Hood River Anthology
Hood River Anthology is the prequel to the Sanctuary Quartet. It consists of historical chapters and short stories. The first several chapters tell the story of a fictitious German family of tenuous nobility who escape from East Germany during the Soviet occupation, dodging Stasi agents and border guards, and eventually settle in Hood River, OR, where they build a Bed and Breakfast modeled after King Ludwig’s Schloss Linderhof castle. The succeeding chapters are short stories about the lives of lodgers who stay at the Neue Schloss Linderhof. In many respects the compendium mirrors the tradition of “Winesburg, Ohio” by Sherwood Anderson or “Spoon River Anthology” by Edgar Lee Masters.
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The Sanctuary Quartet
The Sanctuary Quartet is a set of four historical novels set two hundred years in the future looking back on the present time. It answers the question “what would happen if a bunch of billionaires built an underground, luxurious bomb shelter in the Bob Marshall Wilderness capable of housing half a million souls and used it to shelter their wealth and ensure the survival of the species in the face of the ravages of Climate Change in concert with a Worldwide Pandemic?”
Sanctuary I: The First Secular Diaspora
Sanctuary I: The First Secular Diaspora is a historical novel set 200 years in the future, looking back on the world we live in today. The narrator is Otto Baumgartner whose ancestors escaped from East Germany during the Cold War and subsequently emigrated to Hood River, Oregon, when they were doggedly pursued by the Stasi. Sanctuary I is the first in a planned trilogy. The story Otto tells is of an underground city in the Bob Marshall Wilderness named Sanctuary, built by a cadre of the uber rich to ward off the imminent threat of nuclear winter posed by the Cold War, followed by the existential threat of Climate Change and finally to provide for the very survival of the species in the wake of a worldwide pandemic.
Sanctuary II: A New World Order
Sanctuary II follows on the heels of Sanctuary I. We meet Harriet T. Jefferson (Yes, the T does stand for Tubman. You want to make something of it?), Professor of Political Science at the University of Montana and a Support recruit for Sanctuary. Residence Buildings have been framed in. Construction has begun on the interiors. The first few families have moved in. Recruiting Supports so that Elites can survive is a major issue, but thanks to a network of Preppies who believe the Apocalypse is already upon us, there is sufficient fodder for staff who can keep Elites alive and well. Work has begun on filming VR Videos for the Pornotariums and developing a VR Golf game for the Competoriums. A new pandemic called MIRCI has begun to make its way around the world from an obscure laboratory in the former Soviet Union. Politicians don’t think it’s a real threat. After all the USSR is dead.
Sanctuary III: Day of Reckoning
Sanctuary III begins with a chapter of introduction to the second term of the current President of the USA: a certain Tyrone Rexford aka T. Rex. We call him Hollow Man. You may be able to guess who Hollow Man is modeled after. T. Rex gets five chapters in all, concluding with “Hollow Man Strikes Out.” Love blossoms inside Sanctuary where the new city is experiencing growing pains. Old prejudices surface, hatred has yet to be genetically engineered out of the human species. By now, Sanctuary has 315 million residents. Plans are being laid for a second Sanctuary to be built in the Carlsbad Caverns outside Carlsbad, NM. Above the crust, the MIRCI pandemic is raging. California and Texas have seceded from the USA to form a new nation called Calexico. They are joined by five adjacent states. Nations are collapsing. Riots in the streets. Rolling lockdowns. Pillaging is the career du jour. It ain’t a pretty sight.
Sanctuary IV: Epiphany and Transformation
Sanctuary IV explores the situation where Sanctuary is almost full, the pandemic above the crust is out of control, and rich guys from all over the world are clamoring to get in. Unfortunately, the Sanctuary II solution promised by Carlsbad, NM, is no longer an option. Terrorists posing as patriots have destroyed the fledgling skeletal structure. Plans are laid to bring the construction workers home. An infusion of International Elites may provide a vital inflow of revenue to help fund the new development, but it also brings along a host of problems. Language and cultural differences exacerbate the issue of integrating new citizens into the mix. Technology helps. Artificial Intelligence and Proximate Immortality play their own inimitable roles. In the end The Chosen Ones are left to reflect on their contribution to the survival of species homo sapiens. As you might imagine, they wonder whether the miniscule results have been worth their Herculean effort.
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