Fractured State follows a man entrusted with safeguarding a community of Druids who must navigate a perilous world where reality, mythology, and technology intersect and face relentless threats to survival. What was the inspiration for the original and fascinating idea at the center of the book?

Great question. Fractured State occurs within the world of The Blighted Earth, where humankind is both the planet’s dominant species and ‘the blight.’ Thus, the level of frustration and even disdain for humanity which bleeds through in the narrative leads the reader to question the narrator’s origin and species—High Sentient? Likely, an elemental or Guardian Spirit. For the series, the downstream story arcs were fleshed out first, and I had to map primary story arcs back to Book One to set the stage and create the conditions for what was going to happen later. I needed a great character who captured our species’ duality—flawed and yet possessing great potential; an aspect of the human condition which so vexes the High Sentients. As a combat veteran myself, I am intimately familiar with the challenges and struggles facing many of our military veterans, and as an obscure, religious minority, Druidry presented a likely target for discrimination while also possessing strong ties to nature. Finally, I needed an effective counter to Chaos’s shadow campaign to weaponize human emotion, which spawned the concept of the fúath slugair or ‘Hate-eater’—hence, Arden was born!

I find the world you created in this novel brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from and how did it change as you were writing?

To “set the table” for the Blighted Earth series, I needed the right set of conditions for Chaos to exploit in His relentless pursuit to initiate the Great Cascade and bring about the Discordant on Earth. The makings of environmental catastrophe (extended drought, wildfires, natural habitat erosion, human over-settlement, etc.) have been present and worsening for some time, with climate change driving more destructive weather extremes. Additionally, the novel was written during the trials and tribulations we all endured during the COVID pandemic and the unfortunate events in the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential election. When coupled with all the emerging threats, conflicts, and uncertainty which have emerged in last few years, as well as their corresponding negative effects on our collective state of mind and emotions, the real world itself provided all the drama and necessary ingredients for ruinous potential at continental scale. The final step was to inject the enduring struggle of otherworldly entities and supernatural beings into volatile mix—and “voila”—this author had everything he needed to create the “fractured state.” As far as changes during the writing process, extraordinarily little changed in the overall setting in the United States, but local places, encounters, and characters within Arden’s story arc changed as his supernatural powers and the overall impact he was to have in the series gained greater fidelity. These factors then shaped more ‘tactical’ aspects of the novel, such as finding the right settings and locations within the state of Texas.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

I explore several themes in Fractured State, and to me, some of the more important ones are:

• Human belief systems and the huge impacts they have had on the environment and biodiversity of our world: How would things be different if we all adopted the Lakota philosophy of “we are all relatives?” We are the planet’s dominant species, but that does not place us ‘above’ other living things; non-human species are not just resources to be exploited. Humankind’s role obligates us to serve as the Earth’s stewards for the benefit of all life. Taking this concept another huge step further, how would our approach to life and living change if we were all children of a sentient planet?
  
• The adverse impacts of our technology: Human innovation and the ability to “make tools” to enhance our abilities and our lives has always been a strength, but it also has the negative corollary effects of extending the reach, influence, and power of bad actors. I would go as far as to say that, in many ways, technology is contributing to our “devolution” as a species.
  
• The rise of incivility in our civilization: The human attributes which enabled our meteoric rise to the top of the food chain—cooperation, communication, community—are being rent apart by divisiveness, corruption, and dishonesty within society. It is like a contagious disease which is fundamentally changing us for the worse and causing us to turn our backs on the things that made us “great.”
  
• Storytelling, one of humanity’s other great attributes, is also being co-opted to insidious ends: This is nothing new in our relatively short history as a species, but the line between exaggeration and lie has gone from blurred to practically nonexistent. Worse, the power of lies proliferated by influential people has been exponentially magnified by our own technologies.
  
• The process of radicalization and the rising threat of ‘homegrown’ violent extremists to our American democracy: In a world where life resources are becoming ever more limited and contested, while the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” continues to grow, the numbers of disenfranchised citizens continue to grow. They are the target population for radicalization, and everything previously mentioned amplifies the ability of extreme actors to make more converts more quickly … and they do not even have to be in the same room, or state, or even in our country!

When will book two be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers?

Great news: Blighted Earth fans can expect to see Long Leg from the Blight Earth sometime next year. I am pretty far along in knitting together and refining the manuscript from the initial draft. In fact, I actually have the rough drafts completed for the next three books in what is currently planned to be a nine-book series. In terms of Book Two expectations: expect the unexpected! Another story arc begins with a new cast of characters who will have to accept the baton and carry the gripping narrative forward in the Natural Order’s struggle against Chaos and his minions. Where will Book Two take place? Hint: pay careful attention to Parim’s words towards the end of the Fractured State epilogue. Lastly, though it is hard to pick favorites, Book Two is one of the stories I really want to share with the world!

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