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18 Comments

  1. The writer for ‘One Second After’ had a good model for telling a story. Reading that for the 1st time was sobering – so many aspects I had not considered.

    1. Have you read the book Lawless by Bryce Smith? It was just published this year. It is about a police officer who is a prepper and it follows him as society breaks down. It is super interesting and very informative.

  2. A local friend of mine recently published a book much like this. More or less “regular” people and how they deal with an economic crisis similar to the one in Rawles’ Patriots. Book is called Turn Red Tomorrow. I got a paperback from Amazon but I believe there’s a Kindle version as well.

  3. The scariest part of my life these days is the two annual trips from my home in the Redoubt to visit my elderly dad in southern California. The plane ride back north is always such a relief.

  4. How timely this article is I only wish it had come out 3 months sooner since I submitted a manuscript to a publisher for a book I wrote. It took me about 2 years or more writing as my time permitted and I finally got the nerve to submit it to a publisher. Surprisingly much of what is covered in this article quite by accident I covered. Do I have a New York Times best seller? I doubt it but if it is reasonably well received I left the book end where I could pick up with a second book.

      1. JIM if it holds up it will be “Nomads” I don’t think anyone has covered this angle but I haven’t read all of the survival books out there.

    1. @OldAlaskan

      No need to market to neighbors, relatives and aquantances. They will turn on you and be horrified with who you are as a Prepper. It is only a lose situation.

      You must write well enough to market to the general public.

      Like JWR stated, no one knows who he is in his community, even in his town comings and goings for incidental supplies. I’m referring to the interview he did at his home a few months back.

      No one knows in the Redoubt that we are Preppers and have boo-koo food, medical, and guns and ammo. We play dumb all the time. The neighbors are over all the time and we just state we needed to leave the major city as why were here. When they bring their guns down and shoot on our property – we ask “now how do you fire this–that trigger?”

      OPSEC, OPSEC, OPSEC.

  5. Heliwr, you’ve laid down a challenge. I like to write, & just may take your challenge. In my experience, when I share my vision/hopes/expectations, it can lead to others supporting that vision/hope, but if shared with the wrong individuals, it can lead to suspician or criticism or build up expectations to an unrealistic level. There’s value in sharing one’s vision & hopes, but pray about who to share that with, b/c ur survival story will be very personal. Share it with the wrong person, say someone w/ loose lips, & their acquaintance may look to steal your preps, or show up 4 days after TEOTWAWKI hits, expecting u to feed & protect his family. So I’d recommend praying about who to share ur story with, b/c it will likely reveal aspects of ur plan/vision/expectations. As for myself, I see myself sharing my story only with closest family members & perhaps 1-2 prepper friends. If one is in a prepper group w/ all trustworthy members, then share it w/ them. If u have limited funds, u may consider sharing it w/ a prepper consultant such as JWR, Tess Pennington (if she does consulting), Daisy Luther -these are names who’ve written trustworthy prepping articles/books. Now, if you’re as OPSEC obsessive as I am, one may want to get a written agreement from a consultant, promising to keep what u share confidential. Thanks again, Heliwr!

  6. If anyone tries to publish ur survival story, I recommend changing names of ppl & places, for opsec reasons. Ask yourself, do u want ur extended family, neighbors, friends, etc knowing that u’ve published ur story? The risk is that your published story reveals details & your level of prepping, to ppl that you don’t completely trust. I work with the public to some extent, & over the years, have learned, thru trial & error mostly, what parts of my life I want to share & reveal, & which parts of my life I want to keep personal & confidential. But sometimes, it’s still not clear.

    1. When I started writing the first thing I decided on was a pen name. I never wrote about my own situation but the last thing I ever wanted was name recognition. I have 77 published titles.

      Anyone can publish in e-book or paper book form on KDP and other indy publishers and do so with no cash outlay.
      Good luck everyone.

  7. A work of fiction or just thinking through a scenario? FEMA has a strategic foresight initiative that looks at trying to identify future issues. This sounds much like strategic foresight at the individual level but probably more fun.

    If your going to do this start with assumptions. Are your assumptions reasonable or are they disaster myths based on Hollywood drama?

    I read a lot of dystopian fiction, both new and old stuff. There are lessons in fiction but I find many times that there are a lot of bad assumptions. I read one story were there was no electricity but furnaces still ran. Another character ate a night home cooked meal of eggs and bacon and jumped on his ATV to travel everywhere. And perhaps my biggest pet peeve is all the free time that is available in a lot of the fiction works.

  8. this is hands down one of the best suggestions I’ve read in one heck of a long time. Just thinking the question, “what would I write…. what would my story be?” alone has made me thing and think hard about the reality of the day-to-day, minute by minute living and doing of ‘it’. The first question of course came to me as “what is ‘it’? as regards the cause”.

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