03 February 2015 by Published in: Uncategorized 16 comments

Today marks the release of a novella I wrote in Steven Konkoly’s The Perseid Collapse Kindle World – the first such effort I’ve produced. It’s a dystopian romp that chronicles a sliver of time after an EMP wipes out North America’s communications – concurrent with a massive hurricane hitting the locale where my protagonist lives.

The goal was to create a non-stop action romp set in a world that’s the day after the end of the world as we know it. I think it turned out well, but readers will ultimately decide. The title is Deadly Calm, for the deceptive calm that settles in after a major natural disaster like a hurricane.

It wasn’t hard to write it, having just survived Hurricane Odile’s flattening of Los Cabos, and my hope is that the descriptions in the book have a ring of authenticity – they should, as most of it’s drawn from my real-life experience.

This is my first prepper-themed dystopian effort. It likely won’t be my last. Writing in a world where the rules don’t apply, where nothing is as it should be due to the dislocation caused by the end of the world event, affords a certain freedom I enjoyed. We’ll see what else spews forth from my printer, but for now, give Deadly Calm a whirl and see what you think.

Special thanks to Steve for making it so easy to jump into that world. Here’s to hoping it catches some lift and sparks imaginations, or at least sells enough to buy some serious rounds of drinks for all concerned. Whatever the case, I think the story is an engaging one, and could see it running farther. One never knows.

For some fun images of my neighborhood after the hurricane, see below.

Mexico Tropical Weather

Cabo odile

Cabo odile 3

Cabo airport

 

cabo odile 5

cabo odile 5

Cabo odile 7

cabo odile 6

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Comments

  1. Tue 03rd Feb 2015 at 2:07 pm

    Looking forward to reading it this week. Gosh, those photos are heartbreaking.

    Reply
    • Russell Blake  –  Tue 03rd Feb 2015 at 4:59 pm

      Hope you like it. I think it’s a good one.

      Reply
  2. Deborah
    Tue 03rd Feb 2015 at 2:28 pm

    Can’t wait! Wow, you are lucky to be alive!

    Reply
    • Russell Blake  –  Tue 03rd Feb 2015 at 4:59 pm

      That’s how I feel every day!

      Reply
  3. Steven Konkoly
    Tue 03rd Feb 2015 at 3:35 pm

    Holy smokes. The devastation was complete. Is that your house standing among the flattened? No wonder you were able to write the novella so quickly…basically writing from memory.

    Reply
    • Russell Blake  –  Tue 03rd Feb 2015 at 4:58 pm

      I was fortunate, but houses right up the street from me sustained a quarter mil or more of damage. It seemed very random. Mostly from doors and windows blowing in, pressure changing when they did, and then basically the houses imploding. They build them out of cinderblock here, so the structures were mostly okay, but anything that wasn’t rebar and concrete got vaporized. It’s difficult to describe the level of devastation it caused.

      And yes, there’s a fair amount of personal experience in all my novels, if you know where to look…

      Reply
  4. Tue 03rd Feb 2015 at 5:16 pm

    Sounds like a fascinating novella and I can imagine it will sound very authentic. Glad you survived.

    Reply
    • Russell Blake  –  Tue 03rd Feb 2015 at 7:40 pm

      That makes two of us! Yes, there’s a lot of reality baked into that thar cake…

      Reply
  5. D.L. Shutter
    Tue 03rd Feb 2015 at 7:54 pm

    A car flipped over? Jeez.

    So sorry to hear about having a hurricane incident. Takes me back to when Ivan hit Pensacola. I was in flight school and after things started to get cleaned up we were flying again, relatively low and slow in helicopters. From the air the big picture of the destruction was unfathomable and Ivan wasn’t really that bad compared to other storms. I hope your neighborhood is able to get back to normal soon.

    Reply
    • Russell Blake  –  Tue 03rd Feb 2015 at 8:09 pm

      Not just one. Many cars were flipped by the wind. It was crazy. I want to say gusts to couple hundred miles per hour, with sustained at an easy one-fifty. I’ve been through a cat 3 in Hawaii, and this was far, far stronger. It was at the top of the cat 3 range at the last measurement before it hit land, but it gathered strength as it moved the final 10 miles or so due to the warm shallower water in the gulf, which kicked it to at least a 4, and possibly a 5. Trust me, I’m no stranger to hurricanes, and this was massively different than any I’ve been in. I’m talking paint gone from buildings like someone used a sand blaster. Damage that looks like artillery shells hit the structures. Window frames rated to 180 MPH blown in like tissue.

      Reply
  6. Thu 05th Feb 2015 at 10:44 am

    Is it coming to amazon.co.uk?

    Reply
    • Russell Blake  –  Thu 05th Feb 2015 at 12:23 pm

      Alas, Kindle Worlds offerings are only available through the .com store. I’m sure there’s some way to work a proxy mask to appear to be buying from within the US, though. Not that I know anything about that sort of thing.

      Reply
      • Alexander  –  Fri 06th Feb 2015 at 10:07 am

        So we all lose out – you as author, Amazon as seller and me as reader. Kindle World is also a misnomer. One more reason for me to use Amazon less. As you probably have more dealings with them than I do perhaps you could pass on my views as a dissatisfied customer.

        Reply
  7. Fri 06th Feb 2015 at 4:04 pm

    Oh, I think this kind of thing is right up your alley. Especially after last year’s event where you were bailing your house to keep it from becoming a Russell aquarium.

    Great title for the book. Like you say, the calm after the storm is deceptive. That’s when the invisible threats start. Disease, breakdown of society, lack of necessities, and so on. Horrible to experience, great setting for a book.

    Reply
  8. Mon 23rd Feb 2015 at 12:23 pm

    Just finished reading Deadly Calm, it was excellent. I like the world it belongs to, the Perseid Collapse.

    thank you for writing it! best, Elizabeth

    Reply
  9. Mon 23rd Feb 2015 at 12:24 pm

    Oh, I lived through Sandy, in a hotel in downtown Manhattan that lost electricity for days. That was scary enough for me! Elizabeth

    Reply

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