

Eventually, Peace was restored: Agents brought Words to Publishers, who printed Books & presented them to the Public.

Then came the Web, and the Word broke loose.

The Time has come for the Independent Novel:

You can Click, See, Explore—and perhaps someday I’ll get Paid for this.

I can Write and you can Read.

Commence Reading