Episode 5 is still in production. For those of you who know me personally, you know that 2013 has been all about taking the writing to another level. But to do that, it is taking me longer than usual to write episodes. I hope you guys don’t mind. I am on the final draft of this episode and the plan is to have it released this month. I appreciate your patience. 🙂
In the meantime please signup for my mailing list to be notified when this episode is released.
I’ve written a guest post for the talented writer Vivienne Mathews’ blog. Here’s a snippet and a link to the rest. Please check it out and read all of the other inspirational posts at her blog.
In many ways I had done everything right, I had begun training for the writer’s life as a child, working with professionals at a local newspaper in Chicago, training at a radio station and even doing a brief stint as a writer at a local cable show. And that was all before I’d reached eighteen. You might have thought that those years of training would have been enough to launch me into a career as a wordsmith. But it wasn’t. For years I wasted away my life working dead end jobs that only brought in enough money to feed, clothe and house myself, but the work never nourished my soul. The truth is that I had bought into a lie that many people, not just writers believe – you can’t make your living doing what you love, you should just suck it up and suffer, be the cog in the machine, the engine that runs someone else’s dream. I spent 12 years of my life living that story and I could feel myself dying, until one day I made the decision to jump off the treadmill and make a go for my dreams. Well, actually it didn’t happen that smoothly. First I was acted upon by an event that forced me to face my own mortality. Read the rest here.
SunHi Mistwalker writes fiction set in dystopic and post-apocalyptic worlds. Her new novel New Hope City, a dark coming-of-age story set in a post-apocalyptic America, follows the life of Sunni Brown, a teenage girl exploited by sex traffickers who tries to get a fresh start when she meets a disillusioned cop. She is also the author of the science fiction series After The Darkness. Please sign up for the mailing list for receive updates, freebies and special discounts. You can also follow SunHi on Twitter and Facebook.
I just wanted to thank all of the LibraryThing Winners who left reviews! Remember, you have until May 31st to use your coupons. Thanks a million!
If you’re one of the lucky winners of my recent LibraryThing giveaway for episode #3 and #4 of “After The Darkness,” please note that you will receive a free Smashwords coupon to download your copy of the books (in the format of your choice) by Monday, May 20, 2013. Thanks for your patience! If you’re a winner of the giveaway and you want to receive a complimentary copy of episode 1 and 2, please signup for the mailing list. Thanks!
In a world that’s gone to hell in a hand basket, no man (or woman) can survive on Twinkies alone, besides, they’ve gone out of business already. So what should a post-apocalyptic survivor living a wintery hell nosh on when their stomach gets to grumbling?  Let’s take a nibble at a few ideas:
Protein –And Lots of It
Photo by Jo Naylor
Protein is the building block of life, so if you don’t eat it, you’re just as good as dead. Skip too many protein meals and you might as well hand yourself over to Mr. and Mrs. Cannibal next door. In my science fiction series After The Darkness, the City of Calcane gives every citizen his/her fair share of protein, but that’s only if they’re behaving. If they’re not behaving – as in launching citizen rebellions and speaking against the principles of the city’s founding fathers — they may find themselves starving to death.
Synthesized (And Real) BLOOD
If protein is the building block of life, then blood is the juice that keeps the machinery running. And after you’re done “ewwwwing” and turning up your nose at this refreshing and nutritious drink that blood can be, then you can add it to your list of things you will need to eat (okay – drink) in a futuristic world that’s gone straight to hell. In After The Darkness, blood is a integral part of most people’s daily sustenance. It’s synthesized and enriched with essential vitamins and minerals that keep citizens healthy despite the scarcity of food. So when you’re living in a protective dome city like the citizens of Calcane, just think of your bloody drink as a thick and colorful tonic that’ll keep the reaper at bay.
Genetically Enhanced Food
When the planet has gone through an ecological collapse, there isn’t much room for growing crops, pruning fruit trees or foraging in vast rainforests teeming with life, because those things no longer exist. So the society will need to summon every single creative brain cell to figure out exactly how to grow food. Now think carefully, what can a society do when every last inch of the planet is covered in snow and ice?   Well, they do what any smart post-apocalyptic society would do –start fiddling around with genes, synthetic light and pick the brains of their most diabolical scientific minds and Viola! they’ve got just enough genetically engineered food to feed (and control) an elite class of citizens.  If you can climb your way to the top, you too can enjoy synthetic and vaguely nutritional ham and eggs every morning.
SunHi Mistwalker writes dystopic and post-apocalyptic fiction. Her science fiction series After The Darkness is set in a dark, wintery dystopia where an elite class of citizens uses food, shelter and protection from the harsh elements to control the powerless.  A child of a powerful family, Nadia, is categorized and cast out of the elite class. Now she must fight to save herself and what’s left of her family. Percy, an agent of the oppressive city government, searches for redemption by doing what no other citizen would do – help someone who’s been categorized. Please sign up for the mailing list to receive updates, freebies and special discounts.
If you’re one of the lucky winners of my recent LibraryThing giveaway for the first two episodes of “After The Darkness,” please note that you will receive a free Smashwords coupon to download your copy of the books (in the format of your choice) by Monday, May 13, 2013. Thanks for your patience! If you’re a winner of the giveaway and you want to receive a complimentary copy of episode 3 and 4, please signup for the mailing list. Thanks!
ETA: If you’ve won a free copy of New Hope City, you will receive the free Smashwords coupon by May 14, 2013
Photo by Tiffanie J.
I’ve been following the news story about three young women in Cleveland, Ohio who were reunited with their families after ten years in captivity. It certainly is a horror story, albeit one with a happy ending. It’s so rare that kidnapping victims are found alive that the discovery of these three women is nothing short of a miracle. Everyone, including myself, is happy to see these women rescued. But there are these nagging feelings and questions that have been bothering me all day. How is it possible that three women and a child can be held in captivity for ten years and no one notice?  Had not one person in that neighborhood stepped inside that house – IN TEN YEARS? Had not one person recognized signs that something was wrong? Or, did they see and turn a blind eye? Or maybe they did report it to authorities and the authorities didn’t care? According to CNN, one of the next door neighbors of this house of horrors was brave enough to call the police but wasn’t taken seriously.
“She was just walking around, and naked,” Samoylicz said. “We thought that was weird. We thought it was funny at first, and then we thought that was weird so we called the cops. They thought we was playing, joking, they didn’t believe us.”
And that’s not all, another neighbor, Israel Lugo, heard screaming coming from the house, but when he called the police they only did the minimal investigation which was to knock on the door and leave when no one answered.  Can you imagine being in that house and hearing the police outside, hoping that they will rescue you, only to have them walk away? Now can you imagine hearing people partying in the backyard and barbequing while you’re inside suffering?  Just the idea of this makes me angry. I do not believe for one split second that everyone in that neighborhood was somehow kept in the dark about what was happening in that house.  I believe that SOMEONE knew. Someone knew and decided to shrug it off or tell themselves that it was none of their business. That’s what my instincts say. My instincts also say that in a city that is ranked as one of the most dangerous in the country, minding your own business is probably the unspoken rule.
My novel New Hope City is set in a place like that, a place where people turn a blind eye to the crime, abuse, corruption, and where the police simply ignore your suffering – and that’s if you’re lucky. These types of places exist; they’re here, right now in America and all over the world. And I think it’s critical for all of us to recognize that there is evil in this world. If we fail to recognize that evil exists, how can we stop it? How can we choose to be one of the good guys if we believe that these types of things don’t happen? This is one of the reasons that I write the type of stories I do. I want people to get a glimpse at how things sometimes go wrong and how bad things sometimes happen to good people for no apparent reason.
SunHi Mistwalker writes fiction set in dystopic and post-apocalyptic worlds. Her new novel New Hope City, a dark coming-of-age story set in a post-apocalyptic America, follows the life of Sunni Brown, a teenage girl exploited by sex traffickers who tries to get a fresh start when she meets a disillusioned cop. She is also the author of the science fiction series After The Darkness. Please sign up for the mailing list for receive updates, freebies and special discounts.
NEW HOPE CITY
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