{"id":403,"date":"2009-06-04T08:48:49","date_gmt":"2009-06-04T13:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=403"},"modified":"2018-10-31T08:29:43","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T12:29:43","slug":"my-little-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=403","title":{"rendered":"My Little Apocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve long had a terrible weakness for post-apocalypse stories, and am thrilled to finally be reading Terry Nation\u2019s Survivors<\/a>, which a kind reader picked up for me from my overcrowded Amazon Wish List<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Much of the post-apocalypse nonsense has spilled over into my writing.\u00a0 You\u2019ve just finished reading The Walkers<\/em><\/a> and, starting this Sunday, you\u2019ll suffer through a few weeks of my early 90\u2019s attempt at an apocalypse story, In This Darkness<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Of course, Judgment Day<\/em><\/a> premiers tomorrow in its new regular Friday spot.\u00a0\u00a0 Well, a brief introduction premieres\u2026 You\u2019ll have to wait till next week to start reading the novel.\u00a0 (Nothing at that link today, but that’ll be the home for the novel.)<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve been going through Judgment Day<\/em>, and the two post-apocalyptic shorts in the Sunday Archives, I find myself back on the apocalypse train.\u00a0 An idea I\u2019ve had batting around my head for the last couple of years.\u00a0 My schedule makes it impossible, but I\u2019m debating launching into yet another failed novel project.\u00a0 Just to say that I did it again.\u00a0 At this point, the only thing that really keeps me writing is the driving need to keep content moving here on GS, per my now long ago 2007 New Year\u2019s Resolution.\u00a0 When you work five jobs, getting an article together can be a serious chore.\u00a0 Especially when the two jobs that consume my time \u2013 the regular day job and the weekend job \u2013 are full of interruptions.\u00a0 I\u2019ve timed it at my day job: Every two minutes, someone will come in to talk about nonsense or try to relieve their boredom.\u00a0 They\u2019ll do this even if I\u2019m wearing headphones, reading, on the phone, or pointedly ignoring them.<\/p>\n

Everyone at my day job is brain dead and, in the end, it\u2019s actually insulting to be there.\u00a0 But\u2026tra-la-la.\u00a0 I have publishing debt to pay off before I can flee to a cabin in the Ozarks and raise rattlesnakes.\u00a0 (My current goal in life.)<\/p>\n

The good thing about living in the Ozarks is that, when the bowel cancer hits, I can just go throw myself off a cliff and be eaten by animals.\u00a0 The manly way to go.\u00a0 I refuse to die in a hospital when the time comes\u2026<\/p>\n

The worry with writing an apocalypse story (and reading one), is that I start to daydream.\u00a0 I walk around the city at lunchtime and imagine the streets empty. Terror raining down on all the pencil neck office workers.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always dreamed of being the sole survivor\u2026I think most people do.\u00a0 Certainly only children from the latchkey generation where, every day from around 3pm until our parents dragged home in the evening, we were sole survivors.\u00a0 Batting around the house completing chores and homework in time to watch GI Joe and Transformers, playing alone down in the woods, or at the end of the garden, or, in my case, in the open sewer that goes by the quaint name of Rock Creek in Kensington, MD.\u00a0 Rock Creek Park is a huge greenspace cutting through Kensington and roaring into DC.\u00a0 The creek somewhat formidable in a few areas, but mostly shallow and inviting.\u00a0 The woods a haven for hobos \u2013 lean-to\u2019s and trash piles here and there \u2013 but otherwise safe, because Kensington is where the rich people grew up.\u00a0 You could weave through the tangled forest in a sort of Bridge to Terabithia<\/em> haze, usually coming up on the Beltway where you could crouch and watch cars scream past, or dig through the trash for something of value.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve talked about my old Rock Creek haunts before<\/a>, so no need to continue.\u00a0 Besides, I have to go reread the intro to Judgment Day<\/em> and make sure it makes sense.\u00a0 I wrote it before I started re-reading and serializing the book, so maybe my attitudes have changed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve long had a terrible weakness for post-apocalypse stories, and am thrilled to finally be reading Terry Nation\u2019s Survivors, which a kind reader picked up for me from my overcrowded Amazon Wish List.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[403,120,60],"class_list":["post-403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cult-culture","tag-cult-culture","tag-pa","tag-post-apocalypse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":890,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions\/890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}