He acknowledges it sounds a bit, well, out there.īut, he explains, with the development of material called carbon 60, or “Buckyballs,” a light, high-strength material that he says will become the steel of the 21st century, it is a real possibility. Standing at the lectern in his sophomore level American history class on a recent Thursday, Forstchen starts talking about “Pillar,” which centers around the concept of a space elevator. Teaching inspires him, keeps him young, makes him think more deeply than anything else. Walking between Montreat’s quaint stone buildings, Forstchen, wearing a cashmere Mongolian jacket, says if he had to choose between teaching and writing, it’d be an easy choice. He’s also clearly passionate about his writing, teaching, American history and space exploration, the subject of “Pillar to the Sky.” And don’t get him started on Mongolian history. Society quickly dissolves into chaos, an admittedly “dystopic” glimpse at the future, Forstchen says. The 2009 book, a New York Times bestseller, follows a Black Mountain family as they struggle to survive after a high-altitude nuclear strike creates an electro-magnetic pulse, or EMP, disabling the American power grid and nearly all electronics. She was 12 when he started writing “One Second After” and 16 when it was published, the same ages of the daughters of the book’s main character. First and foremost, Forstchen is passionate about his daughter, Meghan, a pre-med student at UNC Chapel Hill.
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