Question For Travis McGee

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Probably right about the quicker, part.

But then all of us others who are interested would miss out on the answer.

So, yeah. Second the motion for an update.
 
I was going to send him a PM, but I knew that there are a large number of THR members who are waiting on the third book.
 
Thanks for asking! Here's a sitrep on Foreign Enemies. I'm about 1/4 of the way through the first draft, and I'm not moving as fast as I'd like. In this book, Ranya gets a breather, and Phil Carson from EFAD gets to carry the ball. The action is set about 2 years after DETR, and takes place mostly in the Southeast. The nation's economy has really tanked, leading to an Article Five constitutional convention. The 2nd amendment has been repealed, replaced by the Freedom from Gun Violence amendment. The "Economic Justice Amendment" is also passed, leading to institutionalized socialism, which only wrecks what is left of the economy.

However, try as it might the federal government simply can't enforce the New Constitution beyond its stronghold, running from Minnesota to Maine to Virginia. The Northwest denies the validity of the New Constitution, and goes its own way. After a series of major hurricanes across the Gulf states, the Deep South is under virtual martial law. The National Guard takes over during the emergency, and never relinquishes control since the problems are practically insurmountable.

As if this wasn't enough, the New Madrid fault cracks open, tumbling buildings and bridges between St. Louis, Memphis and Nashville. Western Tennessee is particularly FUBAR, the wrecked transportation infrastructure means this region is almost impossible to reach with repair equipment. Cut off from food, fuel, power etc, this area goes completely SHTF.

The federal govt needs to get this region back under control if it is to have any hope of bringing the Deep South or later the Northwest back under its control. It puts what assets in can into forcibly subduing TN and KY, including foreign "volunteer peacekeeping" battalions and units of the new "North American Legion." These foreign mercenary troops are fighting for the one thing the federal govt has left to promise them: citizenship, and land.

That's a nutshell synopsis of the situation depicted in Foreign Enemies. I'd say it'll be at least a year or more before I finish it.

Matt/Travis
 
Please write faster please write faster please write faster....:D;)

Just teasing ya a little there, Mr Bracken! I've read your first two books and am anxiously awaiting the third!
I loved the first two .... this next one sounds terrific! :)
 
Travis Lee,
Well, it's not too bad in the Northwest, which is still using the old Constitution. The hurricanes plus the New Madrid quake, coming on top of a terrible economy, are basically a plot device to speed up the federal government's push toward all out tyranny, based on the perceived need to fix everything right away, by any means. It's sort of like my first novel, which opens with the stadium sniper massacre, which throws the plot right into high gear, with govt. overreaching on gun control and all that follows.
 
As the agent said in the Daffy Duck feature "The Scarlet Pumpernickel"...

"Is that all?"

200px-


http://www.ifilm.com/video/2758284
 
Good gosh, that's a pretty exciting plot. This is like waiting in line for a roller-coaster that you know will make you barf...but you can't wait for the ride!
 
After a series of major hurricanes across the Gulf states, the Deep South is under virtual martial law.
Click to expand...

Please take out downtown Atlanta...sure would be nice to drive I-75 w/o any traffic :evil:
 
Hmmm. The last time the New Madrid went FUBAR, they say the Mississippi flowed north for three days. Imagine what all that toxic petro chemical industry waste would do from St. Louis down to New Orleans. Mutant zombies everywhere, cats living with dogs, EPA gone wild, bridges gone, nothing coming up from the Port at N.O.,... whew.

Bracken, you sure do have your work cut out for yourself. Can't wait.
 
Baba Louie: Something that I didn't know about the Madrid fault is that due to geology, the high Richter numbers would extend over a ten times greater area than a similarly powerful quake in California. For my plot, we begin with all of the bridges down or ruined between Memphhis and Paduka and on down the Tennessee river. Western TN is virtually cut off, and the transportation infrastructure in the region is crashed into a form of gridlock. The bridges block the rivers, so no coal can get to the power plants. The natural gas and other pipelines are broken, the highways and RRs are cut in a hundred places etc. IOW, you can't get rescue or repair crews in except by air, which is much too little to arrive in time, and the region goes completely SHTF. Picture Katrina, with no significant outside help arriving for many weeks. With no power, no water (needs power), or food, people sink to some pretty low states out of sheer starving desperation. That's all just background to the situation at the beginning of Foreign Enemies.
 
In the interest of authenticity that would be Paducah. It is OK to thank me in the jacket notes if you want. Sounds like a good read is coming.
 
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I repeat, cannot wait Matt.
For those of you who know not of the New Madrid Fault (there might be one or two) http://www.hsv.com/genlintr/newmadrd/ read up a little. For those of you who live nearby, stock up on essentials :D (but I kid you not... check out the photos in the link)
Throw in a heavy snowfall up north along the Missouri watershed basin and you can get a lake 17 miles across at the rivers convergence in a little French town known as St. Louis (San Lewie)
 
Matt, be sure to put something in there about how Utah is doing just fine under its benevolent warlord. :)
 
Yes, half of Texas will be running itself as the Republic of Texas. The SW half will be part of Aztlan.

And Utah will be standing alone, under Elder Rockwell.

But they will not be part of the story, just mentioned in background.
 
so long as Wyoming and Colorado (maybe throw in Montana for good measure) fall under the watchful guardianship of The Fly, I won't have any complaints :neener:
 
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