Scheduled to be released by Ulysses Press in Februrary 2014 is what will be my third book, PREPPER’S LONG-TERM SURVIVAL GUIDE. While we’re still in the process of wrapping things up with the manuscript, I thought I’d give y’all a sneak peek at the Introduction.

You can’t swing a dead cat in a bookstore nowadays without hitting a survival manual of some sort. From bug out bags to food pantry organization, prepping in many forms fills the shelves. Click over to your favorite online bookseller and you’ll find ebook after ebook extolling the virtues of having extra batteries for flashlights and making sure you have the latest and greatest water filtration system, just in case.

It wasn’t always like that, though. Back when I was a kid, at the height of the Cold War, just about the only survival books you could find were centered on wilderness skills. How to make a debris hut and get a fire going until you were rescued. While I devoured those books and had great fun “going native” in the woods near my home, it wasn’t until a fateful purchase of my father’s that I truly got the prepping bug.

I’d always been a voracious reader, even as a young child. Science fiction, horror, and action/adventure were my genres of choice. One day, my dad was at the mall and stopped in a B. Dalton bookstore. A display of paperbacks caught his eye and he thought I might be interested in reading at least the first book in this new series called THE SURVIVALIST by Jerry Ahern. I started in on it within mere minutes of when he handed it to me and…I…was…riveted! Nuclear missiles raining down on America! Gunfights with nasty bikers! And, oh man, what was the deal with this secret retreat hidden inside a freakin’ mountain?

It wasn’t long after that when I happened to stumble across a copy of LIFE AFTER DOOMSDAY by Dr. Bruce D. Clayton. Here was the perfect complement to the fiction I’d been reading. Detailed instructions on how to be prepared to survive a nuclear war, just like John Thomas Rourke in Ahern’s novels. This book truly sealed my fate, as it were, to become what we call today a “prepper.”

I studied, and then put my studies to use. I built an obscene number of survival kits of various shapes, sizes, and configurations. I learned to how to shoot, how to purify water, how to stockpile food and supplies.

As prepping became more mainstream, naturally all sorts of writers jumped on the proverbial bandwagon. Many of these new books were and still are excellent references, such as BUILD THE PERFECT SURVIVAL KIT by John D. McCann and THE UNOFFICIAL HUNGER GAMES WILDERNESS SURVIVAL GUIDE by Creek Stewart. There are quite a few, too, that are, shall we say, less than ideal.

Time and again, the books and manuals tell the reader exactly what to do until power is restored, until help arrives in some form, or until you find your way back to civilization after being lost.

But, what if the lights never come back on? What if there is no help coming…ever? This is something that has always been lacking in survival non-fiction.

Until now.

What you hold in your hands is the key to surviving weeks, months, even years after the initial disaster. If building a bug out bag is Prepping 101, consider this Prepping 401. We’ll go well beyond bugging out and instead focus on becoming self-sufficient in the wake of a major calamity. Of course, much of the information here is just as applicable today, while times are whatever passes for normal, as they are after an EMP takes out the grid from coast to coast.

If you are brand new to prepping, this might not be the book for you. If you are only interested in being better prepared for a power outage that lasts a couple days, you may want to look elsewhere on the bookshelf.

However…

If you are forward thinking enough to realize a couple blankets and a granola bar in the trunk of your car might not be enough to last a six month pandemic, keep reading.

If you are truly concerned about how you would keep your family alive and safe after society has collapsed around your ears, this book is just what you’re seeking.

If you are willing to put in not a small amount of sincere effort into making preparations to withstand the long-term effects of the New Madrid fault slipping in a major way, you have come to the right place.

Now, take a deep breath as we enter the proverbial rabbit hole. Don’t be afraid, I’ll be right here, every step of the way.