Inflation and EMP
“A Humvee parked in front of his house couldn’t mean anything good.” That’s the first line of The Storm Rises, the exciting sidequel to Through the Storm, of the Solar Storms Saga. The series examines the very real possibility of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) destroying modern technology. Why am I mentioning all of this, other than blatant self-promotion? Well—for two reasons.
An EMP originated from the sun and hit the Earth before. There wasn’t much technology in 1859 when it last happened, telegraph systems around the world failed and in some cases sparked, starting small fires, and shocked operators. Wikipedia reports that “Some operators were able to continue to send and receive messages despite having disconnected their power supplies.” That occurrence is now known as The Carrington Event. If it happened today, it could burn out the electrical grid, destroy satellites, fry computers, and much more. I think it’s important to know that such a thing could happen again. That’s the first reason for this post and why I wrote about it.
The Solar Storm Saga is my way of showing what would happen during such a disaster. The back cover copy describes the first book this way. “After a camping trip with his oldest son, Major Dirk Franklin comes home to find a Humvee parked in front of his house. His wife, Carol, tells him the news channels are talking about a storm on the sun. Moments later, he’s whisked away to a secret military facility in Portland. There, Major Franklin and others struggle to prepare for the coming collapse of society. As the world sinks into darkness, Franklin fights to save his family and the last threads of civilization.”
That brings me to the second reason for this blogpost. The ebook edition of the first book in the series, The Storm Rises, has sold for 99cents since it was released in 2018. That price must change. Over the last few years inflation has pushed the cost for most things higher. That includes my publishing costs so, I will be raising prices in September. If the Solar Storms Saga interests you, buy it now.