GOLDSBORO — As the Y2K computer bug and new millennium approach, some people are getting nervous. Some are "heading for the hills" while others are stocking their homes in case computer crashes disrupt their lives.

Some religious factions use the Y2K computer problem, the millennium bug, to forecast apocalyptic changes. The computer problem and the change of the millennium are two separate events.

Beth Bridgman, a Goldsboro author, is trying to put the computer bug and the millennial change in perspective with a new novel.

Bridgman uses the computer bug as a catalyst for hope in her book"Binary Fusion and the Millennium Bug".

"I try to highlight all the latest technological and scientific advances that herald tremendous hope on the horizon for great things to come," says the author.

Bridgman researched cutting edge technology for the novel, then wrote it in the present tense for immediacy.

Hers is not the only book addressing millennial change. Many deal with prophecies based on Biblical verse. The same fears -- the end of the world, the second coming of Christ -- swept Europe as the year one thousand approached.

"The end of each millennium has engendered these kinds of apocalyptic expectations and we shouldn't be surprised to, I think, see them now as well," says Tom Parker, a history professor atN.C. State University.

Bridgman theorizes fear of the computer bug is the primary concern.

"But if you can look beyond that and have no fear, there will be no shortages," says Bridgman. "There will be, maybe, some power outages, but there won't be major problems associated with it."

There will likely be many more books and perhaps a movie about the bug and the millennium before we get there. Bridgman says her novel, which is her first, should be in bookstores in the next few months.