Time: The near future Place: New York City
As activists drive climate change anxiety to further their agenda for societal change, New York suffers through rolling blackouts. Therapists hang shingles to treat unhinged young people fearing the world is coming to an end. A climate countdown clock is erected in Times Square to alert the populace to the coming doomsday.
It's no wonder Missy has a twitch, a tic that becomes the talk of the town.
Heiress to an energy fortune built off fossil fuels, Missy Mayburn Crowe is stricken with overwhelming anxiety over what she believes is a looming "climate apocalypse." Wracked with guilt over her family's possible contributions to climate change, Missy develops an involuntary twitch, diagnosed by a famed TV shrink as climatosis. Exposure on television and in social media propels climatosis into a worldwide social contagion. That makes Missy a celebrity ripe for exploitation by politicians, media, and business opportunists as "proof" that the apocalypse is now.
Told with humor, insight, and brisk pacing, Missy's Twitch offers an entertaining twist on conventional wisdom about one of the most controversial issues of our time.
JON PEPPER is a novelist, entrepreneur, and business consultant based in New York City. Missy's Twitch is the fourth novel in his series, Fossil Feuds.
Heiress to an energy fortune built off fossil fuels, recent college graduate Missy Mayburn Crowe is stricken with overwhelming anxiety over what she fears is a looming "climate apocalypse" and her family's role in it. She develops an involuntary twitch, a conversion disorder that quickly spreads to her impressionable young friends who have been bombarded their entire lives with questionable predictions of climate doom. Missy is diagnosed by a famed TV shrink as suffering from acute climatosis. Exposure on television and in social media quickly propels her affliction into a worldwide social contagion and Missy into a celebrity ripe for exploitation by politicians, media, and business opportunists eager to leverage her torment for their own objectives. A cure may require a deeper understanding of whether her worries are justified or not. Told with humor, insight, and brisk pacing, Missy's Twitch offers an entertaining twist on conventional wisdom about one of the most controversial issues of our time. JON PEPPER is a novelist, entrepreneur, and business consultant based in New York City. Missy's Twitch is the fourth novel in<