When I first started writing the story that became USA2020: The Ultimate Crisis in November of 2011, I had no idea what it might become. My friend Jory Post told me about November being “National Novel Writing Month, (NaNoWritMo)” when people around the country try to write 50,000 words in a month. I thought it was a crazy concept. But I had many ideas bouncing around in my head and didn’t know what to do with them, so I decided to try it!

Writing a novel is something I hear people describe as a “bucket list item”, but it was never on my list. I can honestly say I‘m still astounded I did it. But I’m very glad, and very proud of the completed work. Some of it is the small stuff—I really love the cover, and I like the format of the interior layout. These are minor details, but important! But mostly I’m pleased because USA2020 captures some of my main ideas about the trajectory of our country: my worries about the evolution of our society, my fears that the crisis is coming and we won’t make necessary changes in time, and my hope that we will somehow find our way to a good outcome.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand was the inspiration for the format of the novel. I really like how she used an exciting story as a vehicle to describe and share her vision for society. I think about USA2020 as a liberal Atlas Shrugged, the same type of story but from the opposite philosophical perspective. I’m not a great novelist, and have no illusions that the quality of the writing comes close to Rand’s. But I feel like it’s realistically the best I could have done, and I’m proud of the story and how it communicates the themes I was trying to share.

The most important idea in my view is the description of the policies I think the U.S. should adopt to put the country on a better trajectory and address our most pressing issues: income and wealth inequality, education, and military spending. As more time passes and I watch the impact of inequality play out across the country, I’m thinking even more about some of the metaphors I used in the book like “the Caymans and Colombia” that show the vast discrepancies emerging in our society. In the last few months I’ve been part of multiple conversations where people have suggested that a key step to motivate wealthy and successful people to engage in improving public education would be to ban private schools, which is an important theme in USA2020. And as I hear the occasional words from Fox News, conservative political commentators, and even Republican political candidates, I hear echoes of my character Cullen Crosby and his radio show.

So if you’re interested in getting a glimpse of what I see as “the ultimate crisis” heading towards us in the years ahead and what it might look like if someone came on the scene to save us, I invite you to join Curt Hollin in his criminal investigation and to follow the rise of Michael Tanner as he tries to avert the crisis before it comes. I don’t know if USA2020 is the kind of novel that could start a broader conversation about the issues we’re facing as a country and the potential paths forward, but if it could lead to even a very small step in this direction I would consider it a great success.

Enjoy!