MISSISSIPPI DIVIDE Sci Fi Book Series

In the near future a corporation (think Amazon) uses technology to seal off the entire land mass west of the Mississippi River to “protect” people from the vices and violence in the rest of the U.S. and the world.

Starting in the near future of 2029 in the encapsulated U.S. land mass west of the Mississippi River, protagonist 16-year-old Natalie Klein in the following 20 years struggles against the increasingly iron grip of total control from antagonist William Colker. His pivotal experience in the prologue of 2018 at a high school shooting is the inciting incident for his desperate need to seal off a part of the U.S. from the vices and violence of the rest of the U.S. and the world.

As an author and blogger on lessons from history as well as concerns for the future, I was motivated to write this first sci fi novel in a proposed series to raise public awareness of issues ranging from the rise of the alt right in Germany to sexual assault to genetic engineering and gun control. Given the daily news, the answer of why now is clear.

The first novel in this proposed series is designed in three parts with each of the parts leading to their respective continuing parts in the next book. All parts have women protagonists.

Overview of completed Book 1 — THE MISSISSIPPI DIVIDE:

Prologue — 2018 — THE TRIGGER — East of the Mississippi River

A high school massacre by a mentally ill expelled student triggers a high school senior on the path that will lead him to total control of the entire U.S. land mass west of the Mississippi.

Part 1 — 2029 — THE UPHEAVAL — West of the Mississippi (the U.S. is severed in two parts with the Mississippi River as the divide):

A corporation figures out how to use technology to instantaneously and completely encapsulate a large portion of the U.S.  The land mass west of the Mississippi River is entirely cut off from the land mass east of the river and the rest of the world.

Then pockets of resistance form in the military and the civilian populations as individuals struggle against total government control. A female teen and a female U.S. Army major are the primary protagonists of this section of the novel and they start a resistance movement.

Part 2 — 2030 — THE TRUTHFINDER — East of the Mississippi (one year after the severing of the two parts of the country)

President Isabel Perez, the first woman and first Latina President of the United States, prepares to give her first State of the Union message one year after being inaugurated on January 20, 2029, the day before the land mass west of the Mississippi River became a “black hole.”

A female FBI agent accompanied by a male data scientist observer from China uses the experimental Truthfinder procedure to determine the truth of a “he said, she said” sexual assault.

Part 3 — 2049 — THE MOTHER SIEGE — West of the Mississippi (20 years after the divide)

Twenty years after a corporation has seized total control of the U.S. land mass west of the Mississippi, women are allowed only two live births (conceived via government-controlled sperm banks) and fathers are anonymous.

The next step of total mind control is announced. Mothers must surrender all their children from ages six months to 18 years to government propaganda centers where the children will be entirely cut off from their mothers.

One mother – a pediatrician (the teen from Part 1) who has hidden her undocumented asthmatic child since the child’s birth – dares to resist.  She bands together with three other mothers – including a surveillance expert – to escape with their children from the encapsulated land mass.

(All three main parts of Book 1 of THE MISSISSIPPI DIVIDE are adaptations from original scripts — THE TRUTHFINDER and THE MOTHER SIEGE are feature film scripts; THE UPHEAVAL is a pilot TV drama script. A third feature film script — BREAD AND CIRCUSES — is in development.)

Author credentials:

  • Fiction and nonfiction published book author on Amazon including MRS. LIEUTENANT, a 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist
  • Screenwriter for film and TV including feature film script LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS — Nicholl Fellowship quarterfinalist (script competition run by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
  • Blogger on near future, history and writing topics at PhyllisZimblerMiller.com
  • Content marketing strategist
  • B.A. in Journalism from Michigan State
  • M.B.A. in Finance from Wharton

For more information email Phyllis Zimbler Miller at pzmiller@gmail.com