Stories swirl around each of my characters begging to be told. Sometimes a song lyric will get me started, as it did in 99 Problems. Or I imagine where this character came from and what happened to them after their lives intersected, even for the briefest moment with another. Jacob's story, for instance, in All Roads Lead to Austin was an example of that momentary exchange that meant so much.
In others, I wanted to tell more of the backstory of how a character came to be where they were, or why they were who they were.
A societal collapse, even a civil war, does not happen overnight. Instead it is the slow and insidious undoing. It consists of multiple facets coming together to create chaos, fire, and destruction.
When I imagined War's End - that is what I thought of. Not one single problem, but a slow, yet growing cascade of them.
Viruses growing out of control and wreaking havoc, killing hundreds and even thousands.
Social unrest that leads to a rise in factions, including white supremacists.
Terrorist acts on American soil.
An economy in ruins.
If this is sounding eerily familiar, well, call me Cassandra. But by all means, read on. The Collapse is coming. In fact, it might be just around the corner.