Well that is a loaded question—
While working on Concrete & Ruin, I found myself returning to the same question over and over again.
The question should read…
How far would a good person go to protect the people they love?
Most of us believe we know where our line is. We have principles and rules. We have things we tell ourselves we would never do. Those beliefs are easy to hold when the grocery store shelves are full, the lights come on when we flip a switch, and help is only a phone call away.
The challenge comes when those comforts disappear. What happens when your children are hungry? When there isn’t enough medicine or when protecting your family means making a decision you never imagined you’d have to make?
Those questions followed me through every chapter of Concrete & Ruin. Because those are questions I wanted the characters to answer. The internal struggles they face living in a Fallen World.
Ben Carter isn’t trying to save the world. He’s trying to save his children. All while society unravels after a devastating CME, he discovers that survival isn’t a series of grand heroic moments. It’s a collection of impossible choices, each one a little harder than the last. Where is the line between humanity & insanity?
Interestingly, those same questions are part of why I’ve become so passionate about the Thrive Self-Reliance Summit. The event is built around preparedness, outdoor skills, sustainability, and homesteading—not because we expect the world to end tomorrow, but because capability creates options. The more skills we have, the more choices we have when life becomes difficult.
I’d like to believe that if everything fell apart, I’d make the right decisions. I’d also like to believe I wouldn’t spend the first week of the apocalypse mourning the loss of ice cream and complaining about how nobody warned me that surviving civilization’s collapse would involve drinking warm soda. I’m not entirely convinced either belief would survive first contact with reality.
So now I’m curious.
How far would you go to protect the people you love?
Is there a line you believe you would never cross? Or do circumstances change the rules?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
And if you’ve already read Concrete & Ruin, I’d be incredibly grateful if you’d leave a review. Reviews help readers discover books far more than any advertisement ever will, and they make a tremendous difference during a launch.
