Ross B. Lampert

In 2035, Dr. Janet Hogan makes a stunning discovery: infected by five species of naturally-mutated viruses, every one of earth’s nine billion inhabitants has become immortal.

Or have they? By the time Janet learns that this immortality is an illusion, it’s too late to change people’s beliefs. Some love her for creating this miracle and the coming paradise they long for. Others hate her for what they see ahead: immoral behavior without consequence, overpopulation, famine, and worse. Zealots demand that she save people’s souls, humanity, the earth… or the viruses. Or else.

Janet realizes this awful truth: no matter what she does, no matter what anyone else wants, sooner or later, billions will die and she’ll be blamed. Will she live long enough to figure a way out of this trap?

Meanwhile, the viruses are still mutating.

That's the teaser. The idea for the story literally woke me up late one night in October 2003 and wouldn't let me get back to sleep until I got up and wrote it down. The idea became the thesis for my master's degree in creative writing but even though my thesis committee loved it, I knew it wasn't ready to be published. (And I don't think Smashwords existed then!) Seven years and three drafts later, it was... and is.

Chrysalis, the sequel to my first book, The Eternity Plague.