Blazing Reader,

Yesterday, at 12:54 pm CT, under an umbrella, under the hot sun, in the backyard of our home here in a small Dutch village, I finished the paper edit (after 15+ onscreen edits) of my forthcoming novel, COVID Disobedience (set in 1846 Massachusetts and 2020 Ontario)...

...while wearing The Conscious Resistance Network's "Revolution without healing is a recipe for disaster" T-shirt (that my wife bought me at 2025 People's Reset in Mexico)...

To celebrate the completion of the on-paper edit, here is a quick excerpt from chapter 2 ("A Sort of Insanity"):

“Es ist zu gefährlich,” Josef had said, over Skype video chat. It’s too dangerous.

She laughed.

Josef didn’t.

“Das ist kein Witz,” he said. It’s not a joke.

“What’s the government going to do,” she shot back in German, “send a SWAT team?”

“Look at this,” he said.

A link appeared in the chatbox. She clicked on it.

A video loaded showing a tall man with blond hair tied back in a ponytail, wearing a light blue dress shirt and a pale yellow vest, speaking in German.

“That’s Dr. Andreas Noack,” Josef said. “He has a PhD in chemistry. He’s been doing these livestreams, criticizing Germany’s Infection protection laws.”

“Good for him,” responded Stefanie. “We need —”

Abruptly, Dr. Noack’s head turns to his left.

A loud bang at the door.

Followed by an even louder bang.

He excuses himself and walks off camera.

There’s yelling in the distance.

Noack returns, eyes wide, shoulders tense.

The sound of wood breaking.

“Die Polizei ist hier!” he says with nervous eyes.

In the background, more yelling as the police break open the door.

"Auf den Boden! Auf den Boden!"

Suddenly, a police officer, dressed in grey and black tactical gear, face half-hidden behind a mask, is pointing the barrel of a semi-automatic rifle at Noack’s chest, ordering him to the floor.

"Auf den Boden! Auf den Boden!"

Noack, shaking, slowly lowers himself.

Another officer blocks the camera.

The livestream stopped.

“See,” Josef said. “It’s freakin’ COVID-1984.”

The video Josef pulled up isn't fiction — it's a real recording made in 2020 (you can watch it here). I remember well the day it hit the internet and how chilling it was.

With the paper edit of COVID Disobedience done, there's just one more edit ("one more edit," he said optimistically) to go before I send it to beta readers. If you're interested in being a beta reader, stay tuned — I'll let you know what's involved and how to apply.

Until then, check out (if you haven't already) this video of me reading another excerpt from the same manuscript on the streets of Munich (where Josef was calling from).

John C.A. Manley

P.S. And for more photos from our Dutch backyard, check out: Stephen King: "stories are found things, like fossils in the ground".

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.