Hello and welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, where today I’m talking to Amanda Bridgeman about her novel Patient Zero, the first volume in a new series from Aconyte Books based on the world of the hit board game Pandemic. It couldn’t be much more of a topical subject matter for a novel, and as you’ll find out in the interview it’s had an interesting route to publication, but if you like a good ‘mystery of the week’ procedural then this definitely sounds like one to keep an eye on! It’s published as a global ebook on the 7th September, followed by the US paperback edition later the same month and the UK paperback in November.
Without further ado then, let’s get straight on with the interview.
Track of Words: To begin with, could you give us an overview of what Pandemic: Patient Zero is about?
Amanda Bridgeman: It’s about a specialist team of scientists and medical professionals trying to identify and trace a mystery illness that is sweeping across South America, in the hope of finding a cure before it can spread across the world.
ToW: Before we talk more about characters and inspirations…how have you found the experience of writing a novel based on the Pandemic board game just before an actual global pandemic? What’s that been like, and what impact has it had on the book itself?
AB: I’m pretty sure if you looked up ‘bad luck’ in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of me next to it… I pitched and wrote this novel in 2019 and was undertaking the structural edit in January 2020 when news was breaking about the escalating situation in China. It was very weird to say the least, to be editing a novel about a pandemic while one was possibly breaking out in real time – especially when several aspects of my story were hauntingly similar to what actually happened. I guess this means my research worked!
The most haunting thing for me is that while researching the novel I watched a documentary about bird flu and listened to an Australian scientist say that a global pandemic was not a matter of IF but WHEN. He also warned that when it did happen we would be grossly underprepared for it. How right he was.
Patient Zero was originally supposed to be released in June 2020, but naturally it was pushed back (more than once). All those involved agreed that it made sense to go back and add COVID references in, otherwise it would be very strange to release a book like this after/during the pandemic and not mention it at all.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
AB: Though time is spent with several characters in the Global Health Agency (GHA) team, the story largely focuses on two: Dr Helen Taylor who has been thrust into a leadership role after the sudden departure of her old boss, and Dr Bodhi Patel who has transferred from the American head office to the GHA’s Lyon base to join the specialist team for field work. Both Helen and Bodhi must learn the ropes of their new roles quickly as the mysterious illness spreads rapidly across South America and threatens the world at large.
ToW: Where and when is this story set?
AB: When I went back and added COVID references throughout the story, we decided to set this novel a few years into the future in a world that has moved beyond COVID. The theme of the game and this book series is all about collaboration and hope. We wanted readers to have hope that a future world exists where COVID has been managed like the many other diseases that came before it.
In terms of location, the novel is a bit of a globe-trotter. It starts off in Scotland and France but quickly moves to South America, travelling through several countries on the continent as they trace the virus and search for their Patient Zero
ToW: How familiar were you with Pandemic the game, before you started work on Patient Zero? Was there anything in particular about this IP that appealed to you from a storytelling perspective?
AB: I was familiar with the game – the marketing and brand are phenomenal – though I had not played the game prior to being asked to pitch. I quickly rectified this by going out and buying the game and playing it with my family members. I have to say that we killed the world a few times over, though! Think I’ll leave saving the world to the professionals, eh?
I’m a huge fan of procedurals, so I grabbed the chance to write for this IP as this was ideally positioned to be a procedural. Similar to CSI or NCIS we get to know the team and their individual personal lives, while also solving the ‘mystery of the week’.
ToW: Unlike a lot of IP fiction, Pandemic is essentially set in the real world so presumably there wasn’t as much in the way of complex world building for you to incorporate in this book as there might be for other IPs. Were there other ways in which the game informed the novel though? Its cooperative nature, maybe?
AB: Yes. In some ways it was great because aside from the theme of the game – collaboration – and the team roles, I somewhat had an open playing field to create the characters behind the roles and establish their back stories, and also establish the team’s organisation, right down to its logo. Though, yes, the worldbuilding rules weren’t as complex as some IPs, I had to do a huge amount of research to first understand viruses, then understand all the roles and what they would do, what training/education they’d need, how this fictional organisation might be structured (I established it so that it feeds into the World Health Organisation).
Then I had to do more research on France and all the South American countries they visit, the towns, how’d they’d travel there; then there was the Amazon Rainforest aspect! I spent a lot of time watching people’s holiday videos on YouTube to make sure I really captured the essence of what it was like to be there in South America. I also had a friend of Colombian heritage do a beta read for me to fix any mistakes (shout out to Emely Maas!), as well as a medical scientist friend (shout out to Melissa Ferguson) to check that aspect of the book. Of course, I do take creative licence in places to make it an enjoyable read. It is fiction, after all!
ToW: You’re best known as a science fiction writer, but how have you found writing a medical procedural novel? Have there been any particularly notable challenges or opportunities as a result of working on this?
AB: Though one must do a certain amount of research to write science fiction (or any book for that matter), one can also take creative licence to a much greater extent than when writing something set in the real world. I have a lot more respect now for people writing procedurals (medical, police or legal stories, etc) set in the real world. On top of that, when writing SF, few readers will have the expertise to pick apart your science fiction, however it’s quite daunting to think real world epidemiologists can read and pick apart my real world-set fiction. I will stress again here that I have taken creative licence in places! 😀
ToW: Aside from the game itself, where did you look for inspiration when working on Patient Zero?
AB: Part of my brief was to establish the series as a procedural with a ‘mystery of the week’, so I channeled shows like NCIS and CSI, which wasn’t hard as I’ve always been drawn to ‘team-focused’ dramas where different characters can be featured each week. At the heart of any good story is a mystery and not just in the traditional sense. Readers/viewers must be lured into the character’s worlds, to be curious enough to want to know what happens next, whether that be to do with the mysterious illness or to do with the character’s personal lives. So I channeled that ‘mystery’, that ‘drama’ from many good books, films and TV shows.
ToW: What do you hope readers will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
AB: I hope they have a page-turning read where they want to get to the bottom of the outbreak and they become ‘involved’ in the characters and their lives and want to spend more time with them. Most importantly, I hope they come away with a deeper respect for those on the front lines, who face danger every day in order to keep the rest of us safe.
ToW: I gather this is the first book in a planned series – is the idea that this will follow the same characters through various episodic stories, or will there be a broader range of characters across the series?
AB: There will be different issues explored in each book involving all the various elements that come into play when dealing with pandemics and the medical science industries at large. Not every book will deal with an outbreak, some will deal with the politics and red tape, some will deal with vaccine distribution, etc.
The idea is that there are a core set of characters and each book will feature different characters, who become the heroes of their story. That’s not to say that other characters won’t be introduced and pop up every now and then. The Pandemic world has the potential to become its very own multiverse.
My book, Patient Zero, tells a classic outbreak tale while undertaking the heavy lifting of introducing all the characters and their relationships, the world, and the future possibilities of all of these.
ToW: Can you tell us anything about what else you’ve got coming out or recently released, or what you’re working on at the moment?
AB: I have a short story in the upcoming Marvel X-Men anthology: School of X for Aconyte Books, which will be released in December. I’m very excited to have a story in this, which is an action-packed tale involving Rockslide, Dust and Shark Girl.
ToW: Finally, how do you think you would get on as an epidemiologist? Is it a career move you fancy, after writing this book?!
AB: As much as I love to solve a mystery, based on my attempts to save the world while playing the boardgame, I think I’d better leave it to the professionals!
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Amanda Bridgeman is a Tin Duck Award winner, an Aurealis and a Ditmar Awards finalist. She is the author of eight volumes of the award-nominated Aurora series of near-future space thrillers, the SF police procedural The Subjugate, which has been optioned for TV by an Oscar and Golden Globe nominated production company, and a Stephen King-esque mystery The Time of the Stripes. She’s also worked as a TV and film actress.
Check out Amanda’s website for more information.
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Many thanks to Amanda for chatting to me for this interview, and for giving us the lowdown on this first Pandemic novel from Aconyte Books! Patient Zero is released as a global ebookon the 7th September – the US paperback is due out on the 28th September, and the UK paperback on the 11th November
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