5 Signs That Your City Is Becoming A Post-Apocalyptic Hell Zone

As much as most of us won’t admit it, the financial and social well-being of America is on the decline in many cities. That’s why you must immediately recognize the signs that the little cute dystopia you call home may be turning into a real life post-apocalyptic hell zone.

Sign #1 – You have two bachelor’s degrees, one master’s degree, an IQ of 200 and you’re a card carrying member of Mensa and you still can’t find a job. Even most dystopias need to hire someone to pull the torture lever when interrogating members of the resistance. So, if you can’t find work, you’re probably living in a post-apocalyptic hell zone.

Sign #2 – You’re the only living soul in a 20 mile radius and you don’t live in rural America. If you find that all your neighbors have moved away and left their houses to rot and become infested with rats and vicious criminals, then your city has definitely moved from a sweet dystopia filled with romance and good feelings to a full out apocalyptic nightmare.

Join our mailing list.

Sign #3 – You’ve gone to great lengths to make your home appear to be filled with an extended family of 30, plus a vicious dog when in reality it’s just you, your elderly mom and a three-legged mutt named Tiger. If you find yourself working overtime to give the appearance that someone is home by running lights, TV’s, radios, and random sounds streamed from your laptop because you fear that someone will strip your home right down to the frame while you’re on the street collecting scrap metal, then you probably live in a post-apocalyptic city.

Sign #4 – You’re dodging bullets on your way to the mailbox. If you’re always looking over your shoulder for fear that someone is following you, or if you’re wearing a bulletproof vest anytime you go to the bank, then your city is probably a post-apocalyptic hell hole.

Sign #5 – Even the postman won’t deliver your mail. The American postal system promises to deliver mail rain or shine, even in the event of a nuclear holocaust. So, if your postman hasn’t shown up to deliver your mail in years, you’re definitely trapped in a post-apocalyptic city.

Post-apocalyptic cities like the one in my novel New Hope City don’t get that way overnight. They get there over a long period of time. It’s like a cancer eating away at the fabric of the society, day by day. If you’re smart you’ll recognize the signs and get out while you still can. Do you live in a post-apocalyptic city? If so, share your experiences and/or photos, if you dare.

SunHi Mistwalker writes fiction set in dystopian 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.

After The Darkness: Omnibus Published

After The Darkness: Omnibus is published. This collection includes all six episodes from the first season and is $4.99.

Outlets: Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords, Apple (more coming soon)

Giveaway Winners

If you’re a LibraryThing reader who won a giveaway copy of After The Darkness: Episode Three, I will send you a Smashwords coupon by Monday, May 19, 2014.

SunHi Mistwalker writes fiction set in dystopian 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.

After The Darkness: Episode Six Published

New After The Darkness Episode Published

After The Darkness: Episode Six is finally published and available at Amazon, Nook and Smashwords.

Please visit http://sunhimistwalker.com/books/after-the-darkness-series/ to get your copy.

In the next week Episode Six should also be available at Apple and Kobo. I am currently working with Google Play to resolve issues surrounding
the failure to display episodes. But once that’s resolved Episode Six will also be available on Google Play.

New Hope City Sequel

For those of you waiting for the sequel to New Hope City, I’m working on it. I’m aiming to release the new book by the end of 2014. There are also other books coming out in 2014, so stay tuned.

Giveaway Winners

If you’re a LibraryThing reader who won a giveaway copy of After The Darkness Episode One, I will send you a Smashwords coupon by Wednesday, May 7, 2014.

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.

Poverty As A Form of Social Control

One of my favorite themes to explore in post-apocalyptic fiction is social collapse and social control. I’m specifically interested in how poverty is used as a form of social control in dystopian societies. I’ve given this some thought and I’ve come to believe that in any society that has a social hierarchy, you will have some form of poverty and that this lack of access to resources is often used as a form of social control. Below I explore a few of my thoughts on this matter.

When we think of poverty we think of starvation, homelessness, living in unsafe neighborhoods and lacking the essential resources of life. But poverty can also mean a lack of access to channels of power, lack of status and lack of recognition. Poverty takes many shapes in both real and fictional worlds. Poverty is also relative and therefore a state of mind. Think about it: Someone living in a rural village where no one has electricity may have a different idea of what poverty is, while someone living in the US would immediately consider themselves poor if they were no longer able to afford their electric bill. In that sense poverty is relative. Now taking this idea a little further, outside of the basics such as food, water, shelter and relative safety, everything else we “need” is in fact a manufactured need. The electricity we need is there because so many things in our lives depend on it—the ability to keep our food fresh, to plug in our computers which some of us use for work, to charge our phones which we use to communicate.   When these necessities (including the basics) are unaffordable or scarce we experience poverty. Social control rears its ugly head when those people in power use their control of resources bolster their own personal power and/or to force others to make choices they wouldn’t normally make. If you can control a human being’s access to food, water, and sense of safety you can exert serious power over his decisions.

In my futuristic, dystopian novel New Hope City, a small, southern city is in a state of collapse. Most citizens struggle to get the basics such as food, water and shelter, and most live with the constant fear of losing what little they have. And because both crime and corruption go unchecked, most citizens live with an unrelenting sense of terror and desperation. It’s under these circumstances that the main character, Sunni Brown, tries to eke out a life. But because of her desperate circumstances she’s become easy pickings for those in power. It’s her poverty that allows her to be exploited. In New Hope City, the people in power profit from the suffering of others, so they have no incentive to improve the city’s living conditions.

In my science fiction serial “After The Darkness” I explore several themes, but one of them is the use of social status as a form of social control. In this post-apocalyptic future, people are separated into “levels” with the highest levels having the most access to resources and the lowest levels have virtually no access. The people in power use social status to control the will of the people. In the beginning of the serial, the main character, Nadia, is stripped of her higher status and made to live at the bottom of society. This punishment is a warning to others who would dare to question the choices of the people in control. It’s this type of social control that allows the city leaders unchecked power to do horrendous things in the name of keeping order or honoring the sacrifices of their ancestors. By threatening their citizens with poverty and the loss of status they can make them bend to their will.

While I don’t believe that poverty as a form of social control renders any human being completely helpless, I do believe it leaves them with limited and very difficult choices. I’m looking forward to exploring this theme further in my future post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction.

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.

After The Darkness: Beta Reader Feedback Positive So Far

The sixth episode of After The Darkness is still out with some beta readers, but so far I’m receiving positive feedback. Once the remaining beta readers respond by the 18th, the ebook should be available by the beginning of May. In other news, I’m working on the sequel to New Hope City and another new standalone scifi novel. I look forward to releasing these books this year.  Have a good holiday this weekend!

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.

After The Darkness: Episode Six Finally Done

I am finally done with After The Darkness: Episode Six and it will be going out to Beta Readers by next Friday. Please signup for the mailing list to receive a notification of when this episode is published.

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’m Still Here – Just Busy

I just wanted to send an update to everyone about upcoming books. The 6th episode of “After The Darkness” is almost done. I’m currently working on the final pages and will be sending it to beta readers soon. I appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm and patience. The follow-up book for “New Hope City” is still in the works, I’m in the beginning stages with it. Please signup for the mailing list to find out when these books are available.

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.

Happy Thanksgiving! (Yeah, I know it’s kinda late)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I feel like it’s been a long time since I updated my blog, but I wanted wish everyone a Happy (belated) Thanksgiving. It has been two years since I started publishing my fiction and I’ll say one thing, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.

The Gift of Life

I’ve just had another birthday and I’m extremely thankful for the gift of life. In the past few years I’ve lost my mom, my grandfather, and few other friends of friends who definitely left this place well before their time.  Every loss reminds me of just how fleeting life is and that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. The funny thing about it is that as time passes and I mature, I’m finding myself less stressed, less anxious, and more content with life. I’m learning to enjoy the journey just as much as reaching my destination.

The Gift of Friends and Family

Love is a verb, and there’s nothing like feeling loved and loving towards others. I’m thankful for all those people surrounding me who care about me, pick  me up when I’m down, and remind me that I’m special to them. When it comes to loved ones, I consider myself amongst the lucky few who have people in their life willing to stick with them even in the most difficult times.

The Gift of Writing

You know the old cliché that we’re all given talents and it’s up to us to use them effectively? Well, that’s how I view writing. I consider myself blessed to have the passion and talent for writing and the good foresight to cultivate my skills.

The Gift of Readers

This indie publishing journey has been made amazing, not just by the act of independent publishing, but by all the readers who have bought my stories. I’m eternally grateful to you all. Thank you!

A Few Story Updates

For those of you waiting for After The Darkness: Episode 6 and the sequel to New Hope City, I’m still working on them.  I don’t have a publication date, but signup for my mailing list and I’ll let you know when they’re available.

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.

LibraryThing Giveaway Winners – Notice

The LibraryThing readers who won a copy of After The Darkness: Episode 2 will receive their free copy by Wednesday, October 2, 2013. Thank you for your patience!

Attention LibraryThing Winners

If you’re one of the lucky winners of my recent LibraryThing giveaway for episode #1 and you want to receive a complimentary copy of episode 2 – 5, please signup for the mailing list. This offer is valid until September 10, 2013. Thanks!