Dixie's Dystopian Future?

I've never thought much about writing a dystopian-future novel.  I don't recall reading any that I really enjoyed, with the exception of  Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, which I liked so much I read it several times.  I've seen plenty of dystopian-future films, as well, but few that I'd sit through a second time.

So it's perhaps a little surprising that the idea came to me recently to write about the fall of the United States. Or, maybe, considering what we see happening in our country, it isn't surprising at all.

Some folks know from my author website and elsewhere that I write novels to honor white, Christian men, especially Southern men, because they are so maligned in the popular culture. So any post-apocalyptic story I wrote would need a Southern hero at the center.

Scenarios began to take shape in my mind, and came up with a tenative storyline, and  working cover (to keep me inspired).

The book will probably be novella length. The idea is still in the development stage and may change as the writing progresses. However, I have written a tentative cover blurb to help guide the development.

A PERILOUS JOURNEY ~~AN ABIDING LOVE

The United States of America exists no more, collapsed by its crushing debt, its people crushed by tyranny. Civil war, starvation, and disease have decimated the population.  Entire cities stand in ruin.

But in the southeast, a new nation has risen from the cataclysm. Caught a thousand miles away from their native Alabama when the final breakup occurs, Guy Holiday and his bride must make a perilous trek across the country to the Republic of Dixie, the only place in the scorched and barren land where peace, liberty and safety can be found.  But the new nation's borders are tightly sealed.

Will the border patrol let them in? Or will their journey, if they survive it, be for naught?

I'm a bit surprised that some of my Facebook friends have already expressed an interest in reading the story based solely on the working cover and the hastily composed blurb. Apparently, this genre is more popular than I knew.

I guess that means I need to get started -- and suddenly, I wish I'd read more of those dystopian novels and paid more attention to the distopian movies I've seen.  On the other hand, I'm basically free of influences of existing stories, so whatever I come up with will largely be my own concoction.

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Cover image from Stock.XCHNG