By Jennie Szink, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

The book Sharp and Dangerous Virtues is set in an “agriculturally-rich” area just north of Dayton. The characters include a church custodian running from a murder accusation, two idealistic lovers working to preserve nature, and a family trying to make it in a dying suburb. It all seems so familiar, but it’s not.

In Martha Moody’s fourth book, it’s also the year 2047, and the country is facing a water and food shortage. In response, the government has created an agricultural span known as The Heartland Grid, which is now being threatened by multinational enemy forces. It’s the Dayton everyone knows, but one that is facing unforeseen problems.

Moody, a familiar face on the Dayton literary scene, will discuss Sharp and Dangerous Virtues and her writing process as part of the DJCC’s Cultural Arts and Book Festival program, The Truth About Fiction, on Dec. 6. She’ll host the session with Eileen Pollack, author of Breaking and Entering. Pollack’s new novel takes place in rural Michigan in 1995 and deals with the events of the Oklahoma City bombings and a family’s experience with the militia movement in its own backyard.

Moody said she came up with the idea for Sharp and Dangerous Virtues when she was driving home from Dorothy Lane Market in 1998.

She had a vision that tanks were coming down the street. “I’d been in Yugoslavia during the ’70s, and it would shock me later when I’d see pictures of places I’d been in the country that had turned into war zones. I thought, ‘Why couldn’t this happen here?’”

Moody has worked on Sharp and Dangerous Virtues for years. When she first wrote it and pitched it to her publishers, they turned it down: they said it wasn’t a good fit to follow her other books, intimate novels about friendship and love between modern-day characters. Her 2001 novel, Best Friends, has sold more than 800,000 copies.

She held on to it and continued to write it and rewrite it. During that time, something happened that made the concept seem more relevant.

“This was a dystopian novel and I was over halfway through writing it when 9/11 hit,” Moody said.  “I remember people were so surprised it happened, but the idea that the country could be attacked was unsurprising to me. Why shouldn’t we (America) be a target? The world is that way sometimes.”

Moody also had another motive for writing the book and it wasn’t to gain more fans as an author.

“I wrote it for my four sons,” Moody said. “I called it Sharp and Dangerous Virtues because a lot of Dayton’s history deals with adventurers like the Wright brothers. They were very driven, ambitious, obsessed and sometimes argumentative.

In many ways, the city’s founders were difficult people, but they created great things. It was their virtues — their audacity and skepticism — that changed the world.

“People often think of the Midwest as friendly, tolerant and hardworking,” Moody continued. “Sometimes sharp and dangerous things are what we need.”

Since the book’s release in October, Moody said she’s received good feedback about how the plot gets in people’s heads and certain characters crawl under the skin, such as Lila.

Lila is an aging commissioner of water who no longer holds the power she used to. She thinks the pure way of life in the grid could be her way out of her old, tired life. As Moody was writing the book, Lila was the character that came the easiest to her. It was as if Lila was writing herself. She still haunts Moody.

“I can’t get Lila out of my mind, I have dreams about her,” Moody said. “Something really bothers my husband’s mother about Lila, too. Whether readers like her or don’t, it seems like she’s real.”

Moody described a recurring theme in the feedback she’s received: It makes readers examine the ideas they had of America’s security and of human nature.

“It is a dark book, it’s not a fun read,” Moody said. “A couple people have told me they think of it as a thriller because you don’t know what’s going to happen, and it is worrisome.”

Moody and Pollack will share excerpts from their books, ask each other questions about their writing processes, and lead a conversation about writing.

“Both of our books shed light on political issues,” Moody said. “We’ll speak about what we write about, and how we think fiction can throw light on the real world and express some truth about the real world.”

The Cultural Arts & Book Festival presents The Truth About Fiction, an interactive panel discussion with authors Martha Moody and Eileen Pollack on Thursday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Boonshoft CJCE, 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville. $8 in advance, $10 at the door. R.S.V.P. to Karen Steiger, 853-0372 or go to www.jewishdayton.org.