Has it been a year since I posted about a draft’s second wind? Why, yes, almost down to the day. Since then, I’ve had a few “distractions.” Twelve titles in all kept me busy. And that draft needed some work, which is no surprise since it has waited for over a decade in my digital archives.

Now that the dust is clearing, my mind has drifted back to that story. It will require some surgery, but a clearer, more compelling concept has surfaced. I will talk more about it and offer some samples in the months to come. For now, let me leave you with what I call a ‘concept-based’ blurb. What do you think?

Someone got the bright idea of designing computer code that emulates recombinant behavior. Some thought this code would help speed up the discovery of new genome-based cures. Others thought they would get software that self-adapts and redesigns itself to solve complex problems. No one dreamed that it would do all that–and much more no one wanted it to do.

AIDS researcher Susan Rogers finds herself at the center of this storm. She discovers a new strain of the deadly virus, not from a new patient or a blood sample, but when someone mails it to her inside a flash drive. As she puts the pieces together, matching the drive’s data with real world cases that start trickling into her hospital, someone hacks her computer systems and makes the whole thing disappear. Why? How? The answers she uncovers will determine whether she will achieve a cure or face a pandemic.

And what about that cover? I’m kind of proud of it.