About the Book

Working title and subtitle

Lyme Chronicles; The Voices of Those Taking the Fight to Lyme and Associated Diseases: Patients, Loved Ones, Professionals in Search for Answers — Heroes All.

Overview

Lyme Chronicles presents a mosaic of stirring first-person accounts by those taking the fight to the epidemic of Lyme and associated illnesses: patients, caregivers, family members, friends, physicians, therapists, healers, advocates, researchers, policymakers — heroes all. Lyme Chronicles threads together their personal stories to portray the day-to-day struggles and triumphs of facing up to an enigmatic disease.

An ambitious book-in-the-making, Lyme Chronicles is the work of Gene, a Lyme survivor himself, and Zo, his partner and caregiver. Both professionals in the editorial and creative fields, they resolved to make use of creative storytelling techniques to raise awareness about the intricacies of the “Lyme world.”

As the kaleidoscope of human stories and experiences comes together, Lyme Chronicles reveals the intricate landscape of a stealth epidemic and offers an up-to-date chart for navigating it.

Approach

Real-life heroes share their stories and knowledge in interview form, from which the editors distill engrossing first-person accounts. These accounts are interwoven with companion stories to delineate a narrative arc in every chapter — and throughout the book.

Each chapter portrays a new facet of the intricate tick-borne epidemic, utilizing a narrative that is at once captivating, evocative, and informative.

The Specs

Editors
Zo Viya and Gene de Paule

Literary form
Non-fiction prose

Genre
First-person narratives, interviews in monologue form

Theme
Perspectives on tick-borne illnesses

Scope
Accounts by patients, paediatric patients, relatives, friends, caregivers, healers, infectious disease specialists, immunologists, paediatricians, psychologists, neurologists, psychiatrists, medical researchers, entomologists, ecologists, lawyers, policymakers, advocates.

Audience
Chronic illness advocates, patients and their loved ones.

Timeline
Interviews have been conducted since the summer of 2022; a first draft of the manuscript is anticipated for mid-2024.

Funding
Private, crowdfunding

Publisher
TBD

Proceeds
A portion of the proceeds will go to Lyme-related organizations

Official website
lymechronicles.org