A forgotten dream realized: My path to writing The Antidotes: Pollution Solution

I am a dreamer by nature. As the daughter of Egyptian immigrant parents who happened to be good at math and science and as someone who wanted to help people, I decided in high school that I wanted to be a medical doctor in Africa. While an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins I discovered the field of international public health, where I could help many people not just one patient at a time. But long before I wanted to be a doctor, I wanted to be a children’s book writer. Somehow along the way, I forgot. In the forgetting, I have had an amazing and fulfilling career in global health with work in over 40 countries, mostly in Africa, that has provided the foundation for my fiction writing. 

I have always been a writer with many academic papers and a co-edited book in my field — mobile health or mHealth, mHealth in Practice: Mobile technology for health promotion in the developing world. It wasn’t until 20+ years into my career in global health and digital health, that I gave myself permission to write fiction. The inspiration came from the New York Times Best-selling Young Adult Fiction writer, Ruta Sepetys, who was a fellow at the same time as me at Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. Listening to her speak about her journey from music producer to fiction writer, inspired me to take the leap. 

Since my time in Bellagio, the target audience for my fiction writing has gone from adult to young adult and now to middle grade. In writing the middle grade novel, The Antidotes: Pollution Solution, I found my fiction writing voice with the help of my middle grade son, Gabriel. It was at the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator’s (SCBWI) Conference in New York in 2020 that I learned there was a need for smart middle grade fiction. I had a ready-made audience at home with my then 7-year-old son, who instantly became my writing collaborator. He was outraged over the impact of the pandemic on kids and had great ideas and strong opinions about what would work or not for kids his age. The book became our pandemic project.

As a series, The Antidotes envisions a world where kids work together to apply basic science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) concepts to address current public health challenges, beginning with the climate crisis. The key themes include collective action, gender, teamwork, public health, and climate science. Gir and Izi take turns narrating their path to recovery from the pandemic as they race against time to stop an outbreak of unknown illness triggered by a plastic-eating bacteria experiment gone wrong. 

In the creation of the characters and the story, I applied the participatory design methods I use for engaging governments, health professionals, and caregivers in designing digital health strategies, policies, and programs in low- and middle-income countries to engage Gabriel in the creation of the characters and the story. We spent hours and hours working together in post-it sessions and long walks with our pandemic puppy, Mahfouz. As I wrote each chapter of the book, we would read it together. Gabriel would tell me what worked and what didn’t. All I needed was… “Mom, a kid my age would never say that!” or “Huh?” and I knew something was not quite landing the way that I wanted it to land.

I also workshopped the book with other middle grade fiction writers and had friends read early versions. Through the review process, I was encouraged to simplify the disease pathway and the science. For that, I enlisted the support of a colleague who is a zoonotic disease specialist to make sure that the animal – human disease pathway was realistic and that the STEAM-based activities could be easily undertaken by a group of middle grade children. 

One of my favorite quotes by Maya Angelou is, “A person is the product of their dreams. So, make sure to dream great dreams. And then try to live your dream.” I have been dreaming a great dream, but somehow managed to bury my dream for 30 years only to wake up one morning having sub-consciously fulfilled it.   

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Dr. Patricia (Patty) Mechael is a mom, writer, and public health specialist; who combines her passions for women, technology, science, and the world to inspire children and adults through her writing. Drawing on her career in global health, Patty’s works wrestle with the toughest public health and societal issues of our time, including the environment, responsible technology and AI, pandemic preparedness and mental health. Her writing also draws on her more than 20 years of work across more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Patty holds a PhD in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Master’s in Health Science in International Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She is the author of the middle grade fiction novel, The Antidotes: Pollution Solution (October 4, 2022), which she wrote with her 10-year old son (available on Amazon).

THE ANTIDOTE: POLLUTION SOLUTION

Just when a group of fifth-grade friends is returning to normal life and to school after a global pandemic, the waters of the Chesapeake Bay have become polluted by a plastic-eating bacteria experiment gone wrong—and both fish and kids are getting sick!

Izi, Gir, and their friends go to science club and discover a fishy cover-up. The school has to close down again! These climate warriors who call themselves the Antidotes join forces with public health activists to find clean water solutions. The friends use STEM strategies to help save the earth from a potential disaster—they also have secret meetings, do a little spy work, and make some useful discoveries.

The Antidotes race against the clock to get out the word to kids around the world about how to stay safe. But—will the Antidotes be able to get enough kids to achieve zero plastic use before it makes any more fish or children sick? Join the Antidotes in their first science adventure, and stay tuned for more stories to come!

 

 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing