Like many authors, I find facets of my personality, life experiences, and education reflected in each of my stories. The romantic elements come from an optimistic belief that ultimately good triumphs over evil, the suspense subplots show how justice is eventually served, and the heroine’s journey showcases how although she may be forced into a situation by outside forces (story plot), it is the choices she makes that decide her fate and, hopefully, her victory.
As dark as Intelligent Design is, all those elements are present. Yet, the story itself reflects a huge departure from my normal style. First, it was the first time I allowed my scientific nature to dominate any story. I have a BS in Biology, and I used the theories gleaned from classes required for my degree. For example, each of my aliens are based on creatures found on Earth (Zoology) and the idea that viruses play a key role in human/animal evolution and development came from both Microbiology and Evolutionary Biology.
The title and main idea of Intelligent Design is based on the theory of the same name–out there somewhere, an intelligent entity is guiding the development of life on this planet. This theory is a merging of Darwin’s theory of Evolution and Creationism. I was familiar with the ID theory but had never looked at it in depth until I worked as a Physical Science Laboratory Co-ordinator for a Christian university. Several of our students refused to take science and learn that ‘evolutionary blasphemy from a bunch of atheists.’ As every science faculty member signed a written statement testifying for their individual faith, this prompted me to investigate the various alternative theories in depth. For the record, I do not believe in the theory of Intelligent Design, but my faith in God and Evolution happily co-exist inside my head as they always have.
However, the idea of an intelligent being guiding human evolution took root, and a story idea was born.
But an idea doesn’t always end up with words on paper. Several years later, a confluence of events sparked such an outrage inside me that writing provided the only outlet to deal with the anger.
I chose a boardroom setting because at the time American businesses were asking from the US government for a financial bail-out, while their executives received multi-million dollar bonuses, all the while their respective companies were exporting jobs overseas to increase their profits–ie distancing themselves from the consumer and not really bothering with the details as long as their desires are catered to.
I turned humanity into a commodity as a result of my disgust with how callously life is extinguished around the globe and, also, to reflect the growing litigious nature of our society–how much is a human life worth in dollars and cents (again echoing the bottom-line scenario worshipped in business).
The element of Intelligent Design that surprised me the most was the graphic violence depicting the relationships between power, violence and sex. It still makes me squeamish to think about those scenes, but they were necessary to reflect the attitudes toward women and the fact that males feel they have a say about a woman’s body, but never vice-versa.
And lastly, the ending of the story pays homage to my reading/writing roots as well as my personal belief system–eventually wrongs will be put to right, a single life sacrificed on the altar of violence can do more good than a hundred years wasted in self-centered hedonism, and that humanity’s purpose may be encoded in our DNA–which just might explain the cooperative and alturistic behaviors most people exhibit during natural disasters.