The idea for the slowing first came to Walker on reading that the 2004 Indonesia tsunami had caused the Earth 's rotation to slow by some fractions of a second . She started researching the effects of a more large-scale slowing , mostly on the Internet , but also had it verified by an astrophysicist . Since she was working full-time as an editor at Simon & Schuster at the time , she took to writing the story in mornings . Although it took her four years to complete the book , Walker enjoyed writing this way , calling it a " type of meditation . " Walker lists '' Blindness '' by José Saramago as one of the books that inspired her to write '' The Age of Miracles ''
2004 Indonesia tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
The Age of Miracles