First Nations

by Jeff Lilly

Mere America is an alternate history of a mirror-reversed America, in which the California redwoods march down the east coast, and the Pacific breakers pound Manhattan Island. From the original Viking incursion in British Columbia to the technocrats of the 20th-century Iroquois, from the victory of the Confederacy (built on slavery and gold) to President Martin Luther King of the Free States of America, "Mere America" follows the grand sweep of history through the lives of key characters such as Leif Erikson, Virginia Dare, Robert E. Lee, Bright Path (Jim Thorpe), and Ronald Reagan.

Part One, "First Nations", concerns the first clashes between Europeans and the 'Namgis, the Cherokee, the Muwekma, and the Mohawk. This is the 2nd Edition, which is extended, revised and updated, with an all-new prologue.

97 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 7, 2011

About the author

Jeff Lilly is an author with a passion for crafting deep, immersive worlds and societies. From speculative fiction to the fantastical, his work explores the complexities of human experience through evocative storytelling and compelling characters. At his main fiction and projects blog, Axon Firings, Jeff shares insights into his creative process and the worlds he creates.

In addition to his fiction writing, Jeff is a computational linguist, specializing in machine learning, phonology, socio- and historical linguistics, and lexical semantics. He has a keen interest in the minutiae of the working of the human mind, as well as broader patterns of social change and development. He has published papers on conversational implicature, dialect analysis, lexical semantics, and syntactic universals.

Outside of his professional pursuits, Jeff finds solace and inspiration in spiritual contemplation. Raised Zen Buddhist in the culturally conservative South, he has since embraced Revivalist Druidry, finding connection with nature, spirit, and the world around him. Through his blog, Druid Journal, Jeff explores themes of meditation, relationship with Spirit, creating beauty, and healing the world.

At home in the small harbor town of Edmonds, WA, Jeff enjoys hiking the parks and forests of the Pacific Northwest with his wife Alison. They share their house with four black cats, one immortal frog (at least, immortal so far), and an indeterminate number of western red cedars. (He gets a different number each time he tries counting them.)