I began this project with a thought: "Why aren’t there any science fiction novels set almost exclusively in the American South? The area is rich in culture and scientific innovation." Then I began to think of how a near-future scenario might play out, assuming the worst sorts of projections for global climate change and sea level rises. I very much wanted this to be both a good example of worldbuilding and a plausible exercise in speculative science fiction, where developmental impetus changes to adapt to the new, more hostile world humanity might find itself living in by the 2100s.