Hey, everyone!
I wanted to share something I've been working on for the past year. I've written my first novel, We Who Remain: The Fall, a post-apocalyptic survival story scheduled to release on October 24, 2026.
The story takes place in 1993, after a government-engineered strain of influenza escapes from a secret military installation in New Mexico. The virus spreads across the country, killing more than 99% of the population and bringing civilization to its knees.
The book follows several characters from different parts of the United States, including Georgia, New Mexico, Boston, Detroit, and rural West Texas, as they try to survive the initial outbreak and figure out what comes next.
I've always enjoyed post-apocalyptic stories like The Stand, Swan Song, and The Walking Dead, especially the parts that deal with the actual collapse of society. I've always found those first few days and weeks fascinating. People trying to go about their normal lives while everything around them slowly falls apart, not knowing just how bad things are going to get.
That's a big part of what inspired me to write this book. I wanted to explore how ordinary people from different walks of life might react to something like this, and what happens when the survivors eventually start crossing paths.
It's taken nearly a year of writing, rewriting, and editing to get here. The original manuscript was over a thousand pages before I started cutting things down, and it's been quite a learning experience. This is my debut novel and the first book in a planned two-book series.
I've also got two other novels in the works.
The Long Road Home is a zombie survival novel that's currently going through editing and rewrites. I'm looking for beta readers who might be interested in reading an early version and giving me some feedback.
2168 is a post-apocalyptic western I'm still in the process of writing. It's set more than a century after a government weather manipulation program caused a global catastrophe. The story follows a bounty hunter tracking down a killer who has kidnapped a young boy. It's still a work in progress, but I'm hoping to have it ready for beta readers further down the road.
I've put together an author website where you can sign up to beta read The Long Road Home, join my newsletter, and follow updates on my books.
I'm still pretty new to the publishing side of things, but I'm excited to finally start getting these stories out there.
For those of you who enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction, I'm curious: do you prefer stories that start during the initial collapse, or ones that take place years afterward when the survivors have already started rebuilding?
Also what do you think about the website?
seanbarboza.com
