Prepare: Lights Out Book Published

If you are an old hand at this stuff and are a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, than you surely have read "Lights Out" by David Crawford. Originally published online in chapter format over a whopping two year period, "Lights Out" is probably one of the best survival fiction stories written in the past decade, online or traditional.

If you are new to this genre, get a copy of this book as its really that good.

"Lights Out" takes place in present day San Antonio and follows Mark Turner, an average computer fixit guy for a midsized corporation, his family and friends and the events which befall them after a supersized electro magnetic pulse (EMP) instantly vaporizes all modern electronics and electric infrastruture in the United States.

In the days that follow, Mark and company have to learn to not only live without modern day comforts, but also how to provide food and security for their suburban neighborhood all while dealing with internal divisions, external threats and the constant ordeals of being thrust into the equivalent of the 19th century.

The story is real. Most online post-apocalyptic fiction features two dimensional cardboard characters, mind numbing lists of name brand equipment, dull lectures on grinding wheat, making soap, fiat currency and grinning idiots slapping each other the back after dispatching ne'er do wells with names like Scrag and Greasey. "Lights Out" has none of that.

Husbands and wives fight. Good people die. Children are injured. Homes are torn apart. Popular characters are killed off while bad guys get away with murder. There is something unexpected at each turn in "Lights Out" and readers will find themselves identifying with several characters in the story; I know I did.

After reading "Lights Out", you will look at your neighborhood and life different.

While "One Second After" was a shocking book a couple of years ago and also a great read, "Lights Out" has a different take on the same genre with separate outcomes.

"Lights Out" makes a great Christmas gift for the prepper in your house or a friend who "almost gets it" but needs a realistic little push.

I happliy found "Lights Out" on Amazon, but it took some looking and you had to know the author's full name and not the one he originally posted under online (you know what I am referring to if you are familiar with the story). I pulled a handy link to the book on Amazon for new readers.

Check it out.

Prepare: The Random Survivalist

Here are the bits floating around today for your prepping thoughts...

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Lights Out - One of the best survival/SHTF fiction pieces out there. Penned and published online over a two year period. fans love this work.

The good news is the author of Light's Out - Halffast - may have this tome going to a big time publisher and is being shopped in Hollywood. However, this also means that free access to this great story is sadly over. As posted online, fair use applies..

Posted by Halffast



Before I start this, let me first say that I am very thankful to all of you who have read, critiqued, help, talked about, and pimped LO over the years. Without you all, the book would not be the success it has become. Thanks a million.

 I have been thinking about this post for a couple of days. I really don't want to have to post this, because I'm not smart enough to figure out how to do it without sounding like a dick. No matter how I word it, someone is going to take it wrong. This is the best I can come up with and I hope it doesn't offend anyone. If it does, I am truly sorry.

 There are thousands and thousands of hours of work in LO. It has been on the net for free since I began writing it in 2002. I now have a chance to make a few bucks off of it. I pulled it off the net because I no longer want to give it away. No one is authorized to post, email, or share the story with out my permission. That is what "copyrighted" means. Now, I am not so naive as to think this won't happen some. However, doing so is stealing from me. If you are fine with that, there is probably little I can do about it. All I can ask is that you respect my wishes. I hope, by early this summer, to have copies for sale that have many of the problems with the story fixed and even a few new chapters. Thanks.

So that means if you have a copy of Lights Out, don't share it.
If you have not read Lights Out, you won't be able to get a free copy online any longer.
If you liked Lights Out, you might soon get a chance to thank Halffast by buying a copy from a real publisher and possibly get to see it on the big screen.
 

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LTS Food - I posted a long post about LTS food suppliers online the other day. I forgot to mention this company which is also one of my favorites as well - AAOOB Foods.


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One solution for a successful renewable energy industry in the US -  
 
There is constant buzz in the media about renewable energy i.e. solar, wind, hydro, etc.
 
Writers point out how the government is funding (with non-renewable tax dollars!) some companies who are in the renewable energy industry.
 
They also point out how some private investment companies are underwriting private companies in the space as well.
 
What renewable energy advocates fail to point out is the single driving force which makes renewable energy technologies and thus the companies that produce them viable - demand.
 
Right now, demand is not there for some renewable energy technologies and therefore the cost cannot be justified. Enabling a non-demand industry with subsidies is not the answer. Rather, the answer is found by organically increasing demand.
 
Most people into preparedness would love to have solar panels on the roof or a windmill in the yard. And enviromentalists would be happy to see it as would companies who manufacture the hardware.
 
The problem is government zoning and home owners associations routinely block any such deployment by many homeowners across the country. 
 
A single piece of legislation by Congress could fix this overnight. Basically, such legislation would say that any homeowner could put solar panels on his roof or an energy producing windmill in his yard as long as it does not pose a safety hazard to others. Aesthetics and pencil heads be darned. And implementing this new overide would not add a dime to the deficit.
 
That one simple move could spur natural demand from real customers and start moving those subsidized solar panel, windmill, inverter and battery companies to true independence. 
 
It's a thought. 

Prepare: One Second After Review

So this week, I finally sat down and read One Second After by William Forstchen. This is a work of fiction about an EMP (Electro Magenetic Pulse) attack on the United States. One Second After made it to the NYT Best Seller List earlier this year which shows Americans have an appetite for this type of work. Sort of like making a list before Christmas gets here.

The synopsis -

Small town, Black Mountain, North Carolina outside of Asheville, population about 6,000, is where the story takes place. The main character is John Matherson, a retired U.S. Army colonel turned professor at a small private college in the hills. The good professor is also a widowed father of two girls, one a teen, the other a twelve year old who has Type One diabetes.

On a normal afternoon, the U.S. is plunged into darkness when the EMP bust takes place. Suddenly, all modern electronics, cars, phones, power, water and everything related is shut off.

Within four days, Black Mountain is suffering. There are thousands of stranded motorists from the nearby interstate in the town straining the few resources they have. The hospital no longer has any functioning equipment. The nursing homes patients are dying for lack of air conditioning, water, medicine and trained staff. Without vehicles, the town's fire department, police and ambulance are unable to send help. There are no shipments of food or medicine coming into town and an unsuccessful trip to nearby Asheville lets the town's residents know not only are they on their own, they actually have to fear their larger neighboring cities.

Matherson, well respected in the community, steps up to a leadership role and describes events over the critical first year. It is not a pleasant picture. Without spoiling the story too much, there are a lot of hungry people, a lot of dying from basic illnesses and injury and a bunch of nasty events including a massive battle against a roving, brutal gang.

How did I like it?

I am a big fan of survival fiction. One Second After is sort of like a modernized version of Alas, Babylon, without all the conviniences. In Babylon, Randy and family pretty much get off unscathed. Sure, their clothing and cars are falling apart, but they still have a secure home, food, and organization.

Not the same in One Second. Things don't go so well for Black Mountain, North Carolina. There are no happy endings. Just one sad event after another. One Second After made me think I was reading a prequel - "What happened five years before the events in Cormac McCarthy's The Road take place".

The purpose of this is very clear from the author's standpoint; Forstchen wants to literally scare the pants off readers so that they will insist their elected representatives do something about this very real threat.

One Second After is also the complete polar opposite of the similar EMP attack story, Lights Out which can be found online. While the characters in Lights Out are dominated by local politics, rescue missions and vengeful neighbors, they never go hungry and even have time to take a daily shower and get medical attention. Forget about that in One Second After (at one point, many of the central characters go a number of months without a real bath. Think lice. Yuck).

OK, so what were my frustrations with One Second After?

First, when the lights go out, when the cell phone dies, when the car does not start, don't continue having a bar-b-que. Get to the darn store and buy everything! The main character allegedly wrote, while in the Army, a paper on the threat of an EMP attack and its affects on the U.S. He should have known better than everyone else. Yet after the attack, he is no better prepared than the town's insurance salesman.

Second, if your kid is sick, don't wait two days before going to the pharmacy! What was the main character thinking?

Third, why is it in books that the main characters can't wait to have a formal meeting with as many other characters to discuss what happened? Sure enough, Day One after the EMP attack, there's Professor Matherson having a meeting with the town mayor, police chief, etc. What's there to talk about? Get to the store!

Not me. Day One, Two and Three after the event are going to be spent getting my hands on as many resources as possible and securing my location. "Sorry, my calendar is full tomorrow Mister Mayor. I will be at the Food Lion buying all the rice and peanut butter before you folks figure out there won't be any more groceries coming in. I will be happy to pencil you in a week from Tuesday though".

Fourth, it takes the town about a month to realize they better start growing some Victory Gardens for food. Duh.

Fifth, chickens are for eggs. Get all the chickens together. Put them in one spot. Guard them and feed them. Let them lay eggs. Make many omlettes. Do not start killing the chickens to put them in a pot. Same with cows and milk.

Cigarettes are a good thing to stock up on now for trade and barter. So is a 50 lb. bag of rice and extra dog food.

There are some very poignant moments in One Second After. The scenes with his youngest daughter. The death of a couple of central characters. The sadness which becomes every day life.

Everyone should read One Second After. Everyone should start getting prepared today for this event. Unlike nuclear war from the 1980's, there won't be a build up of hostilities or even twenty minutes to take cover. Just the whole world different and backwards in time in the blink of an eye.

Note: One more thing that occurred to me since writing this review. i would love if someone like Jerry D Young or Gary Ott (online SHTF fiction writers) would take a swag at a story like One Second After. Often, both writers write much more optimistically than I think reality would be. I would be neat to see one of these writers take One Second After from the middle of the story and look at the ending from a different perspective. Worth a thought.

Lights Out - SHTF fiction

If you just showed up at Google and punched in SHTF fiction, you may have arrived here at the Prepare site. Let me save you some time, stop reading those half-baked, half-finished glory doom tales and put you on the page of probably the best, Internet-based SHFT fiction tale out there - Lights Out.

First, an update. Lights Out is not available at the link below any longer. The author has pulled free copies of the book online as he has published the book in traditional format. Here is the link from Amazon.





See the link here to download the whole story.

First, download the whole story in PDF format today. The story is good enough it may end up published and like "Patriots" (yes, by comma Rawles), it will be off limits gratis for the online crowd. Get it while you can, folks.

If you have read, Lights Out, good for you. You get it. If LO was not "gun porn" enough for you, or did not feature enough one-dimensional post-apocalypse convict, biker raiders, then to heck with ya.

Now, Lights Out is probably the best, realistic SHTF story out there, however, I have a few bones to pick with it.

Bur first the praise.

The story features mostly real people. Husbands and wives fight. Characters are flawed. Most of those facing the brave, scary world have little if any experience with the devil waiting in the dark. However, like Americans have always done, they step up to the plate and deal with it.

I like Lights Out and have read (in the process of reading a fifth time) several times already.

The problems:

1) Why did it take Mark Turner 9 freaking days to get to the darn grocery store? With a truck running, my butt would have been at Kroger, Costco or 7-11 everyday and loading up on everything I could get my mitts on!

2) Why didn't Mark and Jim tell the boss, Davis: "We have extended family and have no intention of leaving them to fend for themselves. Based upon your philosophy, you get where we are coming from. Thanks, but unless you open up the joint to our extended clans, you are on you own. You need us more than we need you. (New Age Ranch? Please... ).

3) Gunny was a cardboard cutout character. I love how he could not walk the Silver Hills neighborhood, but could do the quick step SWAT move with Mark at the Drew house.

4) They have one too many battle scenes - namely, the Jeep goes over the hill incident and the fight with the motorcycle gang in the culvert with the hand grenades. Again, a little over kill.


Reading Lights Out for the umpteenth time, I could be picky, but the bottom line is, it's a great story with very good characterization, a plausible story line and riveting action. Download it today.

Also good runner's up - Shattered and Deep Winter by T Sherry. The only problem with those stories is I kept hoping someone would punch Rick Drummond's nose once he made one too many smug responses and could not run to the Army or his pal the sheriff to protect him. Otherwise, another top story you can find on TB2K - if it has not been pulled for Lulu.