In the real world, Texas remains very much a part of the United States.

But in the world of fiction, several authors have released books in the past year depicting the Lone Star State as a breakaway republic rebelling against shenanigans in Washington.

It's the start of a literary subgenre: secessionist fantasy.

"The Secession of Texas" by Darrell Maloney of San Antonio envisions an independent Texas with its own border patrol, guarding against people trying to sneak into the country illegally—from Oklahoma.

"Lone Star Daybreak" by Erik L. Larson of Houston tells the story of recruits in the Texas Defense Force, a militia that protects the separatist state from Yankee armies. "Yellow Rose of Texas" by Dennis Snyder describes a U.S. saddled with $22 trillion in debt, a defanged military and a leftist president who promises to remove religion from public life, prompting an armed and economically vibrant Texas to declare that it has had enough.