BLAKE'S WORLD consists of an aging McMansion on the island of Coral Heights. Formerly a luxurious golf-oriented "resort community" in sunny Florida, sea level rise and the breakdown of American society have turned the subdivision into a swampy, isolated isle where a former military general-turned-arms trader has taken control... and the horizon doesn't extend beyond the submerged Interstate's next exit. Blake spends his days clandestinely reading books, watching the boats come and go from the roof of the old Wal-Mart, helping his mentally ill mother farm their backyard garden, and dreaming of a world beyond Coral Heights.

When Blake collides with a mysterious woman under pursuit, he makes a split-second decision to help reach to her sailboat and escape his island... and embarks upon the adventure of his life. Together, Blake and Juliet attempt to cross the continent.

Their destination is Cascadia, the peaceful land that has risen in the Pacific Northwest, where Juliet calls home. But first, there are drowned cities to sail through, apocalyptic Christian groups to negotiate with, eccentric southern belles to entertain, heartland hometowns to linger in, locust-filled wastelands to survive, desperadoes to party with, and a placid commune at the edge of the mountains where all seems too good to be true... Through it all, Blake wrestles with his feelings for this strangely compelling, hostile, beautiful woman; the mysterious dreams that plague him; and the part he can play in helping heal the trauma within a world that is still off-balance from the ecocrises of the past. Love, evil, magic, changing times and paradigm shifts, history, and the question of civilization itself underly the wild transcontinental marketplaces, psychedelic visions, and gypsy music in this post-petroleum, after-America road novel.

Travel with Blake and Juliet as they wade through the wreckage of the old society and greet the blossomings of the new in these sample chapters from Crossing the Blue.