Preparedness Notes for Friday — October 11, 2019

Today is the birthday of novelist William R. Forstchen (born, 1950.) He is best known for his survivalist novel One Second After.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 85 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  7. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 85 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.




7 Comments

  1. “Hay kid, you’ll shoot your eye out”

    “A Christmas Story” and “One Second After” and how they are related.

    Author William Forstchen of One Second After fame tells the story of how he came to be the author of a novel that captivated the country. A New Jersey kid living in a cabin in Maine as a young adult, he was watching a PBS special hosted by his favorite radio and television personality. This particular show started in NJ and ended up in Maine. A Charles Kuralt type show. The half hour show ended up at the hosts cabin in Maine. Forstchen thought the cabin looked familiar. Stepping out on the front porch, yep, there it was, his favorite entertainer was living next door. Already an author of a space alien type book, he presented himself to his neighbor. They talked. Describing his book, the neighbor’s eye glossed over. Forstchen was told “You should write about what you know”. Many years and life experiences later, he wrote his Masterpiece – One Second After – which every American should read. His neighbor was Jean Shepherd, author of A Christmas Story. Shepherd was the voice of the adult kid and has a cameo appearance as a parent in line to see Santa.

    1. S K, loved your comments! A Christmas Story is ingrained in our family history and as adults, my kids still do movie quotes from it. Yes, “One Second After,” was given to me by my brother, “Here, read this.” Lol. Saved him a lot of time from having to talk.
      Thanks for sharing great story. Krissy

  2. S.K.,

    I too enjoyed your comment! We own The Christmas Story on dvd. It’s in the top 10 we watch every Christmas. It’s a Wonderful Life holds the honor of first place!

    I loved One Second After. I own all 3 books of that trilogy but found it hard to stay interested in the third book for some reason. I have not yet finished it. Perhaps I will try again soon.

    Thanks again for a lovely comment. You mad3 me smile this morning!

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