My debut post-apocalyptic book, Big Sky Fallen, is set in a near future in which America disintegrates from a one-two punch of economic collapse and a deadly flu pandemic. 

It follows the story of Army veteran and high school teacher Eric Jaeger, who flees the Milwaukee suburbs with Susan Walker, a tough-as-nails paramedic he loves from afar. They just barely make it to the rural Montana survival retreat of Manny Landeros, Eric’s best friend from the military, as civilization crumbles around them.

They band together with an eclectic group of survival-minded people that include a ham radio whiz who weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet, a trio of young deserting soldiers, a pistol-packing preacher, and others. The group hunkers down as they find themselves hurled into a world in which kindness and decency end at Manny’s property line. Surviving states secede one by one from a shattered Union.

Eric’s hopes of riding out the storm are dashed when a wealthy despot seizes power in the nearby state capital, and hatches a horrific plan with a rogue faction of the splintered federal government to slaughter millions in a desperate attempt to regain control and bring wayward states back into line. When an enigmatic Special Forces operator asks them to join a growing resistance movement and fight back, Manny must decide whether to risk his friends’ lives, fortunes, and sacred honor – and Eric will be forced to risk sacrificing the woman he loves.

Fans of the Patriots series, the One Second After novels, the works of Kyla Stone, and anyone who’s into prepping, survivalism, or people who just love a good old-fashioned post-apocalyptic book, will like Big Sky Fallen. And in the end, I hope you ask yourself one thing – what will you do if it all falls apart?