Blossom’s Shadow out now in Cozy in the Apocalypse
Content warning (or advertisement): pandemics
Well before the COVID-19 pandemic, I wrote the first of my ‘Blossom’ series–“The Blossom Project,” published in the Looking Landwards anthology in 2013. I knew then that a pandemic was coming — in my line of work, there’s always a pandemic on the horizon — but my approach to The Pox (pandemic of Blossom’s Shadow) was more academic.
When I invented Entomopoxvirinae (causative agent of EntPox, aka The Pox), I was back in school to study infectious disease epidemiology. Suffice to say, I dug deep into my scientific training to craft it, considering both the origins of pandemic countermeasures and the most cutting edge technologies at the time. I took a leap with my virus, channeling concerns with gain-of-function research through the improbable event that sparks the pandemic — a poxvirus engineered for oral delivery through crops that mutates and escapes, decimating ruminants and people.
[Sidebar: I’m not opposed to gain-of-function research. I believe in strong oversight and guard rails.]
By the time “Blossom’s Shadow” opens, decades have passed, and the company that developed the vaccines and countermeasures to end the pandemic is at the center of controversy over its draconian and extractive tactics, its outrageous profits.
What follows is apocalyptic.
Also a bit cozy. Not hang-out-with-your-pandemic-pod-in-sweatpants cozy, more the happily-ever-after variety.
You can read the whole series:
“The Blossom Project” – Looking Landwards, New Con Press – 2013 – access story using “Read sample” here (free sample, or purchase anthology)
“Blossom’s Legacy” – AntipodeanSF – 2025 (free, text + audio)
“Blossom’s Shadow” – Cozy in the Apocalypse, Angry Gable Press – 2026 (purchase anthology)
Related essay:
“A Field Guide to (Write) the Next Pandemic” – Utopia SF – 2025 (purchase issue)
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