OK, my survivor friends, as promised I have news. My summer has been jam-packed. This month has been even jam-packier.

Let’s talk about Pat’s story contest story we just listened to. Again, 900 words isn’t a lot to play with and I think he did a good job building a story arc into that space. It’s got a beginning, middle and end. There are clear stakes and a complete character arc. I could see this story as a ClarkesWorld or Dust or Escape Pod offering.

More to come - We both just submitted stories for the summer contest.

The second book of the After the Apocalypse 5 novel series is finished and shipped and available anywhere you buy books. So go get it. Read it. Tell your friends. Leave a review. Let the world know that this is a great series and they won’t regret engaging.

But, wait! That’s not all. I also built a commercial proposal in July and submitted it to publisher. The process helped me organize my thoughts and content in a form that I can reuse. So that was cool. Let me know if you’re interested in seeing the proposal. It took me most of July to get the proposal prepared.

But, one of the things they ask for is comparison books. Basically what are other book that have been published recently that are representative of how your book might be seen in the market and how did they perform.

My knee jerk reaction was to reach for famous apocalyptic books, like The Stand, or The Road, or The Earth Abides, or The Dog Stars. But I felt like this was lazy and not a true comparison. So, I researched more contemporary post-apocalyptic fiction and found three that I’ll share with you.

I listened to them all on audio, because I had a deadline. All of them were available through my library on the Hoopla app. So, my friends, if you love listening to post-apocalyptic fiction, get yourself a library card and use their app to get your fill of free, high-quality fiction.

The first book was A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen. It’s a post-apocalyptic family drama based in current day San Francisco Area. It was ok, but a bit soap opera with a wimpy main male character.

The second book was Moon of the running leaves by Waubgeshig Rice. It is written in the POV of a First Nations people in Canada searching for a new home after some sort vague systems collapse ends civilization and government. I really liked this book. Especially the audio version. It has a lyrical cadence to it. It is beautifully written.

The third was The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton. I think this was the best constructed of the three. The opening chapter builds characters and stakes so well and then grabs you by the throat. The stakes are high. The story is set in a rapidly devolving Florida. The environment is reclaiming the lands. Government is failing. Humanity and our protagonists learn to adapt and evolve.

These are all worth listening to. They are all deeper than just chase scenes and explosions.

And now we stumble into August and I’m turning my attention to several other projects. Including helping listener Colin create a 3-episode Australian apocalypse arc that we’ll start releasing in August.

And Mike Darling from the Apocalypse Post wants to collaborate on a story.

Anyhoo – go leave a comment on the podcast in whatever pod-catcher you’re using – give Pat and Virginia some feedback. You can always poke me on the After the Apocalypse Facebook page, and if any of this patter hits you in such a way that you want to talk to me directly, just send me an email at cyktrussell at Gmail.

But, before you do that, get my 2nd book, read it and leave a review.

And pull your face out of the cloying, fetid mud and gaze hopefully at the burning clouds and acid flashes of lightning. Hold your gaze.

And keep surviving.

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