How to Prep for a Pandemic Apocalypse without Looking Like a Wacko (and keep your relationships intact)

Colleen Markley
9 min readMar 5, 2020

A guide for anxious people who want to at least pretend they are normal

Image by Ray Shrewsberry from Pixabay

What I really should be doing right now is editing the book I’m trying to get published. You know, the one I wrote about a pandemic virus that ends the world (and only the women survive). In answer to your potential questions: Yes, my husband and I are happily married. No, I didn’t know we would be facing a real global pandemic that affected men more than women when I wrote it. I have often wondered about the gender differences in immunity. I am hoping to publish my book before we have an actual end to the world.

The funny thing is that a whole bunch of my friends (who either have read a draft of my book or know that I’m writing it) have asked me the last few days for advice about prepping for this potential apocalypse, or “significant disruption” to life. Apparently they know I am going to have a response when I read things like this:

“We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare, in the expectation that this could be bad,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory…

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Colleen Markley

Award-winning writer. Writing Instructor. (#amquerying a novel about the end of the world where only the women survive). www.ColleenMarkley.com