Officer of the Watch

Some Q & A

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One of the coolest aspects of being a self-published author is the direct contact I have with my audience. Some readers are family members and friends that I’ve known for years, but many are people I have never met personally who have picked up a copy of my books through Amazon and have left feedback in the form of a review, a comment here on my website, or one of the various social media platforms on which I am active. And since I just released the third installment in the Blackout Series, Zero Hour, I thought this might be a good time to address a few of the more common questions I get from readers about the books and the series in general. Continue reading →

IT’S HERE!!!

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Kindle Cover

I am extremely happy to announce that Zero Hour, the third installment in the Blackout series, is available for purchase on Kindle and download through Kindle Unlimited.  I submitted the files Saturday, and as of yesterday evening everything seemed to be working on the Kindle page.  Continue reading →

Happy Cyber Monday

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happy-kids-computer

I am not a person who typically enjoys being in a large crowd.  There are, of course, exceptions to that rule, but they are few and far between.  I can tolerate large audiences outside at events like concerts, fairs, or the occasional NC State football game, but a lot of that tolerance is dependent on who I’m enjoying these events and venues with.  One crowd that I absolutely refuse to throw myself into is the so-called “Black Friday” shopping craze.  Continue reading →

Storm Tide Rising Print Cover #STR

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Print BookCoverPreview

I’m working right now on designing the paperback version for my upcoming book Storm Tide Rising, the second installment in the Blackout Series.  This is a preview of the cover design that I’ve been putting together.  Let me know what you guys think, and I’ll keep posting updates as I get the interior layout and design finalized.  The paperback should be ready to release by the 4th when the Kindle version goes live if everything goes according to plan (fingers crossed).

Thanks for reading!

UPDATE: Black Out Series #STR

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The release of Storm Tide Rising a little more than a week and a half away and I am getting very excited! This book has been more than a year in the making, and I know a lot of you have been looking forward to it for a while now. I want to thank you for your patience while I worked my way through the manuscript and editing process. Most of this book, like Officer of the Watch, was written in the late night/early morning hours after work, kids, and everything else had been put to bed for the day. I put the final edits on the manuscript today, and it’s an awesome feeling to finally see that hard work finally finished.

Along with the launch of Storm Tide Rising, I have designed a new and updated cover for the first book in the series, Officer of the Watch. The new cover is currently available only on the Kindle version, but I’m working on updating the paperback as well. I will also be offering a limited run of signature series First Edition copies of Officer of the Watch soon, so stay tuned for details.

Storm Tide Rising is available now on Kindle Pre-order (here), and will be available for direct purchase on April 4th. I’m working on the cover layout and internal design for the paperback, and should have that available by the end of April as well. And, for those of you who are already looking ahead, I am hard at work on the manuscript for the third book in the series, Zero Hour.

Thank you all for your love and support, and as always….Thanks for reading!

DWM.

First Aid Basics

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When looking into the basics for disaster and survival preparedness, there are a few staples that cannot be ignored. Food, water, security, and First Aid are typically the big four that most specialists will agree are absolutely necessary. Secure these four things and you’ve gone a long way to ensuring your immediate, if not overall, survival. I did a post on finding water a couple of months back, and today I want to talk about another of the big four survival necessities; First Aid. Continue reading →

Flint Knapping Intro: Painful Lessons

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Some of my early obsidian points and a field found paleo-style blade

I’ve talked about flint knapping a little in my books and I figured it’d be good to let people know what that really is.  At its most basic, the skill or art of flint knapping is the shaping of stone to make blades, points, and other implements.  When you think about the classic, often inaccurate image of Native American combat, you think of bows and stone-tipped arrows, spears and tomahawks.  Those stone projectile points, weapon blades, and tools such as drills, grinders, scrapers, needles, fishing hooks, harpoons, and dozens of others were all possible with skilled flint knapping. 

 However, from the time the first European settlers set foot in North America, the art of flint knapping was on borrowed time.  And, for a while, it nearly disappeared completely from the cultural lexicon of America.     Continue reading →