Born Scott Michael Anderson and raised on a diverse diet of authors, ranging from J.R.R. Tolkien to Graham Greene, this week’s Prophet of Doom, uses his background in the CIA to craft memorably suspenseful tales of a post-apocalyptic conflict. Let’s now take a deeper dive into the work and mind of S.M. Anderson.
Copper:As a child, were there any books or movies that nudged you in the direction of apocalyptic fiction?
S.M: Having been a voracious reader since I can remember, I sort of feel that everything I’ve read or seen in terms of the post-apocalypse or dystopian calls back to the fact that I’m a child of the Cold War and grew up in the 70’s and 80’s when likelihood of nuclear armageddon was much more a part of everyday life than it is now. I actually think it’s more likely now than in the somewhat stable 2 great power system of the time – but I digress. . . In terms of books, “Swan Song” by Robert McCammon was seared into my memory. It’s a fantastic book. “The Earth Abides” – by George Stewart, and “I am Legend” by Richard Mattheson were both books I’ve re-read thirty years later and are every bit as good. I thought the Will Smith film was very well done.
But all that aside – the real reason I wrote “End of Summer” and the Seasons of Man series was that my wife likes dystopian fiction. I wanted to take a whirl at writing something that would interest her. My First series “The Eden Chronicles” was – or I guess is – straight up military/Sci-fi/portal world. She liked it, but it was so far removed from the stuff she generally reads I tried to do something different with “End of Summer.” Book three in that series releases in July 2022.
Copper: Most post-apocalyptic tales feature a danger from humans, from nature or from aliens. In your view, which of these threats are the most likely to bring down civilization?
S.M: Humans or Nature in my opinion. Nature just doesn’t care – it just is. For people that live in the shadow of a volcano, on a fault line or at an asteroid impact site – the stories we can tell are going to wind up being about the people anyway. Nature is just a backdrop, albeit a deadly one in many cases. Humans, even with all the wondrous things we can do – from putting a man on the moon, mapping the human genome or inventing the breakfast burrito – we are still capable and quite willing when pushed to act in ways that destroy the civilization we’ve built. I’ve always said, “good people” are capable of doing ANYTHING when it comes down to the basics of feeding and protecting your loved ones. I think that’s the central theme of my Seasons of Man series.
As for aliens, if they do come here, the simple fact that they are able to get here is going to mean they are so far ahead of us, they might view us as ants – or just well equipped primates. I find the stories of Earthlings fighting off invading space aliens fun to read – and maybe to write. Who knows the lengths I’d go to keep my access to breakfast burritos? But the central conceit of those stories is pure fantasy in my opinion.
Copper: Given your background in Intelligence, is there any particular book or movie that gets things particularly right as far as intelligence is concerned? Or are we all just getting it wrong?
S.M: Most of what is popular in the genre is well written and very entertaining but it bears little resemblance to the real-life intelligence world. The books that have stuck with me as being realistic are anything written by le Carre – “Russia House” is prime example but all his stuff is very good. “The Cardinal of the Kremlin” by Tom Clancy was good as well. Graham Greene wrote some incredible stuff during the Cold War to include “The Quiet American” which is a favorite of mine. Interestingly, in my opinion, some of the best fiction in the genre is tongue in cheek, farcical – Like the “Flashman” series or Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Agent.” Both are great reads and laugh out loud funny.
Copper: What one song would you hope survives the apocalypse for the sake of helping you maintain your sanity?
S.M: One song for the apocalypse? That’s a cruel question – my tastes are very eclectic depending on my mood. I could see myself going for a sad piece of country music; my dog died, my wife left me, aliens came and took all our Mexican food and beer kinda thing. In the end though, I’d want my classic rock – maybe Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” or some Metallica – “Whiskey in the Jar. I think I’d need a pick me-up.
Author Franklin Horton has exactly the background and storytelling skill needed to deliver high-octane post-apocalyptic thrillers. As you’ll see in this interview and in his books, he’s seen humanity at its darkest but doesn’t fall victim to pessimism. His books are gritty, but in the end, they are tales of survival, not defeat. (Links in description may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you).
Copper: What was your favorite book as a child?
Franklin: Farley Mowat’s Lost in the Barrens. Written in the 1950s, it was the story of two kids surviving a winter in the arctic. I read it over a dozen times.
Copper: Prior to becoming a full-time author, you’ve held a diverse range of jobs such as radio announcer, substance abuse educator, retail store owner and carpenter. Which of those jobs was best as far as providing you with material to use in your books?
Franklin: Definitely being a substance abuse educator. Besides teaching me a lot about human behavior and motivations, it showed me that substance abusers are a good example of apocalyptic behavior because they’re already living in their own personal apocalypse. Their desperate search for drugs mirrors how people might lose sight of their own morality in the post-apocalyptic search for food.
Copper: When it comes to apocalyptic societal collapse, are you more afraid of man-made catastrophes or natural catastrophes?
Franklin: I think natural catastrophes are far more likely to impact most people. I always tell people that I don’t prep because I’m afraid of EMPs. I prep because I know that all of us will at some point be impacted by flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, ice storms, blizzards, or something along that line. Everyone should have the ability to filter water, heat their home, and cook without relying on grid power. As far as man-made disasters, I don’t fear a sudden event as much as I fear the slow erosion of freedom, our rights, our financial security, and personal prosperity.
Copper: What one song would you hope survives the apocalypse for the sake of helping you maintain your sanity?
Franklin: Probably a good strong blues song like Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Pride and Joy. Nothing like the blues to remind a person that they can find joy even in the face of despair. That’s a recurrent theme in my books. If you can’t find happiness in the apocalypse, is there a reason to keep going on?
Each week, we feature interviews with your favorite post-apocalyptic and dystopian authors, directors, screenwriters and assorted nay-saying troublemakers! (Links in the descriptions may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you).
A.R. Shaw
Annette Shaw’s unique blend of evocative storytelling and nerdy, science-heavy backstory makes for captivating reading, as legions of dedicated fans would happily attest. Writing under A.R. Shaw, she debuted as an author in 2013 with The China Pandemic, an accidentally portentous tale of a world in peril due to a catastrophically lethal virus of sinister origin.
In the years since, she’s thrilled us with PA medical thrillers, survival stories and has even teased readers with the promise of an upcoming cozy post-apocalyptic novel!
While we ponder the debut of this intriguing sub-genre, let’s learn more about USA Today bestselling author A.R. Shaw.
Copper: You often deal with nature-related catastrophes as a theme in your books, but those catastrophes will frequently have human error or greed as their true source. When it comes to apocalyptic disasters, would you describe yourself as more fearful of humanity or nature?
A.R. I know there’s a lot to fear in the atrocities humanity is capable of, especially when they’re desperate, but I’d bet money any day of the week that Mother Nature has that one in the bag. Pompeii is a mild example. In fact, we keep finding remains of human existence much longer ago than anyone one fathomed. And the only eraser then was nature. Fear her above all others.
Copper: The China Pandemic is a truly frightening book made all the more frightening by the way it foreshadowed the current pandemic (minus the sinister origins). As a young reader, were you influenced by any books that frightened you?
A.R. Not necessarily frightened but Yes. I was an avid reader as a child. It kept me out of trouble. Mostly historical fiction and in particular, Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Surprisingly, that particular book showed me how one survives without power and by will alone. I mean, they did it back then. It was their way of life and it wasn’t really that long ago when you think about it. My grandparents parents lived with no power most of their lifetime. A little later, I was drawn to Alas Babylon, Earth Abides, and Lucifer’s Hammer. All early classics in the post-apocalyptic era. There’s something about stripping humans of all comforts and showing them what they’re made of, that intrigues me.
Copper: Has your military background as a communications radio operator influenced your approach to imagining a technologically crippled world?
In the late eighties, I worked on radio equipment from the 40’s and 50’s at Keesler AFB and Kelly’s MARS Station. Even the buildings we worked and were housed in, were from the WWII era. And Sgt. Green, my boss at the MARS station, was sitting at my desk a year before my appointment when he was the first point of contact after a devastating earthquake in Mexico City, about 1985, that had happened three days prior to the event. Thousands died. Radio was the only way they were able to get word out for help. It was a pretty remarkable event that seems lost to history. And though radio doesn’t always work…it’s still the most reliable way of communication when the grids, satellites, and towers go down. So most definitely, my writing is influenced by my back ground.
Copper: And finally, the most important apocalypse-related question: what one song would you need to survive the apocalypse to ensure your sanity?
Check out this new series of shorts: popular songs from the 70s and 80s (yeah, I’m old) re-invented as hard hitting tales of pulp.
Now let me channel my inner Casey Kasem:
Our number ten tale is How Long Can you Stand the Heat? is a story of betrayal, deceit and excessive gunplay. (Bonus points if you can guess the song that inspired it)
***
Steve never had a chance. From the second he got off that Greyhound straight from some Nebraska cornfield, it was clear that he’d get swallowed up by the game one way or the other. He was a boy getting mixed up with men and all the gangster movies in the world wouldn’t prepare him for us.
I wasn’t there at the time, but I’m guessing that when the others decided they’d rat me out and split the remaining take eight ways, it wasn’t Steve’s idea. He probably needed persuading, maybe even an easing of his conscience. But in the end, he must have said ‘yes,’ or at least ‘okay,’ so I didn’t waste an ounce of guilt over what happened next. Served his ass right for being so compliant.
For a job like this — late at night, public street — I’d usually go with something quiet and compact. A Sig Sauer maybe or a nine mm. Anything bigger might be a little loud, make too much of a mess.
But in this case, I wanted to make a mess.
I wanted the unlucky fucks who found Steve and the countless rubbernecking assholes who saw his shredded body on the pavement to know what happened when you crossed the wrong guy.
Anybody who mattered in that neighborhood had to know this wasn’t random. They all knew this was my turf, knew I must have had something to do with that misshapen collection of body parts they saw behind the police tape.
I was sending a message. Fuck with me, and you’ll wind up just like the rest. Another one gone. Hey! I was saying to anybody with ears to listen. I’m gonna get you too.
We waited there, crouched behind the door of JB’s, peeping through the mail slot as Steve crept down the street, body cloaked and head covered like he could hide those naive Nebraska eyes under his fedora’s brim.
Soon as he got close enough, the storm came, bullet after bullet finding him, shaking his body into something spastic and crazed. Knees buckling inward while his upper body jerked and twisted and splayed. Like Jerry Lewis making fun of a stroke victim.
The sirens rang out quickly and the rest of the guys took off, leapt into the van. But I had to stoop to his now-empty face to make sure it was over. In once sense it was. In another, it was just beginning.
Jerry was next, the kind of cat whose knife I’d always suspected would find my back. Tall, gawky, heroin-thin and East coast stupid, he looked like a Ramone who had somehow lived into his seventies and still couldn’t be trusted.
He made the mistake of checking his mailbox one morning, ignoring the ’67 Mustang driving past his home way too slowly. Once again, we used fully automatic subs. And once again, we sent just the message we needed to. Another one gone.
The others were trickier, harder to find because they’d gotten the message loud as a roman candle and decided this was a good time for a change of address. But I found them.
I found Gringo Cris at his boat, cramming his stuff into an Uber at nearly two am, hoping he could get to the airport before we got to him. Bad move, Gringo Cris.
I found Bradley at the East Side Market, thinking his six-foot-two Rastafarian ass could blend into a flood of Koreans.
I found Arthur at the train station, figuring it made more sense than the airport and forgetting who he was fucking with. I found Kyle, Orin and Ted on their way somewhere else. It wasn’t easy, but there’s something about getting fucked out of your money by a teammate that gets the gears shifting.
I got home after a busy Thursday, thinking good thing I don’t need to find Kiva. I sifted through our memories, good and bad, happy that she’d still be there. The last person on earth I could trust.
But then I opened the front door and stepped into a nightmare.
The furniture was gone. So was the plasma TV, the pictures, the clothes, the appliances. All Kiva’s now, wherever the fuck she was.
None of this made sense. I had taken her in when the rest of the world couldn’t take her shit anymore. I helped her see that somebody with her tits and her brains her conniving ways didn’t need to beg for anything anymore. I’d taught her to shoot, to sneak into homes, to send a forearm to somebody’s jaw. And this is what happens?
I knew it wouldn’t be easy to find Kiva. But the gears were shifting again.
In the end, it wasn’t that hard to find her. Her sister couldn’t keep a secret and it’s not like anybody who’d pissed off that many people would have tons of options.
“You know where Kiva is?” I asked her sister.
“Kiva?” Aura asked. Eyebrows up like a kid with her mitts in the cookie jar.
“Yes, your sister. You remember Kiva, don’t you?”
“Very funny.”
“Where is she?”
“Kiva?” Voice higher now. I can hear the secret itching to get out.
“Yes, Kiva.”
“She’s not at home?”
“She’s not at home and you know where she is, don’t you?”
“She’s my sister,” Aura said, her voice firm. But she added: “In spite of everything, I gave her my word.” Less firm now.
“You owe her nothing and you know it, Aura. She owes you though. Big time.”
“She’s my sister.” Wavering now, ready to break.
“Your sister who lied to you about your car?”
“She needed help and I gave her help.”
“And two days later, she gave you a Mazda with a dented hood and a bullshit story about how it got that way,” I said. “I repeat. You owe her nothing.”
Aura unloaded a long sigh. “She’s not here with me.”
“Remember what she told the police when they came over?” I asked. “She said, of course, ‘I wasn’t driving. It’s not my car.’” I paused, waited for the granite in Aura’s face to melt away. “She didn’t say in so many words ‘my sister was driving that car. The car that was used in the robbery.’ But she didn’t have to have to. Sometimes you can tell people things without telling them things.” As if my hint wasn’t clear enough, I repeated it: “Sometimes you can tell people things without telling them things.”
The corner of Aura’s mouth lifted a little. She liked my subtle nudge. “She’s not here. As for where she is now, I don’t know? Where would you go when you need protection? Back home maybe?”
I nodded. Aura told me what I needed to hear without saying the words. Her sister was back home in Indigo Valley, an eastern suburb she grew up in years earlier. I did Aura the favor of not telling her what was waiting for her sister, although honestly she may not have cared.
From there, finding Kiva’s place was easy. She was clever, but not clever enough to come up with an alias I wouldn’t recognize. She barely even tried. Gelli Bean? Her cat’s name completed with a stupid pun. Come on, Kiva.
Getting inside was a little tougher. I’d taught her breaking in, so she knew how to protect her place against people as skilled as us. She made good choices for locks, bars on the windows, all of that. But the choices weren’t good enough. I’d taught her everything she knew. But not everything I knew.
The place looked good. Like ours would have looked without my expensive bad taste and clumsy sense of design. A hardwood floor instead of my cigarette burned carpet. The walls cleaner, prettier. She’d covered the Playboy insignia on the coffee table and added a bar in the living room corner.
I sat there, waiting hours, steady hands, emotions on ice. Even her crazy cat’s occasional sprints from under the couch didn’t startle me.
This time I would use the Sig Sauer.
Less noise seemed a good idea. This wasn’t the hood. It was indigo Valley. A quiet place with neighbors who’d call the cops if the dog next door was shitting too loud. Plus there’d be no point in sending a message in the sunny suburbs. So I chose the Sig. And waited.
I kept my gun trained on the front door, ready for her to step inside. But she got me.
By the time I heard anything from behind it was her revolver’s hammer slipping into place.
I turned, but too late. A burn grazed my shoulder, another shot clipped my inner ankle.
Shit! But my arms were fine. I fired twice, missing both times. She jumped behind a couch that could hide her but not stop bullets. I shot twice, then a third time.
A long, soft whimper. I got something.
I stumbled to my legs, hoping to get her trapped there, but no. My ankle gave way and brought me down and she squirted from the couch’s other end, springing loose. She turned to fire again twice before racing to the corner behind the bar, leaving behind a trail a crimson from her ribcage, her arm tucked tight against the wound.
None of her shots connected this time. But the shoulder and ankle were enough to slow me down.
A few shots at the bar gave me nothing but loud clanks. A bulletproof bar. Of course.
She slipped from the side, took more shots.
Then nothing. I heard a metallic clank that told me she was re-loading.
Gun out, I raced to the bar, knowing that if I moved quickly —
Shit!
But I wasn’t quick enough.
She’d slipped back by then, reappearing at the other end, giving me one to the belly that sent my gun crashing to the floor and turned my breath into incomplete stutters.
Reaching for my gun gave her a chance to spring out of the bar’s top and fire again. Maybe she connected again, maybe not. Everything was going numb now, pulling away from me like the past.
With a tuck and roll, I got the gun and stumbled to the coffee table, turning it on its side. We traded more shots, but when one broke through the table and buried itself in my left elbow, it was time for plan B.
More bullets, buzzing past like insects. Glass breaking, Gelli yowling to the ceiling, echoes of errant shots ending in thuds and thumps.
Silence. For a while. Was she waiting me out? Out of ammo?
Maybe I could get to the hallway, slip behind better cover. My only chance really.
I found my feet, then lost them, lifted myself up with the gun and a lame left arm. With a grunt, I was up, but not for long. She rose up and took more shots, mostly misses, but the one to my leg was all she needed.
Back to the wall, I flipped a chair to its side, fired away while slowly easing myself to unsteady feet. Then nothing. I stood there waiting to see where all this was going.
I guess I thought that after all we’d been through — three years, eleven jobs, trust, fights, intense makeup sex, gun lessons — she wouldn’t have the balls to finish the job.
But she proved me wrong. It only took one more shot.
She strolled out from the bar, arms crossed, back reclined, face split by a slanted grin. Like a painter gazing at the canvas in admiration of her masterpiece.
With the wall barely bracing me up, she must have figured I was done. But not quite. My eyes sparked to life, catching her off-guard. Her mouth swung open as she made a desperate scramble back to the bar. Hands and knees like an infant chasing daddy’s ankles.
I had a bullet left, maybe two. A well-timed shot could get her…
Gun weighing a ton, hand stiff with pain, I gave my trigger a final tug.
But I didn’t get a chance to see what damage I did. Or if my shot even landed.
Instead, my knees gave out and met the hardwood floor with a conclusive thud right as the world cut to black.
Yeah, it’s been forever since I’ve posted anything here, but don’t worry. I’m still alive and still giving glorious birth to crime fiction laced with danger and bad decisions. In fact, I’ve been too deeply immersed in my writing to follow the news. Anything new happen since my last post of November of 2016?
No, nothing? Okay, here’s what I’ve been up to:
My noir-ish monologue What a Real Punch Sounds was produced by Ragged Foils. I think Joanna Simpkins did a splendid job. See for yourself here!
I wrote and produced a neo-noir audio drama called Cosmic Deletions that asked such all-important questions as: What if that telemarketer is actually an assassin? and What if the world was actually the creation of a software company? Show some love, Copperheads!
Book Three of the Jake Legato Series, Two Guns Against the Siren is available at Amazon! Here’s an excerpt:
Prologue
The tattoo shop fell silent when the guy stepped inside.
Clean cut with a shiny wool suit, his expression half-hidden by sunglasses, he didn’t look like a usual customer.
He stepped to the counter, no words. Only a stony gaze bouncing between the shop’s odd artifacts. The checkered floor, the WWII-era pin-up pics along the wall. The cheap plastic reclining chair in the center.
Mouths agape, everybody stared at him. Cheyenne, the spike-haired lesbian behind the counter. Heavy-lidded Evan awaiting a tattoo in the chair. Even Tweaky Jay woke up and found himself gawking.
“Anything I can help you with?” Cheyenne asked, eyes narrow, head tilted. Confused like a kid hearing her first curse word.
“Is Miciela here?” he asked, his voice a deep growl.
“Miciela?”
“You heard me the first time. Is she here?”
But Cheyenne just kept staring. Then she jabbed both shaky hands into her pockets, unsure what to do with them.
“Let me ask you the question again: Is Miciela here?”
“No? Not right now? I think. She’s usually here. But right now she’s not. I’m sorry. I’ll tell her somebody was looking for her.” Then she forced her lips into an uneasy smile.
But the man didn’t move. “I’ll wait.”
“It could take hours before –“
“I said, I’ll wait.”
Cheyenne stepped back slowly, sizing the stranger up. He was tall and solidly built. His head was all muscle, a fist with a snarl. He looked a like a brick wall in a bad mood.
She’d heard the stories of Miciela’s adventures. Depending on who you asked she’d been a drug runner, an assassin or a Hollywood stuntwoman. Nobody knew the truth exactly but they knew she’d had strange people asking about her. And they knew there were details she didn’t want to share.
The man’s attention drifted to a pair of old creaky doors at the shop’s side. “Where does she stay?”
“I’m sorry?”
He shoved his face forward, nearly touching foreheads. “Where does Miciela stay? Which room?”
“She’s not here,” Cheyenne said, bracing for a blow to the chest. “I swear.” she said, her voice now a reedy whimper.
“Where is she?”
“I don’t think she’s around right now –”
He backpedalled to the room’s center, pulled a snub-nosed revolver from his jacket’s inside pocket and spun in a slow circle, his gun’s barrel bouncing from face to terrified face. Without prompting, every hand went up. Gasps filled the room. With the jerk of his head he ordered Even out of the chair. With his foot he slid the chair to the front of the door. Then he addressed his captives.
“Here’s how this is going to work: Nobody is going to move and nobody is going to say a Goddamned thing unless they get asked a question. That way, I don’t have to shoot anybody in the face – which, by the way, I’d be more than happy to do if anybody gets cute.”
Cheyenne tried to still her shaking body. This was the time to be strong. Panic would be the enemy. She stood there watching the stranger, her hands up, knowing this guy would put a bullet into her head if he knew what she was doing.
She was trying to dial 9-1-1, trying to lightly brush the cell phone in her front pocket against the counter. There was no other hope. Miciela would be dead if he’d found out she was only a few feet away.
But dialing wasn’t easy. The man’s gaze crept from captive to captive. He told them not to move and he meant it. So she’d have to dial slowly and carefully. One number at a time.
With the man’s eyes somewhere else, she nudged her body forward, pressing the cell phone against the counter’s sharp wooden corner. She lowered her eyes and caught a glimpse of the phone, making sure she was hitting the nine. She bumped it a second time, hitting the one. Almost there.
But then the man turned. Did he hear that?
“What’s in your pocket?” he demanded.
“Huh?”
“What is in your pocket?” he repeated, face on fire and inches from hers. “Is that a cell phone?”
“I’m sorry.”
He reached over the counter, yanked her cell phone from her front pocket.
Cheyenne collapsed into a quivering knot, hands still up and elbows covering her face and chest, bracing for the gun shot she knew was coming. There was no way he wouldn’t see the nine and one on the screen. With her eyes slammed violently shut, she whimpered like a wounded rat.
Then she opened her eyes to see the cell phone in her face. The man said, “Call her!”
“Huh?”
“Call Miciela. Now.”
She gathered the strength to obey the man’s orders, shaky fingers finding Miciela’s number on her contacts screen. Seconds later, a ringtone rang out from one of the side doors. Pinhead by Micela’s favorite group, The Ramones.
The man smiled for the first time, baring teeth like a pissed-off grizzly. Then he walked to the closet door and swung it open.
He found all five feet and ninety pounds of Miciela curled into a trembling ball. She looked up with eyes that wordlessly begged for mercy. Her lips moved but nothing came out but panicked breath.
The man grabbed Miciela’s baggy shirt by the shoulder and gave her tiny body a yank. She landed on his shoulder, too stunned to fight back. Turning back to the room, he tucked his gun away. “I got what I need and I’m gone. But I’d be more than happy to make a return visit if anybody tries to call the cops.”
He strutted down the hallway, then kicked open the screen door. Everybody scrambled to their feet, racing to the back door while frantically dialing and hoping the worst hadn’t already happened.
low the news. Anything new happen since my last post of November of 2016?
Copper Smith 