AUTHOR’S NOTE

Nearby supernovae are extraordinarily rare, and the electromagnetic effects one might have on the Earth are far from certain. But the danger of losing electrical power and devices is real. An EMP attack or coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun could disable large swaths of the electrical grid, and many electronic devices would likely be damaged or destroyed. Earth narrowly avoided a direct hit by a CME in July 2012, and some scientists estimate a twelve percent chance of it happening for real in the next ten years.

In House of the Rising Sun, I leaned on dramatic license to upend the lives of my characters. An actual event might be less severe. And certainly the aftermath of an EMP would unfold more gradually than in this novel. I intentionally compressed the timeline to maintain narrative momentum.

Still, you don’t have to be a hardcore prepper to give yourself a chance to survive. A little planning can go a long way, even if you don’t want to buy a bunch of name-brand gear.

Some housekeeping notes: The Food Pyramid at 81st and Yale no longer exists, at least not in this timeline. There is no Walmart DC in the location described, but the layout of my fictional one is based on real facilities and mostly accurate. I don’t know what’s on the 53rd floor of the Empire State Building, where Skylar’s dad works, and Google was not very helpful there. Lakewood Village was selected as a setting for its location and is not the enclave of nouveau riche mansions it seems to be in the novel. Cinnamon, where Keri works, is completely invented. Most other geographical errors you may find are intentional or immaterial to the story.

Blaise, who directs Thomas and his group to the Walmart DC, was inspired by the second track on Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s EP Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada. This song is built around the audio interview of a real man in Providence, Rhode Island who called himself Blaise Bailey Finnegan III, an apparent alias inspired by Blaze Bayley, former singer for the band Iron Maiden. The quote at the beginning of this novel is part of a long interview (basically a rant) about a looming apocalypse not unlike the one that occurs in the pages of this book. A few lines of dialogue on pages 294 - 295 resemble bits of this rant as well.

Finally, if this is the sort of thing that interests you: I conceived this story in 2010 as a way to write a post-apocalyptic novel that didn’t feature zombies or viruses (imagine that!) or an imminent asteroid impact. It became House of the Rising Sun when I realized a supernova could become my story’s inciting incident. But the manuscript did not become a novel until 2016, in the months leading up to U.S. Presidential election. Though I expected one candidate to win, I built the world of this novel with the other outcome in mind, and I’d love to know how you feel about it. Please visit www.richardcox.net/HOTRS to share your thoughts.

Richard Cox is the author of five novels. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with his wife and two daughters. In his spare time he likes to hit bombs.