Jeffrey David Payne of Ballard will release his first novel on Saturday through Roche Harbor Books. “Far From the War” explores the possibility of a civil war in the United States.
The novel tells a story of a young woman from Orcas Island, Washington who serves as a page for the United States House of Representatives. She flees Washington, D.C. after political extremists stage a coup d’etat that turns violent. The book is the first in a trilogy that follows her struggle to survive on her own as transportation and financial networks fail and as civil war disrupts food and water supplies.
Author Jeffrey David Payne
From Payne:
“I didn’t originally set out to write a book about civil war. I wanted to write about a family on Orcas Island gradually losing contact with the mainland. After considering several different scenarios I settled on a new civil war as the most compelling way to explain that loss of contact. Even so, I was still worried about whether or not readers would believe it – the idea of a new civil war was just unthinkable back then. But since then we’ve had politicians and pundits speaking openly about some kind of armed revolt, radicals on both sides of the political spectrum gaining ground. It’s not a crazy idea anymore and that’s why I thought it was especially important to show readers, in as vivid a way possible, what civil war would mean to real people. So in the end, it’s not about the war or who should win the war, it’s about how the failure to peacefully resolve political disputes ruins some poor girl’s life.”
The book has created a positive response from many teen blogging sites. To find out more about the novel or to contact the author, visit Roche Harbor Books’ site.
