It's the End of the World As We Know It...

Okay, I saw this one in my Facebook feed and it yelled, "Write a blog post about me!" Who am I to ignore the demands of a picture?

For those who aren't familiar with Jumanji, it's the title of a book by Chris Van Allsburg. In it, some children find a board game (called Jumanji) in a park and decide to play. But whenever they land on a space, it really happens. For example, if it says, "Land in the Jungle", the players are immediately thrown into a jungle and have to get out somehow. There was also a movie made based on this book.

So basically, when bizarre things that you think would never happen, actually do happen, it could be like the game. For others, this could be a sign of the impending apocalypse!

Thanks to the Mayans, we all know the world was supposed to end on 12/21/12. And thankfully it didn't. But what if it had? What would actually constitute the end of the world? Are we talking total obliteration of the earth? Or the end of all life? Or just a really big disaster of some kind?

Last year when I was thinking about our impending doom, I thought about the various movies made on the subject. Armageddon and Deep Impact both deal with a meteor that is going to hit the earth and have devastating consequences. In the movie 2012, a solar storm wreaks havoc on the earth's surface, leading a select few to - well I won't say in case you haven't seen it! Also released that year was the movie Knowing, where a string of numbers that gets dug up in a time capsule really identifies disasters that have happened, and ones that haven't yet. The string of numbers was written by a girl who hears voices and has strange visions.

My book was influenced by all of these. It takes place 130 years in the future, after a meteor strikes the earth on 12/21/12. I wondered if such a thing were to occur, how could life possibly go on? I figure that since a meteor strike the magnitude of the one that killed the dinosaurs would wipe out all life on the surface, perhaps life could flourish underground. In my book, the Consortium (aided by guy who has visions) learn about this coming cataclysm and begin to build huge underground habitats, thus ensuring that humanity will survive. This was something they did in Deep Impact.

So when you're reading my book, don't be surprised if you find yourself saying, "This sounds like that movie!" It probably does. But I think I've given the end of the world a whole new twist, and I hope you'll enjoy it!