Category Archives: Fiction

A free book? Why?

As the years 2016 to 2020 unfolded, I found myself preoccupied with a particular aspect of human history: that even the greatest empires, dynasties, governments and nations have each eventually ended and been replaced by…something else.  The ongoing self-segregation of Americans along various lines – urban/rural, elites/masses, investors/workers, digital/analog, etc – suggested our own nation’s end might come sooner than later, and not through some external conquest, virulent plague or invasion of space aliens, but our simple failure to appreciate the myriad benefits of remaining ‘United.’ 

Starting in 2021, those thoughts began to coalesce into a speculative fiction, structured as a tale of murder and conspiracy happening a decade or so in our future in one of many new sovereignties sprung up among the remains of the U. S. of A. The novel toys with other themes as well – of language and gender, identity, guilt and even the origins of faith and belief – but speaks loudest in its depiction of just how much we all stand to lose if we remain divided into factions which each act only for their own needs and interests.  

Writing the book took many months and once it seemed ready, the publishing industry proved impenetrable, even as the politics of disorder and division grew stronger.  By the end of 2025 it had become clear I must find another pathway to the public and so I offered the first installment in a post which can be reached via the following link:

That and all subsequent installments may also be accessed via the ‘E Unum Pluribus’ buttons in the top menu or the right-side Categories list of this website’s home page.

Maybe the novel will find an audience this way, maybe not, but regardless, if you believe in the message that we Americans must overcome our divisions and preserve the USA as a government of all the people, by all the people and for all the people – or if you simply support authors being heard without reliance upon the gatekeepers of corporate commercial publishing – please share this post and the above link as widely as possible.

Sincerely hoping the world of E Unum Pluribus turns out to have been a naïve exaggeration, and wishing this great nation the good fortune of avoiding it, I thank you,

Robin Andrew

E Unum Pluribus

Wondering where our nation’s increasingly divisive politics may lead us? E Unum Pluribus is a new novel which explores one very real possibility:

Amid feudal chaos following the USA’s collapse, one city-state seems promising, until an amateur’s murder investigation exposes its weaknesses and the conspiracies threatening to destroy it.

In order to receive community input, I’m serializing a Beta Test draft of E Unum Pluribus free of charge. (So I can track interest, the final installment may be posted only to subscribers, but even that subscription will be totally free of charge or obligation.) A .pdf of Installment One is included below and may also be downloaded for a more comfortable reading experience. Either way, you get to explore this new novel at absolutely no expense!


Succeeding installments are available at robinandrew.net by selecting the ‘E Unum Pluribus’ button in the home page’s top-menu.

In addition to posting the manuscript, I will be sharing thoughts about the novel’s themes and objectives in future posts on both this website and on Substack at nobodysays2025.substack.com

If you find E Unum Pluribus of interest – or if you simply support the concept of authors sharing their work without reliance upon commercial publishing corporations – please share this post as widely as possible.

Have a wonderful 2026!

Robin Andrew

Playa

Blurb for the novel Playa 

A dreadlocked waif and a lover old enough to be her grandfather conspire beneath the lights of a Caribbean beach bar. Will the young stranger they’ve just glimpsed be the key to his salvation, or the end to all her hard-won happiness?

Thousands of miles away, Steve Sears buries his nose in paperback thrillers to escape a life that is falling apart – his job, his savings and his marriage all heading south together. When he stumbles across Oscar Houk, an aging expatriate with enough energy and optimism for two men – and enough baggage for several more – Steve feels like he’s entered the world of his paperback heroes, full of adventure and intrigue, fast boats and willing women. Before he and Oscar part ways however, the young man will learn the true price of that world, and the value of the quiet life he may have lost forever. At the same time, his wife Sarah will discover what her husband truly values most, what she herself is capable of doing when the times demand it, and the real strength of the commitment they made to each other years ago.

Moving back and forth between the charm of an historic Colorado ski-resort and the romance of the ‘Mexican Riviera’, Playa explores the flip side of a thriller; the choices which real adults must make between adventure and accommodation, freedom and responsibility. Combining characters as deep and real as Michael Cunningham’s with the wry humor you love from Michael Chabon, set against a plot right out of John LeCarre, Playa is the book which readers of literary fiction will buy for themselves – and their best friends – to take to the beach.

Playa -Excerpt