It’s been a month since the Apocalypse Panel started and the world is still here. Oh well, who knows what could happen during the next thirty days? And if the answers to our first question are any indication then we could be facing horrible destruction from a rogue planet, the outbreak of a long-frozen virus, collapse of the dollar, or World-War III. Maybe even a scenario where the passing of a large planetary mass cracks open a glacier, releasing a dormant virus that creates a murderous rage in people, that then results in a war and causes the collapse of all economies. 
             
Yeah, that is probably taking it a bit too far. Let’s just move on to this month’s question for the panel.

What draws you to write apocalyptic stories? 
 
             
For me, it has been a lifelong interest in the genre. My favorite book is Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny. I read it when I was ten. I’ve read it five more times since then and I don’t generally read books more than once. 
             
What is it that I like about that book? Giant, mutant Gila Monsters. Murderous biker gangs roaming the countryside. And making a trek across the ruined landscape of
America in armored all-terrain vehicles. That’s what I call entertainment. 
              
However, all of those are just the trappings of the genre. At the heart of almost all the post-apocalyptic stories that I’ve read is the desire to put things back together. It is the never-give-up attitude of human heroes as they fix our broken society that makes those stories special.   
             
My reason for writing The Gathering was that I saw the potential for great calamity in our future and wanted to write a novel that gives people hope. If disaster strikes the
United  States, I want people who have read my story to be able to say to themselves, “If the Williams family can make it through this, then so can my family.”
             
That won’t be the case if I write another apocalypse story I might use the genre as a canvas to explore death. Death of individual. Death of culture. Death of society. Even the death of mankind. More likely I’d use it as a backdrop for creation of crazy mutant creatures, bizarre political sects, and patchwork machines built from the remnants found in ruined cities. Beautiful stuff.       
     
What about the rest of the panel? What draws them to write about an 
apocalypse? Next week I will have links to all of their posts and a few comments
of my own about what they had to offer. Let’s just hope the world hasn’t ended
before then. 


 

   
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned a new feature that I call End Signs. Just as a reminder, the concept is that I take a look at recent headlines and then tell all of you how I would spin that into an end of the world story. This isn't intended to scare anyone with grim reminders of how dangerous a place the world has become. It is meant to be a fun exercise in story creation.
              
The next two news items make that all too easy. Israel hits several Syrian military positions with air strikes. While that is nothing new, Israel engages in this sort of minor armed actions with regularity, what makes it scary is the
current level of unrest in
Syria. What if Syria had an atypical response and invaded with a large force?
             
A war between Israel and Syria wouldn’t constitute the apocalypse. However, throw in another event, like the Israeli army killing a Palestinian teen and now you have a series of incidents capable of escalating the long simmering hatred of all parties involved into a global conflict. 
              
In fact, I can picture a Tom Clancy novel starting off with these two events. Both incidents, one after another, create high-conflict scenes that would establish a heart-pounding pace for the story. 
             
But then, the idea of World War III starting in the Middle East is a no-brainer. Oil fields.
Centuries of racial hatred. People with quick tempers that are easily ignited to violence. Practically, any news story from this region can be pasted into the pages of a novel and sound quite realistic.

Now, for my second headline I’m going to flex my creative muscles. Plenty of mystery surrounds the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370.  My condolences go out to the families who have lost loved ones in this tragedy. 
               
In our high-tech world, it isn’t easy to make a plane vanish. We have radar that tracks the paths of thousands of aircraft each day. Starting a novel with an incident like this is sure to snare the reader’s attention. At first,
they’re going to continue to read in order to find out what happened to the missing plane. Then once they find out that this is just the prelude to the end of the world, they will continue to read to see how it all turns out. 
              
That’s right. The apocalypse starts with the loss of an international flight. Within a month, three more have disappeared out of the skies. Six month’s later, no flight is safe. Even entire formations of military jets have begun to vanish. These are not terrorist hijackings. These are not incidents of catastrophic mechanical failure. 
             
This is how the inter-dimensional invasion of Earth begins. 
              
Dat-da-daaaaaa!
             
How about we call it Limbo and cast Denzel Washington as the military strategist who has to figure out a way to conduct a war with another dimension? And we can get Hugh Jackman to play the burnt-out vet who leads a strike team into Limbo in order to destroy the dimensional gate, knowing that it’s a one-way trip for him and his team. 

Last week I announced the concept for the Apocalypse Panel and immediately deemed extremely cool and wonderful. Since that time I’ve had the privilege of interacting with the rest of the members on the panel. And that leads me to my next comment. Wow! 
 
I am convinced that fans of the genre are in for a real treat each month as the panel of doom-Sayers, I mean well-informed authors, weigh in on the various topics we will be discussing. Which brings me to our very first question: 

Which situation or event that is currently happening do you think most easily could result in the apocalypse? 
 
             
Me first. Me first. 
             
This is an easy question for me since some of the events during the last couple of weeks closely resemble my storyline in The Gathering. Even though the crazy weather the U.S.has had this winter fits with the topic the single situation that I think most easily
could result in the apocalypse is military aggression by Russia. Specifically, the invasion of the Ukraine.
              
With the United States showing weakness in its leadership and a propensity of down-sizing its military, Russia has the best opportunity that it has had in recent history to take what it wants by force and succeed where Germany failed in the last two major wars. Controlling the gas lines of Ukraine will allow it to put an energy stranglehold on Europe, forcing many of the nations to follow their lead or suffer. 
              
If Russia takes the initiative others will follow. Aggressive countries will see this as a
chance to act without fear of U.S. intervention. And they will be right. The U.S. does not
have the military might to respond to hostilities on the part of Russian, China,
North Korea, and any number of Arab aggressors. 
             
Are we seeing the first steps of the last war? Probably not, but I certainly can put together an effective story around that concept. 
 
             
Now, for what the rest of the panel had to say. In most cases, I will only be posting a summary and a small excerpt from their response. Follow the link to their blogs to read the full article and any comments that have resulted. 
 
             
Margot Hovely 
  
Crazy people with nukes.

When world leaders such as the dictator of North Korea have access to weapons of mass destruction, there are all sorts of scary scenarios to contemplate. In my two books, Sudden Darkness and Glimmering Light, the electrical grid is down because terrorists have exploded an EMP device in the atmosphere...basically a nuke at high altitude. If done correctly, a terrorist (or other crazy people) could take out the entire US power grid without ever stepping foot on US soil.

 I watched an interview by a government specialist who confessed he thought the probability of this occuring within ten years was 80-90%. Yikes!
 



Margot also gave me a link to a  great article along this line that uses the picture above. Feel free to find out what Serge Stevens had to say about it. 
 
            
Anthony E. Larson
 
Rogue planet theory. 
             
Anthony actually posted his response as a comment in last week’s announcement of the Apocalypse Panel. You can go ahead and drop down to that post and read them, but here is an excerpt of what he offered. Feel free to follow the link to his blog to read more about this subject and see why he was such a great addition to the panel.  
  
What Joseph did say about the last days on another occasion is most telling. He said, and I paraphrase, (you can read it for yourself in his journal, History of the Church, volume 5, page 337) that the last days will be instigated or incited by a cosmic body. He used the words "comet" and "planet" to describe the "grand sign," thereby indicating that this astral orb will be planet sized, but that it would also have a great comet-like
tail. Since I side with Joseph Smith's teachings, it's my view that the catastrophes of the last days will be directly attributable to an intruding planet, impinging upon the Earth.

Rather than being discreet calamities, separated in time and location, each disaster prophesied for the last days is directly linked to one specific cause: the close approach to Earth of a rogue planet. Therefore, the distructions happen in rapid succession, one
following immediately on the heals of the other, escalating in ferocity and extent, over a period of four or five months.

              
Angie Lofthouse
 
Global Thermonuclear Warfare (Or possibly alien invasion.)
 
Did you know there are more than 17,000 nuclear weapons on the planet right now? That's just insane. And it's not like world governments are all that stable. *shudder* I'm sure I don't have to outline all the effects a nuclear war would have on the
planet. We've seen enough movies, TV shows, etc. to already know

            
Daron D. Fraley
 
Collapse of the Dollar.
 
Unlike the 1920s and 30s when we experienced the Great Depression, a financial collapse of that magnitude would devastate this country, and every country in the world. Millions and millions will die. Starvation, disease, crumbling infrastructure,
civil wars, and military campaigns in an attempt to restore order . . . all of these will take their toll. Anarchy will reign in the population centers, and rural America will be seemingly cut off from the world.
 
(Does anyone besides me, and Daron, see the evidence of this in our current situation?)

             
Wayne Roux
 
Frozen Virus.
 
As for HOW? Well, let me count the ways... To be honest, in today's day and age there are hundreds of ways this could happen - nuclear war, asteroids, viruses... the list is
endless and really only limited by one's own imagination. And seeing as we are a
panel of authors, who probably have the wildest imaginations on the planet, let me throw my 'imaginary' hypothesis out there...

Quite ironically, I read in a local newspaper yesterday that scientists discovered a 30000 year old virus in a frozen Siberian tundra, and REVIVED it! 
  
             
Tim Malone
 
Rogue planet theory. 

Obviously, Anthony and I are in agreement as this reflects what he has already stated. Even when we talk about hundreds of thousands killed by earthquakes and tsunamis, the size of these catastrophes are nothing compared to what will happen when a “great mountain burning with fire [is] cast into the sea,” or “there [falls] a great star from heaven,” or the sun moon and stars are smitten so that the sun is darkened and the moon glows red as blood with heat. Catastrophic!

             
      Final tally: 
 
Idiots with nukes           2
Rogue planet                  2
Collapse of the dollar    1
Frozen virus                    1
Russian aggression        1
              
There you have it; the first round of answers for the Apocalypse Panel. What a grand variety of responses too. And who would’ve guessed that the Rogue Planet Theory would weigh in with two votes for the most likely cause. 
              
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to follow the link to each of the blogs. I think you will agree that it makes for some fascinating reading. And then while you are there, or here, you can post a comment with your thoughts on the topic. Which of the scenarios do you think is most likely? Which is the scariest? Which theory did we miss? Which of these do you think would provide the best setting for an apocalyptic panel? 
             
I have had a blast putting together this panel. If you enjoyed any part of it, please, let us know. Take a moment to leave a comment on any of our blogs telling us what you think. That informs us that we are contributing to the entertainment and education of our fans. With that sort of support I expect that the members of the forum will continue to contribute insightful discussions of the Apocalypse. (Which as Tim points out is not the end of the world, but rather a period of great destruction. Consider me corrected.) 
             
Do any of you have suggestions for next month’s question? What apocalyptic quandary would you like to see the panel tackle next? 
 

            
This week I am happy to announce the formation of the Apocalypse Panel.  Why have just one author spouting crazy ideas about the end of the world when you can have seven of them? That’s right, I have been able to convince six other authors to join me in making all of you just a little more nervous about the current events we see on the news each night. 
             
What we plan to do is tackle a question each month that relates to the apocalypse. At first, these questions will come from within the group, but I am hoping that as the Panel gains popularity our fans will submit them instead. With seven us involved you can expect some interesting responses. 
              
Since you already know me let me introduce the other members of the Apocalypse Panel to you. 


Angie Lofthouse
 
Angie went to school for particle physics, but ended up studying literature. This served her well in her career as a science-fiction writer. She lives in a little canyon and the base of the WasatchMountains and there plots the end of the world. Just in her books, not for really-real. 
              
Her stories have appeared in NFG AlienSkin, Amazing Journeys, The Sword Review, Dragons, Knights and Angels, Irreantum, and Unparalleled Journeys. However, it is her novel, Defenders of the Covenant, which landed her a spot on the panel. 

             
Wayne Roux
             
Wayne brings an international element to the panel. He hails from South Africa and started writing when he was about 15. He has written two books and his novel, December Dead, depicts a mother and son fighting not only for their own existence, but that of the
entire human race. 
             
He has two books out and a third on the way. 
 
             
Margot Hovely
             
Margot was raised in Washington State, across the river from the Hanford nuclear facility. As a kid during the Cold War she had plenty of “duck and cover” exercises at school. So, she grew up thinking about the apocalypse more than your average child. 
              
Her first novel, Sudden Darkness, was published by Covenant in 2012 and the next the series, Glimmering Light, is due out later this month. Both of those stories had their birth when Margot wondered what it would be like if the Mormons made their trek back
to Missouriwithout vehicles. 
 
             
Daron Fraley 
             
Daron is from Wyoming, but has moved around a bit since then. He has visited
France, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, San  Juan, St Thomas, and the Bahamas. He
describes himself as a writer by night and a Senior Data Center Engineer by day.
It is rumored that he once fixed a gas clothes dryer with photocopier parts. A
real-life McGuyver? You decide. 
             
He has two novels out Thirty-Six and The Thorn, but it is his novella, Son of Liberty, that landed him his spot on the panel. His focus tends to be on the political aspects
of the apocalypse so expect some interesting insights in that area. 
         
             
Tim Malone
             
Tim runs a blog that deals with a variety of LDS topics. His articles on The Last Days is the reason I asked him to participate in the panel. He is also working on a novel, Red Sky, that answers the question: what would we do if the sky actually fell? And for those of you, like me, who were wondering—Chicken Little is not the protagonist. 

             
Anthony Larson
            
Anthony is a freelance journalist, a video producer, and a composer who brings something unique to the panel. He doesn’t write fiction. His books explain the relationship between science and the signs of the last days. 
              
And the Moon Shall Turn to Blood, describes the catastrophic changes that will occur during the upcoming apocalypse. These are connected to the prophecies dealing with the events of the last dispensation. It is the first book in the Prophecy Trilogy. 

             
That’s the panel. Now, for our first question. 
  
Which situation or event that is currently happening do you think most easily could result in the apocalypse?
            
Check back next week to find out how everyone responded. And feel free to add your thoughts to the end-of-the-world smorgasbord as well.