Holding the Line: Science, Technology, and the Spirit of Rural Texas
When you remove electricity from a modern society, you do more than turn off the lights. You halt water systems that rely on electric pumps. You break the cold chain that keeps food safe. You silence the radios and networks that carry urgent information. In Afterlight, every chapter had to account for the loss of these systems, not as background noise, but as active pressure on every decision the characters make.
To build Flarefall on solid ground, I studied the real-world physics of solar storms and geomagnetic disturbances. I looked at how coronal mass ejections can induce currents in power lines, overloading transformers and taking down large sections of the grid. I explored the science of grid restoration, how long it takes to repair high-voltage infrastructure, and what it means when certain replacement parts are manufactured in only a handful of facilities worldwide.
The story unfolds in Graford, a fictionalized version of a real North Texas town. My Graford is shaped by research and imagination, not by the real community or its residents. Still, I drew from the authentic character of rural Texas: people who know how to repair instead of replace, who can weld a gate from scrap metal, who keep extra fuel and water on hand because storms and outages are part of life.
I also researched volunteer firefighters and ranchers to understand how a community without modern communications would coordinate in an emergency. My own time working in local government at the Texas county level included emergency preparedness responsibilities, and that experience helped shape the way Flarefall handles crisis planning, resource allocation, and the reality of keeping order when outside help is not coming.
Over the next few posts, I will explore:
The mechanics of solar storms and why the largest threats do not give much warning
How small communities adapt when technology fails
Why the market needs more character-driven post-collapse fiction and how Flarefall addresses that gap
At its core, Flarefall is about the collision between hard science and hard choices, and the determination to keep a town alive when the world no longer runs on the systems we take for granted.
Patrick Bernhardt
Author, Afterlight: Book One of the Flarefall Series