The Blood Artists

Author’s Note

The geographic and bureaucratic structures of the Bureau for Disease Control are derived from the present incarnation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outside Atlanta, Georgia.

Essential to my research and the story itself were Laurie Garrett’s compelling and comprehensive The Coming Plague (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994), in particular the extraordinary true story of Lily “Penny” Pinneo, and Peter Radetsky’s engrossing The Invisible Invaders: Viruses and the Scientists Who Pursue Them (Back Bay, 1991), a fountain of practical virological information, as well as my source for the code names and the story of Joseph Meister.

Essential to the publication of this novel were Amanda Urban, and Henry Ferris and his assistant, Ann Treistman. Like Stephen Pearse, I too contracted a mysterious and debilitating disease during the writing of this book, known as the “sophomore curse.” These people provided the cure.

Although every medical term, symptom, and procedure detailed herein is based upon or derived from some real world fact, the author is neither a medical scientist nor a physician, despite the best efforts of his parents. Liberties have been taken.