Stephen Drivick's Blog - Posts Tagged "post-apocalyptic"
What To Do?
Sometimes We Ran 2: Community is out in the wide world and selling. I'm thinking of part 3, but I like to relax a bit and let the story marinate a bit in my head. I'll probably lay a few words down in March.
Meanwhile, I could do something else. I started, but threw away a few ideas for some novelettes. These two gems are currently hiding on my hard drive:
-a future, high-tech amusement park where the robots go nuts.
-a future, post-apocalyptic Earth that has returned to feudal times with kings and knights. The radiation from the bombs has given rise to people with "magical powers." I admit...this idea might have been influenced by watching Adventure Time on Nick. :)
Hmmm...what to do? Should I pursue or let these ideas continue their slumber?
Meanwhile, I could do something else. I started, but threw away a few ideas for some novelettes. These two gems are currently hiding on my hard drive:
-a future, high-tech amusement park where the robots go nuts.
-a future, post-apocalyptic Earth that has returned to feudal times with kings and knights. The radiation from the bombs has given rise to people with "magical powers." I admit...this idea might have been influenced by watching Adventure Time on Nick. :)
Hmmm...what to do? Should I pursue or let these ideas continue their slumber?
End of the World Fiction
This is my fifth entry for the April A-Z blogging challenge. Today we look at the letter E-End of the World Fiction
“I'm Stephen Drivick and I am going to destroy the world.”
When I opened my Twitter account, this was going to be the first line of my profile. Then I chickened out, thought it was a little too cute, and changed it to something else.:)
When I was in high school, (in the 80's) the End of the World was serious business. They made us watch The Day After, and taught us how nuclear bombs worked in science class. They sent home actual disaster plans that included what to do in case of nuclear war. The Cold War was at its peak. The thought that the Russians could attack any day was a real, horrifying thought.
All this preoccupation with widespread destruction led me to apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. One of the first books I picked up in high school was The War of the Worlds By H.G. Wells. It was a little antiquated, but a really good read. Wells described a terrifying invasion of other worldly monsters in 1800's England. Man was hopeless against the attacks, and it takes a few germs to bring down the invaders. I still read it today on my Kindle. The description of the Martian death call in the empty confines of a dead city still raises goosebumps on my skin.
A few years later, I picked up Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. This is the story of a fifties-style nuclear war and its effects on a rural Florida town. Again, a little antiquated but a very good read. It had a realistic view of survival, that ends with a community debating carrying out the death sentence on some bandits. Alas, Babylon had a great influence on the style of Sometimes We Ran.
And then there's The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's a story of a father and his boy going south trying to escape an unspecified apocalypse. The book is chock full of disturbing images like cannibalism and coughing up blood, so it's not for the timid. Look past that, and it's a story of keeping your humanity in a world turned upside down. It's about surviving at all costs, and what lengths you would take to make it. No novel about the apocalypse before or since, I think, has influenced the genre more. The Road also has a permanent spot on my Kindle.
There are many other books about the End of the World that I have read. Some were pretty good, others descended into gore festivals with leather bikini clad women fighting over the last can of peaches. They've all been a pretty good romp through the genre. I don't know why people are fascinated with the End of the World. I imagine a real apocalypse would not be as much fun with all the death and all. At their heart, stories about the apocalypse and its aftermath are fun adventure tales. I think that it is the reason we all like them so much. I picked zombies to write about, and it has been kind of fun.:)
“I'm Stephen Drivick and I am going to destroy the world.”
When I opened my Twitter account, this was going to be the first line of my profile. Then I chickened out, thought it was a little too cute, and changed it to something else.:)
When I was in high school, (in the 80's) the End of the World was serious business. They made us watch The Day After, and taught us how nuclear bombs worked in science class. They sent home actual disaster plans that included what to do in case of nuclear war. The Cold War was at its peak. The thought that the Russians could attack any day was a real, horrifying thought.
All this preoccupation with widespread destruction led me to apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. One of the first books I picked up in high school was The War of the Worlds By H.G. Wells. It was a little antiquated, but a really good read. Wells described a terrifying invasion of other worldly monsters in 1800's England. Man was hopeless against the attacks, and it takes a few germs to bring down the invaders. I still read it today on my Kindle. The description of the Martian death call in the empty confines of a dead city still raises goosebumps on my skin.
A few years later, I picked up Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. This is the story of a fifties-style nuclear war and its effects on a rural Florida town. Again, a little antiquated but a very good read. It had a realistic view of survival, that ends with a community debating carrying out the death sentence on some bandits. Alas, Babylon had a great influence on the style of Sometimes We Ran.
And then there's The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's a story of a father and his boy going south trying to escape an unspecified apocalypse. The book is chock full of disturbing images like cannibalism and coughing up blood, so it's not for the timid. Look past that, and it's a story of keeping your humanity in a world turned upside down. It's about surviving at all costs, and what lengths you would take to make it. No novel about the apocalypse before or since, I think, has influenced the genre more. The Road also has a permanent spot on my Kindle.
There are many other books about the End of the World that I have read. Some were pretty good, others descended into gore festivals with leather bikini clad women fighting over the last can of peaches. They've all been a pretty good romp through the genre. I don't know why people are fascinated with the End of the World. I imagine a real apocalypse would not be as much fun with all the death and all. At their heart, stories about the apocalypse and its aftermath are fun adventure tales. I think that it is the reason we all like them so much. I picked zombies to write about, and it has been kind of fun.:)
Humanity
This is my eighth entry in the A-Z Blogging Challenge for April. Today we look at the letter H-Humanity.
We live in a society where most of our needs are provided to us. Turn a faucet, and clean water pours out. Flip a switch and your room fills with light. The grocery stores are filled with all types of food. Information is available to us at a moments notice on our phones. There's plenty of fuel to fill up your car, motorcycle, boat, etc. You get the idea.
But what if you took some or all of it away? It's a forgone conclusion that our ordered world would go to hell in a hurry.
Unfortunately, I have a real-world example. A few years ago, Hurricane Katina knocked out the gasoline pipelines from the Gulf of Mexico to Georgia. Pretty soon, the supplies of gasoline dried up. I had the misfortune of driving a muscle car Firebird with a V8 engine and a thirst for premium fuel. I couldn't find fuel, and when I did find fuel I had to buy in it in the midst of chaos. At some stations, I was witnessing the unraveling of society with yelling, cutting in line, and yes, physical threats. I started carrying a bat in my car! (No kidding ...I really did this). It got so bad, people followed tankers around. I started working at home till the supplies came back.
This was just from a temporary change in the gasoline supply.
I had a few simple questions when I began writing Sometimes We Ran: A Story from the Zombie Apocalypse. What would you do to ensure your survival? Would you kill someone to get their supplies? Could you keep your humanity?
Based on the example above, I wouldn't be able to answer so easily. Those people knew more gasoline was coming and yet they still acted like anti-social jerks. Even I started carrying a weapon in my car, and I consider myself pretty easy going. I was so afraid that I imagined myself caving in the skull of the first person to put their hand on my gas filler door. This does not bode well for my humanity.
Now, what if the gasoline in those underground tanks was the last gasoline in the area ...forever. Cars would be flipped, bricks would be tossed, and I sure gun play would start. Humanity lost. People would kill or injure for those last gallons, and I have no doubt they would probably kill or injure to keep it. All of us would have to consider the possibility of facing down our fellow survivors.
This is one of the great themes of Post-Apocalyptic/Zombie fiction. The real story in end of the world novels is not the apocalypse itself, but the people left behind. It's how they deal with the morality in the new world that makes an exciting tale. I just hope I never have to deal with it for real.
We live in a society where most of our needs are provided to us. Turn a faucet, and clean water pours out. Flip a switch and your room fills with light. The grocery stores are filled with all types of food. Information is available to us at a moments notice on our phones. There's plenty of fuel to fill up your car, motorcycle, boat, etc. You get the idea.
But what if you took some or all of it away? It's a forgone conclusion that our ordered world would go to hell in a hurry.
Unfortunately, I have a real-world example. A few years ago, Hurricane Katina knocked out the gasoline pipelines from the Gulf of Mexico to Georgia. Pretty soon, the supplies of gasoline dried up. I had the misfortune of driving a muscle car Firebird with a V8 engine and a thirst for premium fuel. I couldn't find fuel, and when I did find fuel I had to buy in it in the midst of chaos. At some stations, I was witnessing the unraveling of society with yelling, cutting in line, and yes, physical threats. I started carrying a bat in my car! (No kidding ...I really did this). It got so bad, people followed tankers around. I started working at home till the supplies came back.
This was just from a temporary change in the gasoline supply.
I had a few simple questions when I began writing Sometimes We Ran: A Story from the Zombie Apocalypse. What would you do to ensure your survival? Would you kill someone to get their supplies? Could you keep your humanity?
Based on the example above, I wouldn't be able to answer so easily. Those people knew more gasoline was coming and yet they still acted like anti-social jerks. Even I started carrying a weapon in my car, and I consider myself pretty easy going. I was so afraid that I imagined myself caving in the skull of the first person to put their hand on my gas filler door. This does not bode well for my humanity.
Now, what if the gasoline in those underground tanks was the last gasoline in the area ...forever. Cars would be flipped, bricks would be tossed, and I sure gun play would start. Humanity lost. People would kill or injure for those last gallons, and I have no doubt they would probably kill or injure to keep it. All of us would have to consider the possibility of facing down our fellow survivors.
This is one of the great themes of Post-Apocalyptic/Zombie fiction. The real story in end of the world novels is not the apocalypse itself, but the people left behind. It's how they deal with the morality in the new world that makes an exciting tale. I just hope I never have to deal with it for real.
