Thread by @juliettekayyem

I wrote another book. I've been thinking of these ideas for years. This is a '21 plug for '22 publication @publicaffairs. It is called "The Devil Never Sleeps" and it rethinks disaster management for an era when disasters are no longer random or rare. 1/
publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/juliett…

The title comes from words I heard from a survivor of the 2011 Joplin, Missouri tornado tragedy. Her faith helped her reimagine Joplin after so much death. But her faith wasn't a mere belief, hope; it was quite operational, tactical. 2/

"The devil never sleeps. But he only wins if we don't do better next time," she told me. Yes. Once we can all accept this lived reality - that the devil never sleeps -- then we can better prepare for when the next one comes, b/c it will come as will all the ones after that. 3/

We are here, every day, at the moment of disaster. That in-the-present starting point is precisely what’s been missing in the debates around disasters. We often talk about prevention and what to do to stop bad things from happening. 4/

We urge resilience and how to recover stronger in the aftermath of a disaster. We focus on “before” or “after.” We talk too little about HERE: the moment, the situation before us, what we call the "boom,"5/

and what we can do to make the tragic moment less bad, maybe just a little better. This book represents an effort to change our standard of success. It is a book that does not dwell on the why or dream of a better day. I'm all for that. But also more. 6/

The word "disaster" (and "catastrophe") are grounded in shock and surprise, and that definition still holds. "Astro," after all, is the stars, and a disaster was viewed as a misalignment of the stars. The definition has focused us on shock, rather than familiarity. 7/

Since disasters are recurring and standard operating procedure, it means there is no before or after. And my goal isn't to throw up our hands (surely you know me by now), but to provide 8 tactical lessons from my work, history, lessons learned, interviews and some imagination 8/

to better respond to a world where the devil never sleeps. From earthquakes to tsunamis, terror to hurricanes, cyber attacks to small pox (and only occasionally covid), a Superbowl and an oil spill, 9/

the measure of success isn't only whether a bad thing happened or not, but whether when the devil comes again, we were no longer surprised and were ready. Again, and again. Not before, not later. We have to reimagine what our responses look like in a era of recurring mayhem. 10/

I'm at that (to carry theme) purgatory period in between the draft handed in last Friday, the cranky edits and copy edits, blurbs, footnotes, new subtitle, etc. and we are hoping for later Spring. The cover is terrific; I didn't do it. I'll leave you alone now. #preorder 11/11