The Journal: Cracked Earth
Read The Journal: Cracked Earth Online
Authors: Deborah D. Moore
Tags: #undead, #disaster, #survival guide, #prepper, #survival, #zombie, #prepper fiction, #preparedness, #outbreak, #apocalypse, #postapocalypse
The Journal
“Allexa is a strong, yet emotional person who
only became stronger (mentally) as the story progressed. I loved
the story and the story line, and would highly recommend the book
to anyone who was interested in young audiences, love and
loss, post apocalyptic uncertainty and the struggle of
life.”
- Nick B.
“Deborah Moore creates a world that CAN
happen and how to survive it. The characters and story line can
place you in ANY town, ANY where. It was a book I couldn’t put down
and showed me how prepared I need to be.”
- Pam O.
“I had thought before reading
The
Journal
that I knew a lot about prepping, but as I read, I
realized, I'm one of those people who would be waiting for the
government to help and starving to death in the meantime. This book
was compelling as well as informative. I found the characters
to be realistic and reactions to events to be in line with what
would most likely occur during an apocalyptic situation. I enjoyed
the "to do" list as the main character progressed through the
story. I walked away feeling entertained as well as educated. I
can't wait to see where the story goes from here.”
- Dee Streiner, author of
The
Guardianship
“The book,
The Journal: Cracked Earth
,
is a ‘good read’ in the sense that it carries the reader along
quickly. It never dragged even in the passages about gardening and
food storage. I’m not a gardener, and the first page made me wonder
what kind of a diary was this going to be. But like the main
character, I make lists all the time, too. The book has a tone of
realism about it, since the author/diarist focuses on what she is
doing, recording her day, which naturally does not include
descriptions of the layout of the town or the austere landscape.
The focus on the lists and the winter preparations seems natural
for a person living in rural UP. However, the sense of impending
calamity begins early with the news on the fourth entry in the
diary about far away urban disorder in the streets. The natural
disasters that overwhelm the country begin with the actual and add
the very real possibility of earthquakes and floods and power
disruptions.
The response of a small community to its
isolation and loss of power reflected the real dynamics in any
group of people: some people are good and some people are bad. I
liked the description of a church opening up a “stone soup”
kitchen. That too seemed realistic that a community church could
rally people to pull together and help each other. As winter
deepened, the deaths of the elderly and infirm also seemed all too
natural. It reminded me of the heat wave in Chicago in 1995 when
over 750 heat-related deaths of the mostly isolated elderly
occurred in just five days.
I was disturbed by the violence in the novel,
where almost everyone seemed to “pack a gun.” While I might not
share the same view of human nature as the author, I can accept the
increasing desperation of the characters in the context of months
of isolation and disorder. This is after all a novel of disaster
and survival, and I am looking forward to the sequel to see what
spring will bring.”
- Janice M.
A PERMUTED PRESS book
Published at Smashwords
ISBN (Trade Paperback): 978-1-61868-322-9
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-61868-323-6
The Journal
copyright © 2014
by Deborah Moore
All Rights Reserved.
Cover art by Matt Mosley
This
book
is
a
work
of
fiction
.
People
,
places
,
events
,
and
situations
are
the
product
of
the
author’s
imagination
.
Any
resemblance
to
actual
persons
,
living
or
dead
,
or
historical
events
,
is
purely
coincidental
.
No
part
of
this
book
may
be
reproduced
,
stored
in
a
retrieval
system
,
or
transmitted
by
any
means
without
the
written
permission
of
the
author
and
publisher
.
Go far from me
But stay close
For I want to be alone
With someone near
D. Moore
John N.
…find me.
Table of Contents
I first met Deborah in an online
survival/prepper forum several years ago. I’ll be honest in that,
at first, she drove me nuts. It seemed like she
always
had
an opinion on just about any topic that was posted, particularly
those that centered on homesteading or living off the grid. After a
while, though, I understood why she felt it necessary to address
these topics again and again.
She knew what the hell she was talking
about.
Deborah lived off the grid for several years.
She learned, through trial and error as well as otherwise, what
really worked and what didn’t. Experiential learning often makes
for the longest lasting lessons, the ones that you never
forget.
Over the years, I came to value Deborah’s
opinion on many subjects, simply because I knew those opinions were
based on hard realities, not simply book learning. Eventually, she,
a couple of other friends, and myself decided to work together on a
website. This was to be a place where we could share our various
experiences, our knowledge, and our skills with the world.
That site, SurvivalWeekly.com, was also where
the book you’re holding was born. Well, truth be told, it may not
have been born there but that was the nursery where everyone came
to see the new arrival, so to speak. From the very beginning, it
gained a loyal following, a following that grew with each
installment. It quickly got to the point where people were quick to
notice if an installment was late for some reason. As the story
went on, fans were riveted. They clamored to hear more about how
Allexa and the others in Moose Creek were faring under a range of
different emergencies.
One thing I really appreciate about The
Journal is that it is very much based in reality. We don’t have
characters who are some sort of super-soldier, capable of surviving
eleventy million gunfights with nary a scratch. No, Allexa and her
friends are all too human. They quibble and quarrel. They make
mistakes. They aren’t perfect. They fall in love and they lose
loved ones.
In other words, they are just like you and
I.
As you read The Journal and get to know
Allexa, you’re also getting to know Deborah, at least a bit. See,
there’s an awful lot of Deborah in that character. As the saying
goes, “Write what you know.” Well, that’s what Deborah has done
here. Deborah knows prepping. She’s been there, done that. She’s
lived a prepping lifestyle since before the word “prepping” came
into common parlance and for most of that time, she’s done it all
on her own. She knows what has to be done each and every year in
order to make it through. Putting up the food, preparing the cords
of firewood, laying in the necessary supplies in sufficient
quantities, the list goes on and on. All of it while fully
realizing there is a strong likelihood that there may be weeks at a
time when just getting to the barn and back might be an ordeal due
to the winter weather, let alone any sort of traveling.