ASHEN WINTER is the sequel to ASHFALL and is the second in a planned trilogy. Quite often, I have problems with the middle book in a trilogy. Usually, it serves primarily as just a bridge to get the reader from the beginning of the story to the final climax. In other words, it is usually the weakest book of the set.

If that holds true to this trilogy, the final book is going to have to be one of the best post-disaster books ever set to print! I say that because there is absolutely no sophomore slump here. ASHEN WINTER exceeded all of my expectations. Regular readers here know how much I dearly loved ASHFALL. It remains one of my all-time favorite disaster books.

As I go forward with my review of ASHEN WINTER, I guess a few spoilers for those not familiar with how ASHFALL ended are going to be inevitable. If this is a concern of yours, I’d suggest you not go forward with reading this review and instead get a copy of ASHFALL and read it first, then come on back. You have some time to do so as ASHEN WINTER won’t be available for purchase until mid-October. The publisher, Tanglewood Press, was kind enough to send me an advance copy for review.

Ok, so with all that out of the way, on to the awesomeness that is ASHEN WINTER. Our heroes, Alex and Darla, along with Alex’s sister, have been staying at Uncle Paul’s farm. Darla has been hard at work cobbling together contraptions to help ease the workload for everyone while the family tries to eke out something of a life. Alex’s parents still have not returned, having set out weeks prior to look for Alex. The love between Darla and Alex has deepened considerably and they’ve begun talking about their future.

The farm is attacked by a small group of raiders and in the aftermath, Alex discovers a clue to where his parents may be. He determines it is time to hit the road and find them. Darla insists on coming along, which is as it should be given their relationship as well as their history together. Soon after setting out though, disaster strikes and they are separated. The majority of the book covers the attempts Alex makes to find and rescue Darla, as well as his parents.

Throughout the story, we find there are large numbers of people who have turned to “flensing” to survive. Simply put, these are cannibals who prey upon living people. Gangs of flensers have set up camps and are trading with each other. We also learn how, in this new world ravaged by an unending winter, people who have seeds and the means to grow them are truly among the most wealthy. A couple hundred kale seeds are valuable enough to purchase enough supplies to outfit an entire expedition. Given how rampant scurvy has become, due to the lack of fresh greens, this does make sense.

There is a lot that happens in this book and it all takes place in a rather short period of time. The story moves along quickly and it isn’t until the last page has been turned that the reader may realize just how little “story time” has taken place. Alex is almost constantly on the move, working toward the next goal, the next step, the next leg of his journey.

As in ASHFALL, the characters here are believable and have realistic motivations for their actions. Few characters are merely cardboard cutouts or stage dressing. It is obvious the author took time to flesh them out, if only during the background phase of writing, so as we are introduced (or re-introduced in some cases) to them, they come across as real people.

Among the new faces introduced are Alyssa and Ben. Rescued from a camp, Alyssa is about Alex’s age and has been through Hell at the hands of her captors. Ben is her older brother, an autistic genius. Alyssa’s actions and dialogue in particular ring very true, given what she’s experienced since Yellowstone blew. At once both confident and vulnerable, there are times the reader may despise what she says or does, but at the same time the reader should see the reasons behind her actions.

I only have two complaints about ASHEN WINTER.

1) Darla is a wonderful character and I wish there had been more of her in the book.

2) Now I have to wait Lord knows how long until the final book in the trilogy comes out!

While the book won’t be out in the stores until October, you can preorder ASHEN WINTER from Amazon here. I couldn’t possibly recommend this book highly enough.

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1) I didn’t want to start a brand new blog just for a few posts about writing. I own this site already so figured I’d take advantage of the space available to me.

2) A fair number of my regular readers are working on their own books or magazine articles and the information I hope to impart here may be of some use to them.

3) I’ve been fortunate in my writing career to have many close friends who have made most of the common mistakes and have shared their wisdom and guidance with me in hopes of me avoiding those same pitfalls. This is my way of paying it forward.

On a fairly regular basis, I see posts on message boards or entries on blogs written by relatively new writers who have been burned by shady publishers. When I say “new,” I don’t mean they’ve just started putting words down on a screen or in a notebook. Rather, I’m referring to these folks who are just starting out with trying to get their writing published. They may have been writing for years but have finally decided to make a go of getting their words in print somewhere, hopefully garnering them a nickel or two for their trouble.

When starting out with submitting material to publishers, one normally expects many more rejections than acceptances. These rejections don’t always mean the writer isn’t “good” enough. Often, it is a case of the submitted story or article not being a good fit for the publication, the publisher not having room in the schedule for it, or something else along those lines. Of course, sometimes it IS the writing that causes the rejection. Hopefully, the writer takes the time to learn something from every rejection letter, improves their craft, and keeps submitting quality material. The point to be taken here is that it is totally and completely normal to have stories and articles rejected.

On occasion though, the writer is contacted by a publisher, usually as the result of a submission but occasionally it seems to come out of the blue. The publisher thinks the writing is great and wants to put it in an anthology or some other project. Sadly, the publisher isn’t in a position to pay for the material (or if they are, it is nothing more than a pittance) but the writer is encouraged to purchase a goodly number of the books at a discount to sell to family and friends. The writer, stars in their eyes at the prospect of finally seeing their name in print, gives the go ahead on whatever the publisher wants to do.

That’s when things sometimes get ugly.

The publisher might never actually get around to putting out the book or magazine. During the months or years the writer waits, that article or story is locked up and cannot be sold elsewhere, potentially costing the writer money.

The publisher might finally publish the story or article, but has edited it to the point it is unrecognizable to the writer. They’ve added sentences or even complete paragraphs. They’ve cut some characters out of the story completely while adding others. The writer is disappointed (at best) that the story they worked so hard to produce has been rendered a piece of garbage.

The publisher might put out the story without many if any changes, but never seems to get around to sending out the token payment that may have been promised. Sadly, more people have bad luck trying to collect $10 than they do trying to collect $100. In other words, a publisher who is willing to pay $100 for an article is much more likely to actually send out the check than the one who promises a ten spot.

The good news is, much of this unpleasantness can be avoided by taking your time and actually researching your potential publisher. This should be done prior to signing any sort of contract, ideally before even submitting to a potential market.

Let your fingers do the walking and hit Google or another major search engine. Search the name of the publication and “complaints.” Do the same with the name of the editor. Check to see what else the publisher has put out in the last couple years. Do they look like professionally edited projects? When checking out the editor, see if they are pretty much the only employee of the publication. If that’s the case, see what else they have written and had published. If their only publishing credits are for projects they themselves edited and self-pubbed, that’s a red flag right there.

Ask around on your various social networking sites. Has anyone you know worked with them before? Have they even heard of them before?

How long has the publisher been in business? If they’ve been around less than a couple years, tread carefully. Like restaurants, many publishers don’t stand the test of time and fold fairly soon. Those that survive do so because they (generally) know what the Hell they are doing and are good at their jobs.

The take away from this blog post is this — do your homework BEFORE signing away the rights to your story or article. You can bitch and complain all you want after you get stiffed or screwed over but most of the time, that isn’t going to really help your situation.

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If you have a product related to self-defense or security and would be interested in having your product featured in the book, I’m seeking samples for review and illustration purposes. I’m looking for everything from blades and other defense weapons to pepper sprays, alarm systems, CCTV products, and body armor. Basically, if it relates at all to home security or defense, I’d like to hear about it.

Those who are interested in learning more, please email me — Jim@SurvivalWeekly.com — and we’ll discuss the details.

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I picked this book up when it was published back in 1999 and have reread it several times over the years. HUNTER is both entertaining and informative as, if the reader is paying attention, he will learn a fair amount about tracking, herbal remedies, and other woodcraft.

Nathaniel Hunter is a tracker, one of the best in the world. When he isn’t assisting authorities in locating lost hikers, he frequently is hired to find specimens almost legendary animals around the world. Hunter has spent his entire life living in wilderness areas all over the globe and is an expert in wilderness survival.

The U.S. military hires him to track down a beast that has decimated one of their research stations. A beast they cannot identify and appears to not only be incredibly strong and vicious, but seems to have human intelligence. Hunter is partnered with a mercenary team and given a single objective — find it and take it down.

Huggins is a movie writer and it shows. The story is full of beautiful scenery and engaging dialogue. The characters, while larger than life, are interesting and compelling. The science and woodcraft elements are well researched. Without ever sounding out of place, Hunter frequently gives little mini-lessons on how to live in the wild as well as a ton of great information about tracking. These lessons never come across as being forced out by the author but instead are a natural occurrence within the story.

Periodically throughout the story, we are given the creature’s point of view. This not only serves to slow the breakneck pace of the book here and there but also gives us considerable back story. We learn where it came from and where it is heading.

There are story twists here and there and toward the end of the book, the action keeps going well beyond the expected conclusion. While this certainly isn’t an “end of the world” story, I really enjoyed it and recommend it heartily.

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Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, on to the review. ASHFALL is quite simply one of the best books I’ve read this year. I find it difficult to believe this is Mullin’s first novel. It is exceptionally well-written, with none of the issues often seen in a first novel, such as head hopping among characters or inexplicable bouncing between plot points. The characters are flesh and blood and it doesn’t take long at all for the reader to begin to care what happens to them.

Alex is fifteen years old and lives with his family in Iowa. After another all too typical battle of wills between teenage son and frustrated mother (any parent of a teen will truly relate), he’s left home alone while his parents and sister go visit relatives 100 miles away in Illinois. He isn’t able to take much advantage of this “vacation” though as his house is destroyed by debris falling from the sky. Taking refuge with his neighbors, he soon learns a volcano under Yellowstone National Forest has exploded, 900 miles away. Tremendous amounts of ash has been jetted into the sky, where it gently falls like snow for days on end. The weather has become unpredictable aside from the days being cold and the nights colder.

Soon, Alex resolves to travel to his uncle’s farm, where his family had gone. He packs what little supplies he can scrounge and sets out on foot. Alex soon learns life on the road isn’t anything like he could have imagined. What people are left are starving and desperate. Without revealing spoilers, let’s just say Alex has his work cut out for him just to survive day to day on his journey.

Along the way, he meets Darla, a farm girl a couple years his senior. She seems to embody many of the things Alex wishes he were — confident, courageous, and possessing of great survival skills. Alex is a black belt in taekwondo and he does use those skills to his advantage several times. He also shows much more bravery than perhaps he’d have given himself credit for in his previous life.

Together, Alex knows he and Darla can survive anything, but that conviction is truly put to the test time and again.

One of the things I truly loved about this book is the realism. It is quite apparent Mullin did his homework, both with understanding what could happen if/when Yellowstone blows but also how folks interact after a disaster of that magnitude. Sure, there will be tons of people taking advantage of a world without the rule of law but scattered here and there are people trying to make the best out of a bad situation.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. It is truly a wonderful read that kept me up at night, turning pages and wishing I didn’t have to work the next morning. Highly recommended. You can find it on Amazon here.

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The author very kindly sent me a review copy of this book at my request several weeks ago. I do need to apologize for how long it has taken to get around to finishing the book and doing the review. Sadly, I am woefully behind on reviews but am working feverishly to get caught up.

Overall, I enjoyed The Jakarta Pandemic. I felt it was a pretty realistic portrayal of a family’s experience during such a crisis. But, with that said, there are some flaws I need to note later in the review.

Alex Fletcher is an Iraqi war veteran who now works as a rep for a major pharmaceutical company. As the book begins, Alex is aware of growing flu outbreaks in several areas of the world. His employer, Biosphere, manufactures one of the leading vaccines that proves to be able to fight this illness. Alex has taken several measures to ensure the safety and well being of his family in the event of a disaster. They have extensive supplies set aside, such as weeks of food and water as well as several firearms. Alex and his wife, as well as their two children, live in a nice home in a well-to-do subdivision in Maine. True to life, they have neighbors they like and neighbors they don’t.

Early into the story, the flu begins to rage out of control in several areas of the country. Biosphere informs all of their reps to return all sample cases of the vaccine to the company for redistribution to government agencies. Alex decides to instead hand over his samples to a physician, hoping the medicine will be used to help folks in immediate need. He reserves several courses of medication for his family and close friends. Soon after this, he puts his family in “lock down” mode at home. Except in rare circumstance, they stay within the home at all times, subsisting on the extensive food stores they have.

Interestingly enough, the power as well as the Internet and cable TV rarely even flicker throughout the book. They are able to gain a lot of information on world events through websites and news broadcasts.

As the pandemic makes its way to and through Maine, several of the subdivision neighbors suffer the effects. A few perish from the illness. Alex and a couple of his close friends in the neighborhood do what they can to help the other residents. However, despite their best efforts, there are those within the neighborhood who believe perhaps they’d all be better served if Alex were to open his supply storage to everyone. A couple of these neighbors attempt to persuade Alex to share and share alike, which isn’t taken too well by the Fletchers.

As things go from bad to worse in the larger cities around them, the neighborhood finds itself being scouted by fleeing city dwellers and eventually a few of those folks take up residence in some of the now empty homes. One group in particular becomes quite a problem for everyone and after a short time, violence visits the neighborhood.

I found the book very slow at the start, putting it down several times as my interest waned. I felt Konkoly had a great story, if he’d just get around to it. But, by the same token, life itself during a pandemic if you’re holed up in your home will probably be rather boring so perhaps that was sort of the point?

Alex, his family, and his friends make mistakes along the way. I didn’t have a problem with that though as I felt it lent a level of realism to the story. People aren’t perfect and even those of us who have been “prepping” for years are going to miss things and make errors.

I feel the book would have been well served to have a thorough line edit done before publication. Countless times in the book, the verb tense changed mid-scene. While this is easily overlooked once you get used to it, I found it very jarring.

I did enjoy much of the dialogue in the book. I loved the bantering between Alex and his wife, as well as between a few of their friends in the neighborhood. I also felt several of the scenes came across as very realistic, both in actions and in motivations. Alex, in spite of his military experience and background, is very reluctant to get into physical altercations, even when perhaps he had every right to do so.

All in all, it is certainly worth the read. I’d readily recommend it to preppers looking for a non-zombie pandemic book. Pick it up on Amazon here.

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Flash forward several months and Doomsday Preppers premiers on NatGeo. They are a couple episodes in at this point. Last night, my wife and I sat down to watch the first episode via our cable provider’s On Demand feature. Because watching the show in this way excludes commercials, the actual running time was about 48 minutes or so. It took us well over an hour to get through it because both of us kept pausing the show to rant about this or that statement made by one of the preppers on the show.

Overall, color me seriously underwhelmed by the show. There are so many things they could have done with this show to make it truly worth the watch. But, as I would have predicted, they concentrated on the goofiest whack jobs they could find. Or at least portrayed them that way.

First up, we have the Range couple who live in a home built out of several shipping containers. They have about 50,000 lbs of food set aside, enough such that they feel they can feed their group of 22 or so people for fifteen years. According to the show, their primary concern is a pole shift, which they feel would cause major earthquakes and other disasters, resulting in a total societal collapse. They stressed this earthquake angle several times during their segment.

Ok, so they’re worried about major quakes. Yet throughout their food storage are hundreds of GLASS JARS sitting precariously on makeshift shelves. No straps or other securing devices were evident. Earth shakes –> glass jars hit the floor –> there goes your 50,000 lbs of food storage.

Further to that, I personally don’t ever want to live quite that, well, white trash looking. While I’m all for prepping, I believe there is a balance to be met where you live your life in a modicum of comfort and enjoyment while still working towards being prepared for disasters. They appear to love their lifestyle, more power to them. I just don’t think living in a shipping container is going to everyone’s cup of tea. I have to wonder how many people watched the show because they were interested in learning more about prepping, saw this ramshackle structure, and had thoughts like, If THIS is what prepping is all about, count me OUT!

They also have a bug out plan whereby they will use converted school buses to move their people and supplies to a secondary location, something like 12 hours from their home/retreat. It is always a good idea to have backup plans, so no argument there. But, they showed them doing an evacuation drill with the goal of moving a fair amount of their supplies into the buses and hitting the road in an hour. I just can’t wrap my head around what they figure could happen that would be bad enough to cause them to abandon their home, yet would still give them a solid hour to get ready to go?

Next up we have Christopher Nyegres. He has learned extensive skills in living off the land in his home area of Los Angeles County. His “pet apocalypse” is a major quake hitting California. His plan, as described on the show, is to live a nomadic lifestyle, subsisting on what he can hunt and forage. He has his survival bag with the usual assortment of gear and that’s about it. Kudos to him for learning these skills. But I shudder to think what chemicals he’s ingesting by eating the weeds growing alongside freeways and such in Los Angeles.

Also, if your main fear is a major quake hitting California, wouldn’t the most prudent thing to do be moving away from California? I understand, there are threats no matter where you go. I totally get that. But, let’s say my biggest fear was that I am convinced an asteroid is going to hit Dallas, Texas, sometime in the next five years. I’ve done the math and somehow I am utterly convinced this is going to happen. Would it seem wise for me to live in Dallas then? Seems to me the intelligent thing for me to do is move as far away from Dallas as I could, as soon as possible.

Oh, and he plans to use some stone arrowheads for trading to the homeless people he meets after the quake. I’d love to see how that pans out for him.

Finally, we have Megan Hurwitt. Her, my wife and I both wanted to slap. Her attitude, her mindset, just everything about her was exceptionally aggravating. They stated during her segment that she “works out” four hours a day, six days a week. Ok look, I’m not exactly in Olympic competition shape myself but there is no way this young woman worked out that much, unless she had just started that workout schedule a week before the show was taped.

Her main fear is an oil crash. That a Middle Eastern country would cut the US off or something and riots and other unpleasantness would result. Her plan, such as it is, is to hole up in her tiny apartment for a few weeks, then bug out on foot to a vehicle she has stashed somewhere about 6 hours walk from her apartment. (By the way, she had planned on that walk taking three hours but once she actually gave it a shot, found it took her double that amount of time.) There, she’ll take the car to Mexico.

She’s assuming:

1) She’d have anywhere near enough supplies to live, undetected, in her apartment for several weeks.

2) That she’d survive her trek from her apartment to her car, admittedly going through some pretty rough parts of the city.

3) That her car would still be at the hidden location, undamaged and ready to go.

4) That Mexico would somehow be anywhere near an ideal place to go.

The follow up portion of her segment mentions that Megan has recently enlisted in the military. One would hope they are somehow able to pound into her head some degree of common sense and reality. What she managed to show on her segment was nothing short of planning to fail.

In hopes of avoiding a heart attack brought on by a rapid increase in blood pressure, I’ll probably avoid watching future segments of Doomsday Preppers. I had high hopes for this show and was sorely disappointed.

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At the end of the contest, I’ll pick two winners at random from all qualifying entries. I’ll present each winner with a list of books available and they will have their choice of two books from the list. I may just toss into the packages a few odds and ends I’ve picked up over the years as well.

The entry period runs from today, February 10, through next Friday, February 17.

Here’s how to enter:

1) If you are a friend of ours on Facebook, you automatically get one entry.

2) Every time you “like” a post of ours on Facebook during the entry period, you get an additional entry.

3) Every time you “share” a post of ours on Facebook during the entry period, you get an additional entry.

4) Every time you post a comment on a post of ours on Facebook during the entry period, you get an additional entry.

5) Bonus — if you purchase something from one of the advertisers found on SurvivalWeekly.com, you get five additional entries. Just email me — Jim@SurvivalWeekly.com — and let me know who you purchased from and the name on the order so I can verify it really happened.

I’ll pick the winners after the entry period ends and post them on Monday, February 20. Any questions, give me a shout.

Good luck!

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For several years, the “go to” medical handbooks for survivalists have been Where There Is No Doctor and The Special Forces Medical Handbook. Both are great resources and deserve spots on your bookshelf. But, I’m here to tell you there’s a new medical book in town and it blows both of those texts out of the water.

Joseph Alton, M.D., and his wife Amy Alton, A.R.N.P, are known by preppers the world over as Doctor Bones and Nurse Amy. They have written if not the first certainly the best medical guide specifically for preppers. Clocking in at a hair over four hundred pages, it is absolutely jam-packed with vital information. Here is just a short list of some of the topics addressed:

–Appendicitis
–Athlete’s foot
–Hypothermia
–Radiation sickness
–Suturing
–Animal bites
–Head injuries
–Diabetes
–High blood pressure
–Seizure disorders

One of the areas where this book really shines is they discuss herbal remedies and essential oils as part of the overall care of patients. Recognizing the slim likelihood a prepper will have access to a full pharmacy after a major societal collapse, advice is given as to how best treat the various injuries and illnesses without restricting that care to pharmaceuticals.

They also present the reader with extensive lists of medical supplies to be stocked up in advance of a collapse. Additionally, they recognize the fact that a single volume of medical advice will not suffice in a large, prolonged disaster. That being the case, they present a wonderful discussion of the skills a future “medical officer” in a retreat group should go to great lengths to learn in depth.

While the use of complicated medical terminology is unavoidable in a book like this, the authors make great efforts to ensure the topics are easily understood by the layperson.

Overall, I would say this book deserves inclusion in any “top ten” list of books important to the prepper and survivalist. You can find it here on Amazon.

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It was in about 1983 or so when I first discovered Christopher’s books. An English teacher had a stack of old Boy’s Life magazines at the back the room and one day I was leafing through them. At the back of the magazine, they were running a serialized comic strip from The White Mountains, the first book in the Tripods trilogy.

I was absolutely riveted by this story of three young men traveling through a future Earth, one that had been taken over by the mysterious Tripods. I quickly found all the issues of Boy’s Life that had this storyline and put them in order, devouring them all in a day or two. I found out this was only the first segment and the magazine had gone on to do the same thing with The City of Gold and Lead as well as The Pool of Fire. I was particularly fascinated by the depictions of the ruins of our world the characters came across in their travels.

Visiting the school library, I found they didn’t have a copy of The White Mountains available but the librarian, Mrs. Mayer, located in the stacks a copy of Empty World.

After reading this story about a young man traveling through a Great Britain ravaged by a plague, my own fate as a reader was sealed. I found I was enthralled with any stories involving the end of the world. It wasn’t too much later that I discovered Jerry Ahern’s The Survivalist series as well as Dr. Bruce Clayton’s Life After Doomsday.

I’ve read several of John Christopher’s novels over the years. Some, like No Blade of Grass (a.k.a. The Death of Grass) are written for the grown up crowd. Others, like The Sword of the Spirits trilogy, were written for young adults. There is not a dud in the bunch. Christopher was remarkably adept at weaving stories that kept you interested and at creating characters about whom you cared, who seemed real to the reader.

I had the incredibly good fortune to have a conversation or two with him via email a few years back. At that time, his health had already begun to deteriorate and I learned he wasn’t writing much any more because of it. I asked if he’d be willing to sign a book through the mail for me and he declined, saying traveling to and from the post office was difficult. He did however mail me a signed bookplate for my copy of Empty World, something I shall always consider one of my most treasured possessions.

Rest in peace, my friend. You had a great run and your work shall always live on.

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