The Wastelands and the Wilderness (Part 2 of The Balance trilogy)—Anticipated release, late 2019

I’m working on this second volume, a bit every day now. The plot for all three volumes (one story) has been in my head since 2012, when I first wrote the draft of Volume 1: The Balance.

Part 2 picks up the saga about 5 years after the end of volume 1. The is set in a post apocalyptic, dystopian world. Prior to a nuclear war that killed almost the entire global population, two organizations—one an ecumenical council formed when three monotheistic religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) created a hierarchy called The Council of God, intent on trying to stop the war that everyone saw coming.

The second group (The Order) was created when the head of a global multinational corporation, based in science and engineering, decided to embark on a dual path to preserve humanity. This leader created living time capsules, called sanctuaries, and distributed these underground facilities globally, hoping some would survive. The Order also began a set of genetic engineering programs with the objective of improving the human design, such that war would eventually be deemed impossible. These programs hoped to develop characteristics in foresight, empathy, longevity and health along three base programs, ultimately these would be combined and then injected back into the general population. The overall project was called: ‘Future Man’.

The Balance volume 1 begins about 200 years after the nuclear war and 17 years after a natural catastrophe almost destroyed what remained of the survivors of the war. The Order has been driven out by the Council, which has banned most technology, and the remnants of the Order, including one of the products of the ‘Sensitives’ program is surviving in a Council city by hiding her true nature.