Hi, gang. Thanks for joining me for yet another promo post about “Once Upon a Time in the Swamp.” While these are completely promotional, I also want them to be interesting. A large percentage of my readers are authors, and maybe some of this can inspire your next tale.
The post apocalyptic Gulf Coast was kind of a stickpin for me. What would a failed world look like after decades? I put my effort into this, and came up with forest fires, hurricanes, rust, and more. I added earthquakes into the mix as a result of nuclear warfare that happened before this story opens.
As Mari wanders in the swampland, she spends the night in a burned out old military helicopter. She has to cross crumbling bridges, and there are odd buildings that have been repurposed by a new civilization. One example is a restaurant that is sited in a former medical clinic.
One of her friends and mentors lives in an old country gas station. During an extreme storm event they have to flee to a dilapidated concrete potato cellar.
Mari wanders to sites both real and made up. It’s a work of fiction, so I renamed a few towns based upon the people that took them over. I kept enough that someone could actually follow her journey on a map.
One of those places is a real NASA facility. It’s overgrown and crumbled now. Another one is a dinosaur park. You may have seen something similar. There is a good one along the Oregon coast that I used for inspiration. They have fiberglass full sized dinosaurs back in the forest. It was kind of fun, because Mari has no idea what they are or were.
I’m not above coming up with my own stuff, and I did in this story. Imagining the state of decay after we lose power grids, automobiles, and a lot of lives, enhanced the world Mari lives in.
This world isn’t the main part of the story, but it serves an important purpose. As Mari wanders, she reveals tidbits about what happened in the previous world. I always enjoy reading that, and assumed there are other weirdos out there like me.
If you are, or would like to be, one of those weirdos, I have a story for you to read. Tell your friends, share with your covens, drop a link at your various secret societies. I would appreciate it, and they might, too.
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Blurb: Mari and her husband opted for a simple life as farmers. It’s been decades since the world tore itself apart, pitting neighbor against neighbor and family against each other. They were happy in this re-emerging world, until disaster struck.
Mari sets out on a solo quest to avenge the deaths of her family and loss of everything she holds dear. She’s ill equipped for the task, but seems to have time on her hands. Time alone in the wilderness to deal with her personal demons along the way.
She is helped by a few sympathetic elders and a couple of animal companions with lessons Mari can use if she pays attention. Can Mari find justice for her family?
Set in a post apocalyptic, Gulf Coast world, this is a story for fans of the old Spaghetti Westerns.
Get your copy right here https://mybook.to/OnceUponTimeSwamp