Prepper Book Festival 8: After the Crumble + Giveaway

After taking a break of several months, I am once again reading books in the post-apocalyptic genre.  To be honest, during this break, living and breathing what might happen following a disruptive event was simply too much to deal with.

Shifting gears, I now find myself ready to jump right in and am looking forward to simultaneously be entertained, educated, and shocked by the realities of what could indeed happen if the world and society when to heck.

One of the first books I picked up was this latest entry in the Backdoor Survival Prepper Book Festival 8.   After the Crumble is  the story of life after the lights have gone out one last time.  It is not necessarily a pretty story, or a happy story, but it is one that needs to be told so that we can plan for our own future if the worse were to happen.

Devon Porter, the author, is here today to answer a round of book festival questions, and or course, to award a copy of his book to one Backdoor Survival reader.

Enjoy the interview then be sure to check in below to learn about the giveaway.

An Interview with Devon Porter, Author of “After the Crumble”

Tell me about your book. What is it about?

The book’s synopsis is as follows:

“Our future has crumbled. In the late 2020s, the grid finally flickered out for the last time, succumbing to attacks from a newly formed Resistance, fuel scarcity, and general entropy. It is now the year 2037 and many have died, with the few that managed to escape death solely concerned with their daily survival. Gavin Collier is one of those lucky few, but survival alone isn’t enough for him anymore. Recognizing that the meaning of life didn’t crumble along with the rest of the world, he embarks on a dangerous and personal journey for reasons that few can understand. After leaving his home for the first time in years, Gavin must commit murder in order to save his life, only surviving through good luck and sheer force of will.

The series of events that follow will alter Gavin’s life forever. He finds true love for the first time, and when his love makes the journey to join Gavin at his family farm, the violence and evil of the outside world follows her there. Renewed by hope and the power of love, Gavin will do whatever it takes to protect his future wife and the remaining members of his beloved family, as the dangerous forces close in on his cherished farm and small community.

Gavin’s family had been surviving with little help from the outside world, but now they must come together with their neighbors to fight for their land and those they love. Personalities clash, lives are lost, and fear is inescapable. They all must struggle to keep their humanity in this new, brutal world. Gavin knows that they must prevail at all costs, and keep the flames of freedom and faith burning during one of humanity’s darkest times. Doing so is the only way to make life worth living, and worth something more than just survival.”

What type of research did you have to do while writing your book?

Lots of reading. I’ve read a large amount of fiction and non-fiction from who I call the ‘Three Wise Men of the Slow Collapse Movement” – James Howard Kunstler, John Michael Greer, and Derrick Jensen.

These are some of the greatest thinkers of our time, and all three have different names for what we’re facing. They use terms like “The Long Descent,” and “The Long Emergency,” but basically they’re talking about the “Crumble,” i.e. the slow collapse of industrial civilization.

How long did it take to write?

It took about a year to write ATC and another 6 months to edit it with the help of Prepper Press.

Every book, fiction and non-fiction, includes a message. What message do you hope my readers will take with them after reading yours?

My message is that not only is the slow collapse of industrial civilization not a bad thing, it’s the only chance for humanity to survive the next hundred years.

Industrial civilization is killing our bodies, our spirits, and the planet. As the government/corporate oligarchy (A.K.A. The machine) continues to grow in size and power, it kills our freedoms as well.

The Crumble will ultimately kill the machine, which is good news for all of us, and those who come after us.

Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself?

I live in Virginia and work in the corporate world. After spending my youth eating junk food and living in a techno-narcissistic haze, I almost died due to a serious digestive condition brought on by my unhealthy lifestyle. After several months in the hospital, upon my release, I began researching the industrial food system, big agriculture, and the effects of processed food on the human body.

Shocked at the fragile and toxic state of farming across the planet, I began prepping and growing my own food. I currently raise chickens, blueberries, and pork, using natural techniques.

After studying slow collapse theory, I came to the conclusion that the Crumble is happening now, and will continue to accelerate in the years to come. I believe that population pressure, resource scarcity, hyper-complexity, and environmental degradation will continue to intensify, until the creaking machine of industrial civilization is finally brought to a halt.

I’ve loved post-apocalyptic fiction and science fiction all of my life. I hope to show with my work that in this new post-industrial world we’re entering into, we’ll have new jobs to do, and new stories to tell. We can leave the planet a better place for our kids, and keep the bright beacons of hope, freedom, and knowledge burning, for all of the generations that come after us.

As an author in the survival, prepping and/or homesteading niche, what are you personally preparing for?

I started prepping around 2005, with a focus on being ready for an EMP.

After a few years of prepping for that and developing skills and the correct mindset, I modified my prepping to be ready for a long, drawn-out collapse, like what happened to Rome. (The key difference between industrial civilization and Roman civilization is that while Rome took 500 years to collapse, industrial civilization will collapse in 50 years.)

Our civilization is more fragile and brittle than Rome’s ever was, because of our overwhelming dependence on technology and cheap energy). So, in short, I now prepare for the Crumble. My focus is on security, livestock, and permaculture gardening.

What book or movie, fiction or non-fiction, do you think gives the best portrayal of what could happen?

For fiction, John Michael Greer’s Twilight’s Last Gleaming and Star’s Reach give a great sense of our future, and the World Made By Hand series by James Howard Kunstler is also well-told and realistic.

Do you have plans for another book?

After the Crumble will be the first book in a series. I’m currently working on After the Crumble II: Legends, which will be released in fall 2015.

Is there anything else you would like to share with my readers?

Enjoy the book, and thank you all for your support!

The Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The deadline is 6:00 PM Pacific next Tuesday with the winner notified by email and announced on the Rafflecopter in the article.  Please note that the winner must claim their book within 48 hours or an alternate will be selected.

The Final Word

Devon’s book is about life after the “Crumble”.  His crumble aligns somewhat with what I have termed a “disruptive event”.  The difference is that by my own definition, a disruptive event may be short or long term in nature.  The crumble is most definitely long term.

At the beginning of the book, Gavin, the lead character rescues a small dog from the woods.  The little dog was dirty, hungry, and disheveled. She was not bred for life in the wild.  That gave me pause, because, at the end of the day, neither are we.

After the Crumble takes a haunting look at what our world will look like ten years after the grid goes down. Let us hope it never gets to that.

Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!
Gaye

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Spotlight:  After the Crumble by Devon Porter

Our future has crumbled. In the late 2020s, the grid finally flickered out for the last time, succumbing to attacks from a newly formed Resistance, fuel scarcity, and general entropy. It is now the year 2037 and many have died, with the few that managed to escape death solely concerned with their daily survival.

Bargain Bin:  For your convenience, here is a list of all of the books in the current Backdoor Survival Prepper Book Festival as well as a link to the books mentioned by today’s author.

Twilight’s Last Gleaming:  A chilling high-concept geo-political thriller where a declining United States and a resurgent China come to the brink of all out nuclear war. Also by John Michael Greer, Star’s Reach: A Novel Of The Deindustrial Future.

Prepper Book Festival 8 – Non-Fiction

Tools for Survival: What You Need to Survive When You’re on Your Own
The Organic Canner
The NEW 2000-Hour Flashlight
The Garden Pool – Feed Your Family From Your Backyard Ecosystem
Survival Savvy Family: How to Be Your Best During the Absolute Worst
Doctor Prepper’s Making the Best of Basics Family Preparedness Handbook – Version 12.5
The Prepper’s Financial Guide
Saving Jimani: Life and Death in the Haiti Earthquake
The Age of Earthquakes: A Guide to the Extreme Present
Practical Prepping: No Apocalypse Required: An Everyday Approach to Disaster Preparedness

Prepper Book Festival 8 – Fiction

After the Crumble
A Time to Endure (Strengthen What Remains)
Aftermath: A Story of Survival
Resurrecting Home: A Novel (The Survivalist Series)
Game Changer

Plus: The Preppers Guide to Food Storage

No list of books would be complete without my own book, The Prepper’s Guide to Food Storage.  The eBook is only 99 cent plus the print version is available for less than $6.00.

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