Water

Water. It’s the single most important resource necessary to life on this planet. It ranks right there with sunlight as the two things that would mark the planet Earth as a lifeless, barren rock if we didn’t have both.

Water is at once, the softest thing on Earth and yet the same thing that is capable of wearing away the hardest rock. It molds and conforms one day and carves its own course tomorrow. It can soothe the overheated brow or kill.

We use water to subsist, to play, to transport things and people, to grow things and to clean. As a whole, we, as a species, use it with impunity and often with no thought whether it will still be there tomorrow, or next week, or next year. Such is human nature.

This is my new novel, Water. Tap on the book, (pun intended,) and you can visit the Amazon Store and preview Water.

Much like Earth’s Blood, I find myself writing a novel that is becoming news and history at the same time. Many parts of the modern world are rapidly running out of potable water, that is, water of a quality needed for safe human consumption and use.

Here are some jarring examples.

This is a shot of Lake Meade, the reservoir behind Hoover Dam, 15 years ago.

Note the level of the water at the intake towers.

This is a shot of what the same area looks like today. Again, note the water level at the intake towers.

The water is so low now that the city and state authorities in Nevada are quietly and desperately building intakes far below the existing ones to accommodate the drastically lower levels.

Here is an astounding dual satellite shot of Elephant Butte Reservoir in New Mexico, a major source of water in the state, spanning the last 19 years.

Finally, a shot of the disappearing, once mighty Rio Grande.

Photo by Eric Schlegel of the Texas Tribune

Colin McDonald and Eric Schlegel are doing a series on the disappearing Rio Grande River. Tap on the photo to follow their journey.

Great rivers meander when they lose two things, flow and volume. As you can see, the Rio Grande is now a meandering string which no longer reaches the Gulf where it once flowed to its journey’s end.

These are just three examples among countless others I have researched while writing Water, my latest work in progress. It occurred to me to ask what would happen if entire communities and cities would one day turn on their faucets to find nothing there. How would the modern human race survive without readily available potable water? Would they survive or would they risk extinction? How would people react to no water?

I guess you’ll have to read Water to find out what my take is on a world without it. You can preview Water here. It’s available for pre-order through Amazon in anticipation of release within the next thirty days.

Pick up your absolutely free copy of Shorts and Other Laundry. It’s a ‘best of’ collection of short stories from the somewhat twisted mind of author Ethan Holmes. It’s available on all ereader devices including Amazon and Smashwords.

Ethan Holmes is also the author of Earth’s Blood, The Keystone, Live Your Life in a Crap Free Zone and a Multi-Pack of Brain Flakes.