Truncated III: Born Against

I released the third book in my humorous survival apocalyptic series January, 5th, 2020.

Find more info here: Truncated III: Born Against — Matt Orlando Books

Truncated

While Truncated 3 has been completed for some time now (I’ve completed another novel: Migrant, and started my sixth novel: Rogue) in the time that the book has sat, waiting for me and my marketing guy to release it at the right time... keeping in mind, we have no clue what the right time is. Zero. Of the three books in the series, Truncated: Born Against was the hardest to write.

Mostly for fun and mostly because I wanted to see if I could really finish a novel, I wrote my first book: Truncated: Apocalyptic and Loving It! It all started there.  A humorous post-apocalyptic four to ten book trilogy was born. I will stop writing them when they tell me they are done.

I honestly did not think anyone would read the first book, nor did I think anyone would like it if they did read it. It isn’t that I think it is a bad book, it’s just that it wasn’t like the other successful post-apocalyptic books I’ve read that are dark and serious, and really well received, like Cormac McCarthy’s, The Road or Stephen King’s, The Stand. I am not a businessman or a people man, and I didn’t know if anyone would ever want to read a humorous survival novel based in California. But what I did know was, that I didn’t want to write a book that had been done before.

I had written the first book thinking something could actually happen as I wrote it.

I still think that. It will not be one thing that brings humanity to its knees, all the way anyhow, and if you stack a few unfavorable events on top of each other, it will be the fear that kills us off more so than the events themselves. We would simply turn on each other out of the pure terror of not HAVING. Because people love to have stuff and comfort and certainty and normalcy.

That fear would roll through us like a wave, and eventually consume us until it was every man, woman, and child for themselves. People would make very irrational decisions because our current level of mental and physical constitutions rely too heavily on outside help in the form of logistical allocation of resources, such as groceries and water. The Truncated series speaks to this... the third book, more to the rise of cultists, cowboys, and prophets. We could not get through two months of the COVID Pandemic without friggin’ toilet paper hoarding, let alone what would happen if it were something more severe.

Could you imagine a few more natural disasters, the loss of fuel, food, and water, to put a damper on our already nerve rattled situation? 

And people will tell you it is impossible for those things to happen. We’re just too civilized. But that is what motivated me to write a humorous adventure apocalyptic fiction series where bandits could shoot each other on Pacific Coast Highway 10 minutes after they went bodysurfing. I had written Truncated: Apocalyptic and Loving It! Many years before the current pandemic.  And, in many cases, I didn’t like seeing what I wrote in my book come true before my eyes. Damn my proclivity for Nostradamus-like prophecy. Well, I’ve already written on how I am exactly like a Prophet, if you’re interested in learning more.

Continuing with the survival theme over three books wasn’t as hard to accomplish as the deeper themes themselves. I had hoped these themes would be important distinctions between the books, rather than the starving and radiation and zombies we often find in many great post-apocalyptic books. Those books are fun, but already written.

The places I chose to write about are from places I’ve been in and around my entire life. HB and PCH and beyond, Paso Robles, San Simeon, Hearst Castle. Cambria. I’ve experienced California life and the beautiful Wine Country and vineyards north of San Francisco. And then, one day, I realize, I cared about these places so much and they have had such an unconscious impact on me, that I needed to write about them. For all our blessings and faults, literally and figuratively, I love my California life, a life I pray isn’t too good to be true.

However, I wanted to accomplish something more through the series.

Apocalyptic and Loving it had to do a bit with recognizing the important things only after an apocalypse showed up — one we will all experience at some point or another when we kick the bucket singularly or die in large numbers together. Kumbaya.

A Cold Day in Heaven dealt with addictions.

And the third book, Truncated: Born Against, deals with religion and faith.

To me, just going in and out of survival themes, in and of themselves, would eventually get a bit boring. I mean, how many pages can you write about different ways to try and find and keep food, or outwit various bandits and tribes? While those things are in my books, I didn’t want them to be the complete narrative. There’s more to be found here! The returning Prophets: Elijah, Enoch, and the Second Coming. God, Christianity, Heaven, these are all parts of the theme that made their way into Truncated Three: Born Against.

What I for sure didn’t want to do, was to have the series be like shows that go three too many seasons too long, like The Walking Dead (Sorry TWD fans! Don’t hate me!), but it got to the point where it went on for a long enough time, that I didn’t think they would be having conversations about what they were going to do in situations very similar to ones they’d already been through. They would, at that point, have killed people and asked questions later. Keep in mind I thought the show was brilliant… until it wasn’t.

Not to say I’m some genius writer or that they could have done better. What they were doing was really hard, keeping people engaged and interested in a world that had gone on for quite a stretch. Worlds have their limitations, and you must be careful how close you get to those boundaries before you lose people off the cliffs you’ve created.

What was hard about writing Truncated: Born Against was navigating those land mines, where you are just doing the same thing, but in a different way, or trying to put a spin on what someone else has already done. I think I cut at least fifteen-thousand words from the original draft. It took me several months longer to finish than the other books, and quite frankly, I never felt like I actually believed in what I was doing. It was a grind. One that I am now very thankful for.

At the end of the day, I am pleased with the outcome.

And what is interesting is that it’s my mom’s favorite of the three. I am looking forward to hearing from the people who read the first two books and are going to give me another shot with the third. I am truly grateful for them taking a chance on me and my books that I did not think anyone would read. Maybe I am more pleased to know there’s people out there that are just as mixed up as me. Nice to meet you.

And hey! At the end of the day, my mom loved it! So, I got that going for me.