Pete Andresen, Writer

Politics as kabuki theater is a standard in my recent novel, "The Pyre". Heck, it's a standard in the real world, too. Pearl-clutching in the face of a pretended or a real crisis is as normal as breathing for politicians. As Oscar Wilde said, in his play "The Importance of Being Earnest", In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing. Meanwhile the rest of us go to work in the morning to make a good small life, to support our families, and to pay our taxes. We haven't got the time for the games they practice.

Happy Monday! In my recent novel, The Pyre I wrote about a United States breaking itself apart, battered by relentless cyberattacks and shutdowns. I did a lot of research to make those cyberattacks as realistic as possible. Too realistic, as it turns out. One is happening now. https://www.nbcnews.com//russian-criminal-group-may-be-res

Happy Mother’s Day and happy Soviet V-E Day, when the United States censored information to assist Soviet image manipulation...and the elites in the media went along with it! https://www.theatlantic.com//how-world-leaders-tr/371659/

Several of the plot lines in my dystopian novel "The Pyre" are...romances! I tried to deeply explore the meaning of love when I created the book. We talk about that today on my radio show TODAY, Saturday May 8th, 2021 with Mark Carbonaro at 4:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time on KION 1460 and 101.1, discussing true love! What the heck is that? And HAPPY V/E DAY!!! https://www.amazon.com/Pyre-Earthquake-Breaki//ref=sr_1_1

The Pyre Audible book produced and narrated by James Coyle, released in a month or so. Awesome and a bucket list accomplishment. Go for it, Jim Coyle. Twenty different characters. Meanwhile the print version is at Downtown Book & Sound and on Amazon Kindle!

Can't make up what 2020 has brought us. My coming disaster novel can't keep pace. https://www.ocregister.com//rapidly-spreading-virus-kill/.

I'm at work studying what will happen in the next thirty years, and I stumbled onto this. The greatest cause of violent death in the 20th Century was....government. The slaughter of non-combatants. Astonishing. Democide = genocide and mass murder of unarmed non-combatants by governments. The total victims of democide in the 20th Century: 262,000,000. The term was created by R.J. Rummel, who wrote: Just to give perspective on this incredible murder by government, if all th...ese bodies were laid head to toe, with the average height being 5', then they would circle the earth ten times. Also, this democide murdered 6 times more people than died in combat in all the foreign and internal wars of the century. Finally, given popular estimates of the dead in a major nuclear war, this total democide is as though such a war did occur, but with its dead spread over a century. R.J. Rummel, "Power Kills: Democracy As A Method Of Nonviolence" See more

I live here, and I wasn't even here when the earthquake struck. I was in Yellowstone National Park. However, this experience, and the city of Salinas' rapid response to take advantage of the quake's damage for redevelopment dollars, are key motivators in my novel The Pyre, set for local sale before the end of the year and widespread publication on February 15th, 2021. It's about the Great Earthquake of 2022, the destruction of the city of Salinas, the breaking apart of the United States of America, and the rise of the People's Republic of California. All based on what might have happened during the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Loma_Prieta_earthquake

Our ancestors lived through political unrest. This is Oliver Cromwell's 1653 address to the British Parliament, the Congress of his day. Yes, he was a ruthless, rapacious, murderous dictator. Yet, his concerns still ring true about our current governments: ""It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice. Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government." https://speakola.com//oliver-cromwell-speech-dismissing-ru

The details of the next novel: it's happening! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX_k7BjCypI

My next novel, The Pyre, is nearing completion. With luck, advanced readers copies should be out and in our local bookstore, Downtown Book & Sound, with Patricia Triumpho Sullivan, by December 15th, if all goes well. Meanwhile, too much of it is coming true while we finish it. https://www.theatlantic.com///12/how-america-ends/600757/

Another astonishing yet true saga of Salinas, California!

I'm working on the final rewrite of my latest novel, "The Pyre," about the breakdown and secession of California from the rest of the nation. It's about dysfunction, hatred, and tyranny. The challenge for me is that it's coming true before it's finished. https://apnews.com//election-2020-elections-racial-injusti

Happy Monday! We are surrounded by quiet heroes who get up every day and create stable. loving families. They are the true heroes of our world. But their stories don't create books that sell. I want to think of them now, though, as the new week starts and so many of us head back into work. Inspiration. Everything worth doing is difficult.

I just finished my first draft of this year’s novel, Pyre. Turning the insomnia into something useful! Now the detail work begins. Happy Saturday!!!

Our recent centuries of progress cause us to forget that there were entire centuries when the development of humanity went backwards. Especially the 14th Century when the population declined by very roughly 50%. Yet the elites still played their games. What would happen if such a socially retrograde cycle happened now? That's the focus of my next novel, "Pyre." We're all acting like success is absolutely guaranteed. It isn't . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_of_the_Late_Middle_Ages

What do you do when you believe a political system presents a danger to the world? Ambassador William Dodd faced such a challenge in the early 1930’s in Germany, as Naziism came to dominate the nation. He was opposed by just about everyone, from the anti-semites in the State Department to his own family. It is also interesting how so many early Nazis were grotesquely mundane, boring little party-boy functionaries. Fascinating read.

This morning’s wake up dream: in the dream, we’ve discovered that the broadcasting tower on top of our local Mount Toro is in fact a time portal, and we have decided to go back in time to our tribe’s annual ranch party, family weeeknd, in 1980, to hug our parents and elders again. When I woke up we were realizing that we are currently older than our parents were then, and would thus be something like grandparents to ourselves. If you could go back in time, where would you go, to what date, and whom would you seek to meet?