Shock (Wildfire Chronicles)

Shock picks up right where Panic left off, albeit from the perspective of a character we haven't yet encountered. Where Panic focused on characters who had no idea what was happening around them and were scrambling to cope, Shock gives the first real glimpse of the forces at work behind the virus.

He's a fun character to write. He's different in that he knows something about Project Wildfire, and he's ex-army. He's the type of guy you'd expect to be able to handle himself, but in the world created by the disaster, that might not necessarily mean much.

Shock was difficult for me, because in order to introduce and develop John's character I needed to break away from the ongoing disaster. There really wasn't a place for him in Panic, and I couldn't see how volume 3 would work if I spent too long focusing on John before getting back to the characters we've already established. So it's a bit of a compromise. I don't envision any of the otherWildfire Chronicles installments being novella-length, but it felt right with Shock.

That's partly down to John's background and the fact that we're starting to see the wider impact of the virus. Panic was all about people who were completely unprepared for what was happening.Shock is at the other end of the spectrum: a team of trained people who know what they're dealing with. Or at least, they think they do...