The Pyre: A Novel of the Great 2022 Earthquake, the Breaking Apart of the United States of America: The Creation of the People's Republic of California (Unabridged‪)‬

When the United States shatters in 2022, how will you keep your family alive? 

At dawn on April 18, 2022, a family is participating in a living history event at San Antonio Mission de Padua, in Central Coastal California, near Big Sur. Fifty miles to the north, a police sergeant is finishing an overnight shift in the city of Salinas, dealing with the chaos of California’s dysfunctional society. An earthquake shatters buildings, streets, communities, and communication. 

In the aftermath, the state government of California declares independence as world powers seek to hasten the breakup of the United States. The introduction of a deadly weaponized pathogen into the American Midwest and rising terrorist actions by political radicals speed the process of the United States hating itself into fragmentation as millions struggle to survive. While social norms implode, cultural extremism becomes normal. 

The new Republic of California adopts policies of euthanasia, social control, and foreign allegiances to grow its power. Throughout the world, people struggle to survive and escape in an American world consumed by the self-created pyre of its own excesses.