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I think the drive in the modern age for people to know everything about everybody is part of what I resent about technology. You log into a computer for instance, and someone somewhere who created the operating system knows you’ve just done that. Then they know where you live because of the IP address giving them location information. Everyone’s movements can be disseminated and examined electronically, so that the twenty first century affords no-one any privacy.

I like my privacy too. I’m very much a ‘close the door and take off the external persona’ type of person. Maybe that is something to do with my job, I’m not sure. People know what they need to know about me in my type of profession – I’m not a full time writer – and I guess that’s the first thing you’ve learnt about me! Privacy is an important commodity and it’s being eroded by the very topic which I wrote about in my two books, Virus and Resistance.

In the UK, for instance, they have this Trace and Test technology, where they have an app that you (by choice at the moment, but that’s gonna change, you watch this space) download onto your phone and it basically records your movements. They dress it up as something else, but in actual fact, they have tabs on you. They aren’t interested in whether you are in a high risk Covid area, they’re interested in where you are going and what you’re spending your money and your time doing. It’s all about control.

I don’t like that (is that thing two?). I don’t like the idea of some sort of big brother industry taking that much of an interest in me that they know when I’ve gone to the john. It’s intrusive. People are having their civil liberty eroded in front of them, and the worst of it is – they are letting it happen!

Okay so, we’ve got two things.

Number three – surprise, surprise – I live alone. I much prefer my own company to anyone else’s. I live by this motto – ‘Trust No-One’ and it works. Trust, once it’s been destroyed by someone, is a hard thing to find again. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

Actually, scrap number three, that’s a lie, I forgot the cat. I live with my cat. I like cats. That’s number four, by the way. In fact, I much prefer animals to people. Let’s face it, when was the last time an animal let you down?

I’m doing pretty well, here, I’m on number five already. I love the wilderness and people who think they know me are going to tell you that I prefer to live in the city, because of its anonymity and that would be correct. But preferring to live somewhere doesn’t mean you have to like it. You’re more exposed in the country. Everyone knows everyone else.

Okay, so I’m running out of things I know about myself! Number six, okay, my mother (yes, I have one, all you doubters!) was a beauty queen. I remember being about ten and awkward and gawky, which I think I still am, but there was my mother, elegant, beautiful, sophisticated. All the things I’m not.

Number seven – As a child I could speak another language, I mean other than English, but I’m not telling you which one. After my grandparents died, I had no-one else to converse with, so I lost the ability. I can remember some phrases, but not many.

This is getting harder because hardly anyone knows me anyway. Number eight – I’m an only child. I think my folks had me and decided not to risk it again.

I’m almost there, I know myself a little more now, too. So, number nine, let’s see. One of my great, great grandparents was Norwegian. That’s about all I know myself, although I have been to Norway. I’ve been to all the Scandinavian countries. Marvelous places.

Right, we’re done – number ten – I really wish I could fall in love. This last one is a shocker, considering I’m such an introvert. I’m probably the least romantic person on the planet, too. But I think that it would be nice to fall in love and for someone to love me back. Have I been in love before? Once. It ended badly, very badly, I guess there’s no such thing as a happy ending, is there?

In New Normal – Resistance, a deadly pandemic is sweeping across the globe. Country after country is disintegrating into a lawless, terrified conclusion as it soon becomes apparent that there is a fate worse than death. Violence and discord stalk the streets; governments are beginning to introduce martial law and curfews in a futile attempt to regain control of a world thrown into disarray by a silent, unseen killer.

Jolyon Jones, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, knows that it is a race against time to find a vaccine for this highly infectious virus before the consequences wipe out humanity. He also knows that the virus is not the only killer. Small pockets of resistance are slowly emerging; survivors ready to fight not only against the virus, but against each other.

In the midst of the battle for survival, the faithful know that their wait for the Second Coming is nearly over. They know that He is here again. But who is He and will He be able to stop the virus before science reaches an apocalyptic solution?

Resistance is the second in Dexter C. Channing’s New Normal Trilogy. The first being New Normal – Virus, which was released earlier in the year. The final instalment is due to be released at Easter 2021.

Enjoy an Excerpt

Across the Atlantic, early evening sunlight bathed the White House in an auroral light, shimmering in the gentle breeze which sighed across the velvet green lawns. Inside the Oval Office, nobody cared for the view, despite how peaceful and ordinary it looked.

The President was wearing his most mulish look as the Secretary of State and the Defence Secretary reeled from his latest revelation. For a moment, only the distant wail of sirens could be heard in the thick silence which surrounded them following the President’s declaration. The sound mingled with the groan of despair from the Defence Secretary, an involuntary reaction to what he had just listened to.

‘Mr President, Sir,’ the Defence Secretary looked at the other man and felt like smashing his fist into the supercilious expression he found staring back at him. Did the President not understand what was happening and how there was a need for unity, not discord within global relationships? Obviously, he did not! ‘Could I ask you if Professor Benjamin did this without coercion?’

Spreading his arms out in a gesture that indicated he did not know or understand, the President replied, ‘All I know is that I have been told of a call made to Beyler School of Medicine from Professor Benjamin’s office. Who instructed him to make the call, I don’t know, but I do know that if there is a second spike, another “mutation”, then Watpharm had better understand it will need Gileath to bail it out of its fucking mess, pissing about with some bloody college students and those yellow skinned freaks!’

‘This has been done as retaliation because what, Watpharm didn’t want to set up shop with an American Company? Jesus fucking Christ!’ The Defence Secretary’s fist came down on the desk, making the other two men jump. ‘We’re in the middle of a fucking world changing crisis, Mr President, Sir! We have the threat of extinction and we have got non-humans running amok on the fucking planet and some idiot professor wants some more business for his company?’

‘This administration gives Gileath a hell of a lot of dollars,’ the President glared at his Defence Secretary, ‘and I don’t want those dollars wasted! Working with Watpharm might also go some way to restoring America’s credibility on the world stage.’

‘I think what the Defence Secretary is trying to say, Mr President, is that if there is a second spike or another mutation of this current outbreak, then the world stage may not have much of an audience left to play to, Sir.’ The Secretary of State intervened.

The President threw his papers down onto his desk and stormed out of the office wearing a truculent expression.

The Secretary of State shook his head. ‘Sometimes, the thought crosses my mind that a couple of cups of disinfectant or bleach wouldn’t go amiss.’

They were both thinking of a disastrous video link press conference which had been held towards the end of April. It had been beamed around the globe, one of the few broadcasts that were made that day and America still hadn’t recovered from the backlash. Both men looked to the door, which the President had just slammed.

‘How much is a bottle of Clorax these days?’ Asked the Defence Secretary and they both burst out laughing, amazed that they still could.

About the Author: Dexter C Channing is something of a mystery to the literary world – and indeed, the team at Just Jane Publishing has never actually met this author, having been introduced through another writer during the Covid 19 Lockdown.

The elusive author prefers to remain an enigma to everyone, simply stating a love of city life as opposed to the country because “it’s easier to disappear in a big city where nobody knows your real self”. That real self is “single, not available” and prefers being alone to the “ruinous pathway of a love affair”.

Fact, fantasy and science all combine in this author’s often dark writing style, which takes you through conspiracy theories to conclusions you’d rather not reach in the real world. Or maybe, as Dexter says, you’re already there.

Is Dexter C Channing an American? There’s a possibility, but then anything is possible, if you believe what goes on in Channing’s imagination, often taking us to places we’d rather not go. It’s clear at some point that Channing did live in America, and still has some links to Miami and Deerfield Beach.

More of late, Channing has been residing in England and has actually allowed the team at Just Jane Publishing access to a list of favourite places which include Chesterfield in Derbyshire, Liverpool, and a surprising one, given the penchant for city living – a tiny village called Kettlewell, in Yorkshire.

What does a mysterious author who nobody really knows do when they’re not writing? Channing watches. Things. Events. People. Then they get written about. Is Channing a one trick pony? Far from it. There are links with law, property, and a love of music, which is always in the background when Channing is writing.

“Virus” was the first of Dexter C Channing’s world-changing trilogy of novellas. “Resistance” is the second in the series, and the final, concluding book, “Resurrection” will be published by Just Jane Publishing around Easter, 2021.

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