HamletHub editor pens Pandemonium about the Covid-19 Pandemic

There was no imagining what the state of the world would become when the news of the first cluster of infections was announced in late 2019. Those seeds would grow into a massively devastating global pandemic caused by Covid-19. It would have implications at every single level in society. And from his beachside home in Fairfield, CT just 40 miles northeast of New York City — the epicenter of the disaster — and as the editor of a local online news service, Mike Lauterborn was in a position to capture it all. The international and national impacts. The effect on people and commerce at the local level. The shift in lifestyle, attitudes, mental condition and future outlook that the pandemic caused. The humor, the tragedy, the cheer, the grief, the patriotism, the division, the conspiracy theories, the outpouring of love, the show of rage, the remarkable efforts of first responders, the toll on the front line workers.  

The seaside-based author has taken all these captures, and many area photographs, and served them up in “Pandemonium”, his new book released through publisher AuthorHouse, available online at https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/814505-pandemonium and through Amazon.   

“It’s all here, as a lasting record for those of us who lived through it to recollect, but also as a roadmap for future generations facing similar crises,” said Lauterborn. “Here’s what we did. Here’s what worked and didn’t work. Here’s what you might try and here’s what you should avoid. But in the end, it’s tough love and community hugs and family bonds that win the day,” he added.

Inspiration

Following and reporting the news on a daily basis, Lauterborn realized, as the seriousness of the Covid-19 outbreak became apparent and the disease spread across the world — taking root here in the United States eventually — that history was unfolding. A unique moment in time, as horrific and devastating as it has been worldwide. “When it broke here in Connecticut, and the schools and businesses and, well, life in general just shut down, I felt compelled to document this strange time. In my role as a journalist, photographer and editor, I was uniquely qualified for the task. And so I began churning out four or five pages a day in the midst of the pandemic. Really, it became a therapeutic, constructive and, ultimately, important diversion,” he said. 

The biggest question for Lauterborn was when to conclude it. “When America’s Reopening was announced in early June, and there was a glimmer of hope ahead, I felt that was a good wrap point for the book, even though I knew our crisis itself had not concluded. The hopeful note that I end on is the same hope I carry today, that mankind will not only survive this crisis and all the sub-crises that it has spurred, but come back even stronger and wiser, though admittedly changed. Likely, life will never be the same.”  

About the Author

A 24-year resident of Fairfield, CT, Lauterborn has been the Editor of Fairfield HamletHub online news service since Nov. 2011, serving Fairfield County, Connecticut. As a lad through high school, Mike was a dedicated journal keeper and graduated from college with a degree focused on creative writing. For the next 20+ years, Mike worked in corporate marketing, promotion and advertising leadership roles before transitioning to journalism, contracting with regional magazines, newspapers and online news services. 

Mike has documented over four decades of American culture, including all of his past travels. One of the most significant of these was in Fall 2003, when Mike set off by van to follow in the path that acclaimed author John Steinbeck had taken in 1960 driving counter-clockwise around the perimeter of the United States to write “Travels with Charley”. Mike used Steinbeck’s book as his map for a similar journey that became “Chasing Charley”, released through AuthorHouse in Nov. 2018. 

In this new non-fiction “Pandemonium” book, Mike has taken on another adventure, an unplanned one that didn’t take him much farther than his own community over several months as he witnessed how the Covid-19 disease set its aggressive hooks into the meat of the world, and thrashed it, and tore it apart, threatening the very existence of mankind. He recorded the pandemic’s impact at the international and national levels, and observed its effects very first-hand in his own coastal community and amongst its citizens and leaders. He captured every aspect of the attack of this “invisible enemy” to create a detailed, insightful record of these times. No pun intended, Lauterborn said, soberly, “Perhaps what I have detailed here will help future generations avoid the ‘pandemonium’ that took us all by surprise,” he shared.