I have started two with the first I began being further along but less interesting than the idea I have here. The idea is based off a Solar Flare which is a natural phenomenon that could cause serious damage to world infrastructure.
I’m sure I have and will continue to exaggerate the extent of the phenomena because I’m using it as the catalyst for a post apocalyptic setting. When I first learned about this, it seemed familiar because it’s something my mother used to talk about something exactly like this happening, while not being aware of its reality.
I have posted the prologue I have written for it below. My progress has been slow. I’m nearing the end of the first chapter and I have the next four following somewhat planned with a vague idea of how I want it to end. I know it isn’t original and that if I finish it, it probably won’t turn out very well but I’m told the vast majority of first novels are this way. That’s only the ones that are finished too.
The other book I work on very, very occasionally is intended as a shorter work for a younger audience. This one I’m thinking might appeal to teenagers and you adults but we’ll see how it turns out should it progress to more than a somewhat expanded idea.
And I suppose posting something of it here may motivate me to write more of it. I probably should try to sound motivated though so let’s hope this becomes the first entry in a journal of my progress.
Here is the prologue which may be changed:
The second largest recorded solar storm occurred in 1859, known as the Carrington Event it resulted in unusual electromagnetic activity and affected the still infant telegraph communication systems. The Northern Lights were visible in America and lit up the night skies enough for people to be able to read newspapers. Such an event happening in the latter part of the 20th and early 21st century would have been much more than a curiosity. As satellite technology improved and the ability to observe the activity of the sun, experts feared that another such storm or a worse one would throw the world into chaos.
A worse one did come.
The largest solar storm was observed or rather experienced all over the world in 2025 and would become known as ‘The Event’ for the instant it occurred; all problems economic, social and global became very small in comparison. No one man could give his name to it as it affected every soul on earth and changed everything.
All people alive to witness the initial event witnessed the bright lights that were visible even where it was daylight. Those living in industrialised cities experienced immediate blackouts, the explosions of transformers being heard everywhere and fires illuminating the briefly darkened cities.
Fiber optic fortunes were instantly lost and attempts by the old states to secure gold and other valuables failed as coordinating police and military let alone maintaining their loyalty became next to impossible without the instant communication the world had relied on.
Nations were fractured; cities were looted and largely abandoned.
New communities formed out of the chaos and violence that followed. In many parts of the world, danger remained an ever present reality as gangs of roving bandits began appearing; something shocking to cultures so used to their absence. The change was indeed most acute to the peoples of nations who had known relative peace and stability for such a long period of time. Most didn’t know what had happened or where because the instant International communications were lost the local became all that mattered.
And where our story takes place knowledge of the rest of the world had remained unknown for almost fifty years.