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Knowledge and a set of old-fashioned survival skills will probably serve us better in a cataclysm than almost anything else.
If you spend time ruminating on all the things that happen in the modern world, things that keep us alive and generally healthy, you’ll notice a nearly endless number of occurrences in the background of our lives—goods and services we consider essential but never stop to think about. (Though COVID-19 has forced us to think about many of them.)
Aside from farming, food preparation and distribution, electricity, and running water, there are sewers, healthcare systems, public health departments, schools, libraries, roads, transportation and its infrastructure, financial systems, law and order, government, courts, police and fire departments, medicines, education, parks, art, music, news from near and far, the internet, an incalculable array of things to buy if we can afford them, innumerable places to travel, and gobs of stuff competing for our time.
Much or even all of this would break down and be gone in a true apocalypse. Those who survive will be the people who know how to handle the most essential functions themselves.
We need to teach ourselves how to do this. Given the rapid pace of climate change, even if we don’t fall into apocalypse, we’re likely to be forced to scale way the hell back. We should scale back. We need to scale back. We all know that the Earth can’t sustain our pre-pandemic lifestyles.
For the record, I am not a prepper. I don’t go around freaking out about the coming End of Days. But I do ponder the possibilities, and I write novels about potential scenarios. In my novels, I take a different approach than the standard apocalyptic tale. My assumption is that, in most situations, it would take a great deal of time for civilization to fully collapse. At least initially, much human morality and compassion will remain. If we try hard to work together, and if the conditions allow, we have a chance to keep the deterioration from becoming complete.
We have to become men, women, and children of the New Renaissance and learn how things work and alternative ways to do them, practice old skills and learn new ones, stretch our brains and imaginations. Toward that end, here are some areas that we need to focus on:
• Teach ourselves how to grow food in all kinds of places and how to collect safe water.
• Learn and practice old-fashioned skills: soap-making; candle-making; doing laundry without electricity or plumbing; knitting; sock-darning; fire-building; quilting; basketry; rope-making; carpentry; plumbing with gravity; timber management; animal husbandry; butter churning; cheese making; chair caning; furniture building; cabinetry; glass-making; log-splitting; barn-building; shoe-making; the creation of eyeglasses; dentistry; the making and mending of clothes; spinning and weaving; undertaking; nutrition; sanitation; the making of acoustical music and natural art.
• Educate ourselves on how to keep our kitchens and dishes clean if the water is low and there are no bleach wipes, even no detergent. Understand how long different kinds of food will last without refrigeration. Protect our food from flies and rats and other pests, so that food-borne illnesses won’t do us in.
• Study outhouses and ways of keeping them sanitary. They can spread deadly disease if they aren’t well-managed. Composting toilets are a great way to go, but they still have to be cleaned, preferably with something that actually kills germs. And you have to know where to dig an outhouse if you want to keep your groundwater safe.
• While I am neither a gun owner nor a fan of guns, and I’m not someone who wants to see more weapons stockpiled in this world, we may need a means of protecting ourselves. We’ll want to learn self-defense.
• We’ll need to know about medical care, including the standard Western medicine we practice now, plus Eastern and folk medicine. We’ll want to know how to grow and use medicinal plants and herbs, and we should stockpile basics: whatever meds you personally need to stay alive.
• We’ll need the means to educate our children and to continue learning ourselves.
More than anything, we’ll need quick wits, unbending determination, and people to love who will have our backs.
A standalone sequel to IF DARKNESS TAKES US
A solar electromagnetic pulse fried the U.S. grid fourteen months ago. Everything’s gone: power, cars, running water, communications, all governing control and help—gone. Now northern lights have started in Texas—3,000 miles farther south than where they belong. The universe won’t stop screwing with eighteen-year-old Keno Simms.
All that’s left for Keno, his family and neighbors is farming their Austin subdivision, trying to eke out a living on poor soil in the scorching heat. Keno’s still reeling from the the death of his pregnant sister. His beloved Nana is ill, Grandpa’s always brandishing weapons, and water is far too scarce. Desperate thieves are hemming them in, yet he can’t convince his uncle and other adults to take action against the threat.
Keno’s one solace is his love for Alma, who has her own secret sorrows. When he gets her pregnant, he vows to keep her alive no matter what. Yet armed marauders and nature itself collude against him at every turn, forcing him to make choices that rip at his conscience. If he can’t protect Alma and their unborn child, it will be the end of Keno’s world.
IF THE LIGHT ESCAPES is post-apocalyptic science fiction set in a near-future reality, a coming-of-age story told in the voice of a heroic teen who’s forced into manhood too soon.
Enjoy an Excerpt
“These northern lights bug the crap out of me,” I tell Alma. “What are they doing here? They’re supposed to be tied to magnetic poles. I saw this show a couple years ago that said the north pole was drifting north, not south. So how did they end up here? The poles can’t drift around randomly. That’s impossible.”
“I don’t know, baby. They worry me, too, but we need to be quiet.”
“They make me feel like something bad is gonna happen. What do you call that? Fore-something.”
“Foreboding?”
“That’s it. I’ll be quiet, now, and just stew in my foreboding.”
“Silly.” Alma reaches up and ruffles my hair.
When we patrol and we can’t cuddle on account of guns, Alma and I could talk all night. It’s not a good idea for us to talk much when we’re patrolling, though. We get all involved and forget to listen for anyone who might be sneaking around, hunting for food or water, or worse: getting ready to kill us for it.
We walk along with our rifles in the night. It’s cool out here, but not cold…
Alma stops and raises her gun.
“Hear that?” she whispers.
“No, what?” I’ve got my gun up, too, and I’m pivoting around, searching. I want to hide Alma, but she would never let me.
“Over there.” She points at the corner by the park. And I hear a jangly noise, like car keys. No one drives cars now, though…
About the Author:
Brenda is attracted to stories where everyday characters transcend their own limitations to find their inner heroism. She and her husband reside in a grid-connected, solar-powered home in South Austin, Texas. They have more grown kids and grandkids than they can count.
Her first novel, Something Radiates, is a paranormal romantic thriller; If Darkness Takes Us and its sequel, If the Light Escapes, are post-apocalyptic science fiction.
Buy the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or BookPeople Austin
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Thank you so much for hosting me and my book on your blog. I'm very appreciative, and I look forward to chatting with you and your readers.
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book.
ReplyDeleteThank you for saying that, Sherry.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting book. I appreciate both the excerpt and the author interview.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words, Glenda.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good read
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