The latest book in Transformation Project – Gathering In – launches October 22. It’s the 5th book in the series about a small mid-western town that must cope when terrorists bomb distant cities and disrupt communications, transportation and supply lines. Already a self-sufficient people, the folks in Emmaus form their own disaster plan, dealing with challenges like protecting their livestock and themselves from radioactive rain, dealing with the breakdown of modern technology, and starting a war with the USDA to keep their crops from being confiscated. In the 4th book, Day’s End, they dealt with a smashed electrical grid, the fall of the big cities, and migrants on the move away from the encroaching winter.
So what more could I put these people through?
From the Prologue
It’s funny how your perspective on who is your neighbor can change when resources become scarce. Emmaus lucked out compared to most places after the Pulse. We were surrounded by corn. When we harvested all that belonged to us or the corporations abandoned, we had enough food to last until December or January. Or to feed half the five thousand residents who lived in the area until spring, when hopefully things might change for the better. Some families had more. The farmers had more. Most of them wanted something in return for sharing, which meant that shopkeepers, mayors and school teachers had to find something they could trade. Without electricity and with a lot of engines permanently stalled by the Pulse that most often meant labor.
Passersby, running from the cold northern winter that loomed – well, they weren’t welcome at all. Day after day, they pushed past our borders, now secured by electrified barbed wire and men and women carrying AR15s. It felt so wrong and yet there was no arguing with the fact those migrants represented starvation for us. It wasn’t our fault they hadn’t prepared for terrorist attacks. We hadn’t expected to either, but we’d grown the food so it was ours. We either secured our borders so we who were inside could live – maybe – or we didn’t, and we all starved.
In a world that had spun out of control, there were no good answers for how to live our increasingly fragile lives. Some reached out, others turned in, and some would make decisions with devastating results. And none of them were evil – not the migrants, not the townspeople — maybe the USDA.
JT Delaney
Gathering In is available for Pre-Order at $1.99 until October 21, but be aware the price increases by $2 after launch. If you’re interested in doing a review, however, contact me and we can work out a deal for an ARC — including the rest of the series if you haven’t read it yet.
