rlfj: Blog

I've been a science fiction fan since I was a young boy and remember reading H.G. Wells' The Time Machine before I ever saw any of the movies. The one thing that is never shown in any of these stories, though, is disease. Nobody gets sick and they all travel back to their regular time with no ill effects.

That is just wrong. It is entirely possible to carry a new disease from one place to another with horrendous consequences, and a new time is no different than a new place. When Europeans landed in the Americas, they brought with them diseases like smallpox, influenza, and measles, previously unknown in the New World. Native Americans suffered 80-90% losses from disease. They got us back, though, by giving Europeans syphilis.

Disease transmission via time travel would be no different. While I didn't discuss it beyond generalisms, if smallpox was brought to Cudlow B by the Vikings, the results would be devastating. We no longer vaccinate for smallpox because we managed to wipe it out, except for some samples in labs around the world. We no longer have herd immunity. If it were to escape the island, it would cause a plague to rival the Black Death of the Middle Ages. If you liked Covid-19, you're going to love smallpox! Covid-19 has a mortality rate somewhere around 2%; smallpox is much more contagious and has a mortality rate of 30%. While we do have the ability to eventually redevelop the smallpox vaccines, the odds are that by the time we could start vaccinating again, well over a billion people could die.

What could be done if smallpox was found in the Vikings on Cudlow B? A strict quarantine would just be the start. The nicest thing that could be done would be a year-long quarantine, after which the survivors would be allowed to leave after testing. Another good choice would involve several small nuclear weapons, or if that was considered excessive, multiple applications of nerve gas and napalm. It would be much simpler to kill off everything on the island than let smallpox loose on the world.

One of the most difficult and challenging parts of this story was combining three different languages, Old Norse, English, and American. For Old Norse I was able to find some online translators and dictionaries, and occasionally faked it with some Icelandic. Sorry if you actually read Old Norse and find my mistakes. I don't plan to rewrite it. As for English versus American, both George Bernard Shaw and Henry Higgins had much to say about the differences in the languages. I had some Englishmen edit that, and they pointed out some errors and I changed them. More on my great editors in the future. I can't write without them!

As for those who find the different languages distracting, just as many have found it interesting and informative. Too late to change now.

Many thanks to those who have already purchased the entire story. As I have mentioned before, I never actually see the money. It goes straight from PayPal to a checking account - and only my wife has the checkbook! Occasionally, she gets on my case about playing on the computer when I could be doing chores for her, and I just let her know what is happening to that bank account. Her usual response to that is 'Good boy!' and she stops bugging me.

For those curious, my standard publishing schedule is Tuesday and Friday. No begging. Sorry. If you find any typos/errors, please let me know. Any mistakes will be fixed, and a final corrected version will be uploaded to bookapy and elsewhere. As before, if you have purchased a copy through bookapy, you will be able to download a corrected version later.

Thanks.

This is a story I had on the back burner for a couple of years. I wrote the first few chapters about two years ago and then set it aside. After finishing The Contractor, I decided to give it another chance.

When Miami Vice began back in the '80s, the 'elevator pitch' given to investors was 'MTV Cops!' The elevator pitch for this story is 'Time Traveling Vikings!' It came about from the History Channel series Vikings. I'm a sucker for period pieces, especially ones involving mayhem and mishap. The series was about the story of Ragnar Lothbrok and his family and was horrendously inaccurate. (He led the raid on Lindisfarne in 793 and the Siege of Paris in 845 - 53 years later? His brother, Rollo, becomes the first Duke of Normandy, but that particular Rollo wasn't born until 870. Etc, etc, etc!)

Still, as I said, I'm a sucker for historical pieces and I put this one on my Record list on the DVR. So, I had to wonder, what would happen if some of Ragnar's buddies showed up via a time warp or something? Here's my version. I hope you like it!

I just wanted to say thank you to all my supporters and those who voted for my stories in the last Clitorides Awards. Both The Grim Reaper: Reaper Security Consulting and I (Wet) Dream of Jeannie won several Awards or Honorable Mentions. Very much appreciated. Many thanks.

I am nearing the end of my current project and expect to begin publishing it by the end of May. I have a long list of editors to thank, and they will be prominently mentioned at that time. I can't do this without them. This is a totally different story, both historical and with a science fiction basis. It should be interesting!

My upcoming story, probably out by the beginning of the summer, will have a significant portion of the story take place in the United Kingdom. I need some editing assistance. Please respond if you are a current or recently (relatively) retired member of the British military. I am looking for assistance with some military questions as well as with things like British slang. As Henry Higgins said in My Fair Lady, "There even are places where English completely disappears; in America they haven't used it for years." Thanks!