You've Got Real Problems Now

Let's summarize what's gone from your world; what I've taken away over the past three weeks.

1. Electricity (all power)     

Yep, you no have use of any electric devices. No fridge, no stove, no air conditioning, no furnace, no television, no radio. No nothing! Fun, right?

You may say, "I'll be fine without these modern conveniences." But really, will you? Can't look up anything on the internet anymore. That's gone too. Just another casualty of the Darkness. 

You know all that stuff you saved on some hard drive? All about prepping and survival skills? Sorry, no access. It's all gone, pal.

2. Transportation

No planes, no trains, no automobiles. 

You're on foot, or horse or bike from this point forward. The range you can roam just dwindled from thousands of miles, to maybe twenty. Feeling a little confined, friend?

Anything with a computer is dead. And almost all of our transportation, nowadays, runs on computers. The average car has a number of them somewhere under the hood. Planes don't use hydraulics that much anymore. Most of what is accomplished to get airborne is done with the aid of a computer.

Now some cars, and some smaller planes, will work - for a while. But once we use up the last of our stored fossil fuels, they are done as well. Remember, no electricity to pump them from deep storage tanks. Bet you forgot all about that, didn't you?

3. Communications

No cell phones, no landlines, no pagers, no faxes, no texting...yeah, you get it: no easy communication.

This one really sucks. How am I supposed to know how my mother, some eighty miles away, is doing? Or how my youngest son and his family 1,200 miles away are holding up in the Darkness?

Even more sobering, what if my wife is some thirty miles away when it strikes and can't get home? Will I ever see her again? Will I ever know what happened to her?

Much will be lost when the Darkness arrives. Ease of living, loved ones, the world we know. How will humankind survive such an event? Will we even care how it happened? Or will we all go into survival mode? Some many questions - so few answers.

This is the world of WWIV. Four full novels, and three novellas (when all are finished) - exploring people's reactions and lives at the time of the event, and in the years that follow. If you want to know what caused all of this havoc, maybe you do and maybe you don't, you'll have to wait for the last novella in 2016 - The Truth.

Until then, if you would like to read any of these stories, click on the books below. If you'd like to know when new books are arriving, click here to receive my newsletter.

I'll have more for you next week. Until then, get your loved ones something decent to read for Christmas.

e a lake

(books below are interactive, so go ahead and click on any of them)

                       

You are really gonna miss this!

You're at a restaurant - like maybe right now. If so, look around. What do you see? Almost everyone has their attention focused on that device in their hands...their cellular phone.

A cell phone is primarily meant for communication, right? At least that was its original intent. But nowadays? Entertainment, news, sports...everything. And people have grown real attached to these devices. Very Attached.

Say goodbye to your little friend

When the Darkness arrives, those handheld devices will be useless. No more texting or chatting with friends. No hour long phone calls with mom and dad. No quick goodnight calls to significant others hundreds of miles away. Nothing, gone, kaput. Dead silence...forever.

Think about it for a moment. How, just how, are you going to communicate with others now? Landlines will be just as useless; no fax machines or pagers either. The Post Office is closed - permanently. 

Looks like you are going to get to know your neighbors after all! What were their names again? Lonnie and Melanie...or something like that?

And no Internet to boot

Jeez, this gets worse by the moment, doesn't it? No text messages, or SnapChats (whatever they are), or Instagram (never used it myself). Just word of mouth now. Perhaps some written letters and notes, as well.  But mostly one on one communication from the moment the Darkness arrives.

And what are you going to do? I'm not letting you give up. No, not going to be an easy way out here. Not this time; not ever again. You're stuck in the middle of a world that is so unfamiliar to most. 

Maybe it's time for a good support system. A human support system. Anyone think they need to work on the interpersonal human relationship skills? Maybe before the Darkness arrives?

Yeah, I thought so.

I'll have a wrap-up for you next week. Now that your electricity, and transportation, and communication is all gone to hell you'll pay attention. Maybe you can still survive. Maybe.

e a lake

(books below are interactive, so go ahead and click on any of them)

                       

Oh My, Your Car Doesn't Work? I Warned You!

This week we continue with what your world is going to be like if (or perhaps when) WWIV comes a callin'. Last week we hinted at life without electricity. This week, I take your vehicles away.

Here's your first hint. Jumping won't help. To be exact, it's not even possible. Unless you find someone with an older car (sans computer), and, they had it stored properly.

Whatever happened to cause The Darkness was bad

Real Bad, actually. It seems to have emulated an EMP (electromagnetic pulse). And those aren't good. Here's a link to what it would be like after one of those babies. Scroll down to the part covering "effects". And trust me, if you dig a little deeper, it gets a whole lot scarier.

Suffice it to say that if The Darkness hits the world with the same effects as an EMP, well - we are all in a lot of trouble.

Damn computers, the bane of our existence

It's bad enough your laptops, and desktops, and tablets won't work. But your 2103 Chevy Impala has a computer as well. Several computers actually.

And guess what? It's dead, now that The Darkness has come. Dead - never to work again, never to be fixed, never to be replaced. You see, radiation has come to rest on our world. And it has covered and destroyed EVERYTHING!

(I'll cover more about what happened later - as in it will all be revealed in Book Three of my Shorts Series The Truth)

So, I guess we'll be walking a lot more now

You know your daughter's cute bike out in the garage? The pink thing with the streamers on the handle bars? Yeah, get used to it.

Or get some good shoes.

Or find a sturdy horse.

'Cause there won't be any more planes, trains, nor automobiles. Not for a long, long time (most likely ever, but let's not perseverate on that right now). Just like last week - can you say welcome to the 1800s? That's what transportation is going to look like - for the rest of your life for sure!

It's sobering, isn't it?

Never again will you take a Sunday afternoon ride to Grandma's. Quick trips to the store some five miles away? Nah, I don't think so. Weekend jaunts to cities hundreds of miles away are now things of the past.

On any given weekend, I drive as much as 300 miles from my home. Perhaps I'm off to the cottage for a weekend of fishing and relaxation. Or maybe a fall dash to the farm to hunt deer. Ah, the good ole days.

After The Darkness comes, my range will be limited greatly. Maybe five miles, perhaps less. Without a vehicle to transport me here and there, I'll be doing plenty of walking. I've got a bike, something my daughter and her husband gave to me as a birthday gift a few years back. But, I don't bike much. Perhaps I'll have to dig it out of the corner of the garage and become more acquainted with that thing.

What will your life be like without gas-powered transportation? Tell me about it...if you dare.

Have a great week; enjoy Thanksgiving (my US readers). 

e a lake

(books below are interactive, so go ahead and click on any of them)

                       

So You think You Can Live Without This...

Here's one for you. Just how in the heck are you going to survive without Mr. Franklin's discovery - Electricity? Got that one figured out yet? Well, if WWIV ever comes a callin', you had better.

Life Without Power

Oh, this is going to suck, my friends. 

Let's take a peek at something most of us use every single day. A device that has made modern people's lives much simpler. The refrigerator.

If, like I write about in my WWIV series, one day our electricity disappears, your poor "ice box" ain't gonna work no more. Yikes; better open it sparingly, right? Ha! Better eat what's in there as fast as you can before it all spoils (and when your food does go bad - never open the door again).

What about air conditioning, heat, toasters, coffee makers? Nope, none will work any longer.

Hair dryers, televisions, radios, printers, garage door openers...will they survive? Absolutely not.

Please, you beg; please tell me my computer will work. Or at least my cell phone or my iPod? Sorry. All gone. Each and every one of them. Along with anything else powered (or charged) by electricity.

Can you say early 1800s?

And it continues to get worse.

All those fancy machines and gadgets in our hospitals will also be rendered useless. Further, without the power of electricity how are factories supposed to work? They can't, quite simply.

That means no more food production, medicine production, even toilet paper production.

Schools will close, people will die in nursing homes in rapid order. Gas can't be pumped any longer, so your car becomes worthless. And whatever's in the ground is all we are going to have for the rest of time. Because, and this is how bad The Darkness will be, none of it is ever coming back. Not for centuries to come.

So maybe we should look at the 1600s

I realize all of this is impossible to believe, improbable to comprehend, and unlikely to ever occur (at least you hope it doesn't), but what if it did. What if all the preppers and survivalists were right? 

What exactly are you going to do then? That's the ten-million dollar question.

No, I can't ever imagine the end of the world like portrayed in my novels - they're fiction after all.

Right?

Until next week, let me know what you'll miss most about electricity in the comment section below. I'll be waiting for your replies.

e a lake

(books below are interactive, so go ahead and click on any of them)

                       

This Must Change! It Absolutely Has To!

22 veterans a day take their own lives due to triggering points associated with combat stress. That's one veteran every 65 minutes.

That statistic is unacceptable - Period!

PTSD is real, and must be properly addressed. 

How can we let our sons and daughters - nieces and nephews, our grandchildren, our neighbor's kids, the nice boy from church, that sweet girl from the animal shelter - go off to war, return home in one piece, and then be ignored to take their own lives?

It stuns me that this isn't headline news in each and every newspaper - EVERY DAY! 

It shocks me that Charlie Rose isn't screaming about this on the morning news!

It saddens me that it's always "someone else's problem". 

It is our problem; each and every one of us

I'm sickened by the fact that the Sunday News Shows had a casualty report every week during combat times. Where is the recognition for these brave souls now?

Veteran's Days was last Wednesday. I waited a week to start this campaign. A simple writer's blog where I typically talk about anything but this. Until this week. I want the madness to stop. I want all of our children safe. It's time we put an end to issues like bullying and teen suicide. Time for an end to the "heads in the sand" attitude over PTSD!

It is time we quit ignoring the atrocities occurring right here; whether on American soil or any of our Allies.

Our children are dying, people! Dying at alarming rates! We need to do something...NOW!

PTSD is Real!

If you don't believe me, I feel sorry for you. I've seen it first-hand; felt the pain first-hand; laid awake at night - all night sometimes, worrying about it.

You don't have to agree with the war to love the warriors. I don't love war. More precisely, I wish all war would stop, now! Because our children are the fighters in these battles. Not the President, not Congress, or the Supreme Court. Not any State Legislator, or Governor. Our children; that resource we hold so dear!

Over the next few months, I'll continue posting on this subject. It's not going away - so neither will I! 

Share the post with everyone you know. Because everyone you know knows someone in the military. And chances are that military member might just have PTSD.

Let's start saving lives one at a time, or two at a time. Or how about 22 a day?

Yeah, I like that idea.

Until later, pray for peace!

e a lake

(BTW - 22 a day equals almost 8,000 a year. Do I have your attention now?)

When the Darkness Arrives

I write fiction. Post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction to be precise. And I created The Darkness just for you - my readers.

But just how fictional is The Darkness?

Some will tell you that it, The Darkness, could never happen. And these people will be intelligent people; people whose brains are much stronger than mine; people who know all (or so they claim). But consider this:

When my father was a young man back in the early 1940s, he would lay in the farmyard at night, staring at the moon and stars. To him, young Jim, man ever setting foot on the moon was impossible - as in never going to happen.

By 1969, we were there (unless you're a conspiracy theorist and believe it was faked)! The impossible achieved.

But wait, there's more

Consider, if you will, winged flight. Tell me, who in the late 1800s would have ever believed man would fly like the birds...higher than the birds...faster than the birds? In 1890 there was little rapid transportation. Trains moved quick, but not that quick. Cars were just coming out and might top out at 10 mph. Fly like the birds? Impossible!

These days a person can fly from London to New York City in mere hours. I wonder how fast the Titanic made that trip back in the 1910s? Wait, was supposed to make that trip... It never arrived in NYC, of course.

Oh, there's plenty more

We could play this game all day long. Cell phones, sterile surgery, someone breaking the 4:00 mile, and on, and on, and on.

So, tell me this: What is so impossible about the world, our world, one day being plunged into The Darkness? A world that resembles the early 1800s much more than the twenty-first century. A world where the are no cell phones, no landlines, few to no working cars (or other forms of transportation), no electricity, no running water...no hope.

That, my friends, is the world featured in my WWIV series. 

Not very bright and cheery, is it? Not something any of us would ever want live in.

But certainly not an impossibility.

Have a great week everyone. And don't worry, I don't think The Darkness is coming anytime soon. At least I hope it's not.

e a lake

(books below are interactive, so go ahead and click on any of them)

                       

Oh Google, I Saw This Coming

I received an email the other day; well, a gmail actually. At least it came to my gmail account.

"Watch videos ad-free & uninterrupted with YouTube Red"

Holy crap Batman. I love watching videos. And especially on You Tube. This is perfect for me. I mean absolutely, brilliantly perfect!

But, as always, there a catch...

Yeah; like most things in life, it ain't free. Surprise (and that's a faux surprise in case you didn't catch the sarcasm).

You Tube is owned by Google. They, Google, purchased the video sharing service back in about 2006 I believe (if my research is correct). And in case you have lived in a cave since Al Gore invented the internet, Google has become the internet.

I'm not saying Google is bad...Absolutely Not

No, they just know how to make money. And lots of money. They call it monetizing. And Google monetizes everything. And they are really good at it.

So, what's my point?

We (read that as I and you) understand that Google is in business to make money. We get it, we really do.

But I have the same goal in my writing career. I too want to make money. 

So please, don't ask me to give away all of my novels. Don't question why my latest book may be $3.99, while some of my others are $2.99. (Short answer, book three is a whole lot better than books one and two).

Google is giving us something of value, at a certain price. They are giving us the ability to enjoy uninterrupted videos and background music - for $9.99 per month. I have yet to decide if I'll nibble on this offer. I think I can flip through and end early a lot of commercials for $9.99 every thirty days. But that's not to say I'll feel that way forever.

Consider this the next time you pause before buying an e-book from an independent author that just seems "a little spendy" - it's only four or five dollars, people! Trust me, it won't be the worst "fiver" you've ever spent. And it's only half the cost of a month of You Tube Red.

Let me guess: You already signed up, didn't you?

e a lake

(books below are interactive, so go ahead and click on any of them)