Ask the Author: Mark Alpert

“Ask me a question.” Mark Alpert

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I just finished the Omega Theory, billed as Final Theory #2. You can't leave it like that. There has to be at least one more to wrap it up, yes?

Mark Alpert The continuation of that series got delayed because I switched publishers, but eventually I will return to the story of David, Monique and Michael. I'm excited about the recent news from the world of physics -- researchers at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe may have discovered a new particle that seems to be a heavier cousin of the Higgs boson, and there are rumors that the scientists at LIGO have finally detected gravitational waves -- and I'm going to try to incorporate these new ideas into my upcoming thrillers.

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aliens that want to invade earth in The Orion Plan, are inorganic? or sentient machines civilization?

Mark Alpert Well, that's part of the mystery, isn't it? I don't want to give away the plot of the book, but it's about an alien invasion of New York City, so eventually we have to see some aliens, right? The good news is, The Orion Plan will be published on February 16, so you won't have to wait long for the answer! (And I bet if you pre-order the book, you can receive it a little sooner.)

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Hey when is the sequel to THE SIX going to come out, oh and i thought about it and I bet marshal is X?

Mark Alpert THE SIEGE, the sequel to THE SIX, will come out in July. As for the identity of X: my teenage daughter keeps asking me who it is, and I won't tell her either. Every time she asks, I say the same thing: "I don't want to spoil it for you. You have to wait for THE SIEGE." (This leads to some tension in our house, but trust me, we have much greater sources of tension than that.)

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I'm new to your works (read about "The Six" in the July edition of Goodreads YA Newsletter) and wondered what made you choose Muscular Dystrophy as your character's plight? I have a form of Muscular Dystrophy called Spinal Muscular Atrophy so am always intrigued when authors use it in works of fiction.

Mark Alpert Very good question! As you know, there's a whole spectrum of conditions of this type, and even among people with my main character's form of muscular dystrophy -- Duchenne -- there's great variability regarding symptoms, prognosis, etc. However, one thing is fairly consistent among people with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy -- they typically lose the ability to walk by age twelve. I wanted my protagonist, Adam Armstrong, to be a teenager who loves football but can't play it except in his virtual-reality game. I also wanted him to have a very poor prognosis -- that is, less than six months left to live -- and as I make clear in the text of THE SIX, this kind of prognosis is NOT typical of teenagers with Duchenne anymore, because over the past few decades researchers have made tremendous strides in treating this kind of muscular dystrophy (through better techniques in breathing assistance, etc.) thus enabling most people with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy to live into their twenties and thirties (and there are even some cases of life expectancy to the 40s and 50s). But unfortunately in some cases the breathing and heart muscles are severely affected at a relatively young age, and in those cases the prognosis is much poorer. This is Adam's situation, which is why he's facing death before the age of eighteen. I hope this makes sense! Is there anything else you'd like to know?

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would you also write a sequel for your novel Extinction? please. i want to know if 太和/Tài hé would take revenge on humans when someone accidentally revive it.

Mark Alpert Yes, I have an idea for a sequel to Extinction and sooner or later I'll get around to writing it. But my next science thriller for adults, The Orion Plan, is about an alien invasion of New York City. That novel will be published in February.

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