Author: gosa9977

The day is almost here! The print book is available NOW. The ebook is available for presale now and will be released on December 31, 2023.

Thank you, everyone, for your continued support. As a reminder, a great way to support indie authors like me is to leave a review, follow them on Facebook, and/or share a recommendation among your crowd if you enjoyed the book. I know this book took a long time to come to fruition from the release of book one: The Days That Followed. Thank you for your patience! I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s the blurb:

As the shadows of conspiracy deepen, the survivors grapple with a truth known to few.

Bodin, Carrie, Sam, and Sarah return, facing uncharted trials. New characters Ava and Lane unveil the secrets of the elite’s city. Bodin’s undercover mission veers into dangerous territory, his lofty rescue plans unraveling. Sarah’s hope at Eyth shatters. Ava’s resentment grows in a humiliating role, and Lane finds himself entangled in the web he helped construct, grappling with the consequences of his actions.

Amid the rustic beauty of an Idaho ranch, a haven for over 200 people, Carrie fights for acceptance and tests bonds. Sam, the guardian of order, battles the weight of leadership amidst the impending winter.

Ranch life, the smart city, revenge, and survival converge. When vengeance beckons, who will defy the odds? In this gripping sequel, choices shape destinies, and a daring few risk everything to alter the course of a fractured nation and a world in peril.

Click here to purchase The Days of Reckoning. The book is available for free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

Happy reading, my fellow humans!

The U.S. power grid is extremely vulnerable and would not take much for a cyberattack to bring it down for months to years at a time. In fact, there are only nine critical substations that need to be targeted to wipe out power for the entire country according to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) report. Not to mention, we’ve already had to fend off plenty of these cyberattacks. It’s a constant threat and nothing drives this home more than the current situation with Ukraine and Russia where Russia has used these tactics to harm Ukraine. With Russia waging this kind of warfare against the Ukraine, a more serious attempted attack on the U.S. power grid seems imminent. We have to assume that these hackers are getting better and better every day. We just have to hope that we’re outpacing them by staying at least one step ahead defensively. Whether or not we’ll be able to prevent such attacks always remains unknown but, as with most things in life, a ‘hope for the best, prepare for the worst’ strategy is always advisable.

While a cyberattack wouldn’t necessarily render all technology useless (as an EMP is more likely to do), it will still cause considerable damage and likely result in many causalities. If there’s no power, gasoline will soon run out and hospitals will basically become useless. Then, food deliveries will cease, and people will be left to fend for themselves. I don’t believe a response similar to the one in my book, The Days That Followed, is out of the realm of possibility. In fact, I think it’s likely that people will immediately enter a scarcity mindset and adopt a “every man for himself” mentality. There will be a run on grocery stores, gasoline, and other supplies just as would occur with an EMP.

The upside to a cyberattack: you may have enough gasoline and a working vehicle to get you somewhere that’s safer and/or more conducive to sustainable living. This ideally would be some place with fewer people, access to water, and access to hunting/trapping/gathering/growing food. The other upside: it’s likely that power will be restored at some point, unlike with an EMP which causes physical damage to the electronics’ components, a cyberattack could potentially be countered or reversed with more speed.

EMP stands for Electromagnetic Pulse. It is basically a surge of energy that is generally harmful to electronics. It can occur naturally or be created by man. In my book, I’m talking about the kind of EMP that is designed to cause maximum damage. The kind deployed as a weapon. This occurs when a nuclear bomb is detonated above the earth’s atmosphere. I was first introduced to this real-world threat when I read William Forstchen’s book One Second After. This is also the book that inspired my own. I kept imagining all the different scenarios and ways an EMP attack could impact people’s lives. I was drawn in mostly by the fact that it’s a real threat. My book may be fiction but it could happen and it would be a highly effective and fairly simple way of bringing a country to its knees and reducing the population quickly. Being a known threat, we have taken steps as a country to protect ourselves. This is mostly pertaining only to our military. The average civilian is entirely unprotected and unprepared.

Our military “hardens” some technological devices. They use Faraday cages and bags, metal shielding, and EMP harden their vehicles and other critical technologies. Military bases aren’t EMP hardened as a whole, but most of the equipment they use today has some level of protection against EMPs. This is somewhat comforting to know that there may be recourse if we were attacked. Perhaps this is somewhat of a deterrent to outside threats. However, it does nothing to address our food or pharmaceutical sectors. The average city has 2-3 days worth of food to sustain the population. Without transportation, resources will stop coming in. People who rely heavily on grocery store runs, medications, city water supplies, etc. will soon find themselves in a dire situation following an EMP attack. Cities are the worst place to be. Country folk with some hunting and gardening skills will have an advantage. If you have survival skills or supplies to help you build fires, collect potable water, filter water, preserve food, etc., you’re even better off. My book highlights some of these differences by following four different characters. Sam is a former rancher who has learned to live off of the land in the countryside versus the other three characters that are city dwellers. Their fates are all interwoven towards the end of the book.

Stay tuned for an EMP Survival Guide post! This will provide a series of bullet point suggestions and skills for the average person to help prepare them for the possibility of an EMP attack. In the meantime, grab my book! It’ll get the wheels turning and help you learn from other’s mistakes or preparations in order to better prepare yourself and your family.