How Michael Crichton’s Widow Sherri Ushered in a Renaissance of His Work With New Book ‘Eruption’

variety.com:

Katcy Stephan Sherri Crichton was on a mission. She was poring over filing cabinets, old computers and scattered notes when she finally found it: a manuscript from her late husband, “Jurassic Park” and “Congo” writer Michael Crichton.

Each thread led her to the next: a draft called “Vulcan,” and other pieces called “The Black Zone” and “Black Agent.” She knew about a long-gestating volcano project he’d been working on before his death – they’d been to Pompeii on their honeymoon, after all. “He would leave breadcrumbs.

We’d be on a hike, and he would talk to me about the formation of lava,” Sherri says over lunch in early June. “His mind was this massive database that was just pumping out great story after great story after great story.” There was just one problem: this story wasn’t finished. “When I started reading the book, I literally was covered in chills knowing that this is it.

And then there was only so much of it,” Sherri recalls. When Michael died in 2008, Sherri was six months pregnant with their son, John Michael. “I had to teach his son what his father was about,” Sherri says of her motivation to complete Michael’s story, now called “Eruption.” Sherri knew from the start that she would take this novel to the finish line. “There are certain things that will absolutely always remain private.