The United States of Erica
announcement (March, 2023)
So it's not about America, but Erica. The geographic position is the same, but the historical turn of events is different. In this novel I tried to imagine what would the world be like if a group of lost colonists of Greenland – led from Iceland by Eric the Red – sailed onto the shores of the Massachusetts tribe and then the Nantucket Island ... half a millennium before Columbus.
The genre is, therefore, alternative history. And as I think the story is complete only if it's concluded in our time (to show how different things would be in the present, not just the past), I need five books to present the entire development of civilization in which five epochs will be presented with key events.
Each of the five novels will have new characters and plots, i.e. each book will be independent. Nevertheless, the complete development of civilization can only be experienced by reading the whole series.
The Founding Saga (Book I, March 2023)
Although the whole series is an alternative history, this first book can be best described as a historical novel. Namely, the events that take place lay the foundations for more serious changes of the global geopolitical situation.
At the very beginning, two boats from the convoy of the first Greenland settlers get lost and drift to the opposite side of the Atlantic. The Icelanders, believing they arrived at the promised land of Eric the Red, call it Erica...
The history of the world will not drastically take a different turn. The story is embedded in real events – primarily three sagas (about Eric the Red, Greenlanders and Olaf Tryggvason) and the situation in America, Europe and the Middle East around the year 1000. The novel is thus a kind of tourist guide through the mentioned regions at the turn of the first millennium.
The most notable historical figures included in the story are: Colonization leader of Greenland, Eric the Red, Olaf Tryggvason, the Norwegian king, Otto III Holy Roman Emperor, Pope Sylvester II, Ethelred, the King of England... The group of my characters who will interact with them are members of different races, religious beliefs and sexual orientations. Find out who will outsmart who and achieve their purpose, laying the foundation for the future in accordance with their dreams, by reading the Founding Saga.
A Clash of Worlds (book II)
... In the sky above Erica, columns of smoke will rise, but they won't be Indian smoke signals. Because communication will be based on what the first expedition saw in Constantinople five centuries earlier...
In the second book of the series, European history at the end of the 15th century has not yet veered from the known path, so there are still Leonardo da Vinci and Columbus, who will play an important role in revealing Erica to the rest of the world...
Books III, IV i V
After A Clash of Worlds, three more books will follow. Their actions will take place around the years 1750, 1900 and 2020. I intend to bring the story to the present day, because I believe that is the task of any good alternative history novel: to show how the contemporary world would look like events if some past events had played out differently.
Namely, civilization will take on a different course from the third book onward and all the protagonists will be fictitious people (often inventors) that will significantly influence the development of global events.
The plot has so far been elaborated in detail.
The planned pace is:
2023. book II
2024. books III - V
