If you’re one of the lucky winners of my recent LibraryThing giveaway for episode #1 and you want to receive a complimentary copy of episode 2 – 5, please signup for the mailing list. This offer is valid until September 10, 2013. Thanks!
Tag Archives: post-apocalyptic
How I Lost My Friend To Prostitution
9 Aug
Karen was only 15 when she was seduced by a pimp, but she was one of my closest friends. I’ll never forget the scars on her face, and the black circles under her eyes, and the fear in her voice when she spoke of him. But I also remember how she needed him to need her and want her. She was lost without him. She was dead without him. And the irony was that he probably would have killed her if she dared leave him. When I wrote New Hope City, I often thought about my friend Karen. I wondered how she had fallen into the pimp’s snare. And when I look back, I would say that she was much like Sunni, the main character in New Hope City, in that her descent into the hell of prostitution began in a place that’s supposed to be safe – home.
Parents Play Dumb
Some parents are just too busy to uhm…well, to parent. They’ve got their own lives. Or, maybe their life hasn’t turned out the way they wanted and they want their kid to make it a little easier. My friend Karen had a parent like that. She was an only child and her mom was a single parent, and of course they didn’t have much money. Her mom liked to keep boyfriends around, and if she was real nice to them they would leave a few dollars on the nightstand. That could pay the light bill or buy a bag of groceries, but it also made the boyfriends feel entitled to more than just Karen’s mom. They took liberties with Karen too, and her mom would just play dumb, like she didn’t see anything.
Pimps Seem Nice – By Comparison
I’m not too sure about when Karen first started having problems with her mom’s boyfriends, I just know that one Summer she just seemed different, quiet, somber, and maybe even a little angry. That’s when she met Juan, that’s what people called him, but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t his real name. Everyone in the neighborhood knew that he was no good. No one ever used the word pimp to describe him, but we all knew that’s what he was. When Karen’s mood first started to improve I thought that maybe things had gotten better at home, that she had been able to get the men to stop “messing with her” as she always described it, but when she told me that Juan had given her a pair of new (and expensive) sneakers I knew she was headed for trouble. Juan’s string of gifts made my friend happy but they also made her stupid, well stupid for him. She started hanging out late. And then she stopped hanging out with me and her other friends. And from there things went downhill. Rumors spread that she was “fooling around” with grown men and that she had moved in with Juan. That was the last time I saw Karen. She didn’t even show up for school that Fall.
There Are No Angels
In the movies, prostituted teens are portrayed as innocent victims worthy of a savior. They’re usually kidnapped or somehow forced into “the life.” But the reality of teen prostitution is a lot more murky. Prostituted girls like my friend aren’t perfect. They’re flawed and damaged which makes them do things that flawed and damaged people do. These girls may seem like troubled kids, stealing, lying, fighting and engaging in promiscuous sex. And it’s these things that make people less likely to see them as worthy of saving. Just like my old friend, they get lost. And just like my old friend, they may face an early and tragic end. But when I wrote New Hope City I wanted to talk about a girl like Karen, someone who may be damaged and flawed but who is in fact worthy of a savior.
SunHi Mistwalker writes fiction set in dystopic and post-apocalyptic worlds. Her new novel New Hope City, a dark coming-of-age story set in a post-apocalyptic America, follows the life of Sunni Brown, a teenage girl exploited by sex traffickers who tries to get a fresh start when she meets a disillusioned cop. She is also the author of the science fiction series After The Darkness. Please sign up for the mailing list for receive updates, freebies and special discounts. You can also follow SunHi on Twitter and Facebook.
Attention LibraryThing Winners
17 MayIf you’re one of the lucky winners of my recent LibraryThing giveaway for episode #3 and #4 of “After The Darkness,” please note that you will receive a free Smashwords coupon to download your copy of the books (in the format of your choice) by Monday, May 20, 2013. Thanks for your patience! If you’re a winner of the giveaway and you want to receive a complimentary copy of episode 1 and 2, please signup for the mailing list. Thanks!
Apocalypse Survival: What You Need To Eat Before The Cannibals Eat You
15 May
In a world that’s gone to hell in a hand basket, no man (or woman) can survive on Twinkies alone, besides, they’ve gone out of business already. So what should a post-apocalyptic survivor living a wintery hell nosh on when their stomach gets to grumbling? Let’s take a nibble at a few ideas:
Protein –And Lots of It
Photo by Jo Naylor
Protein is the building block of life, so if you don’t eat it, you’re just as good as dead. Skip too many protein meals and you might as well hand yourself over to Mr. and Mrs. Cannibal next door. In my science fiction series After The Darkness, the City of Calcane gives every citizen his/her fair share of protein, but that’s only if they’re behaving. If they’re not behaving – as in launching citizen rebellions and speaking against the principles of the city’s founding fathers — they may find themselves starving to death.
Synthesized (And Real) BLOOD
If protein is the building block of life, then blood is the juice that keeps the machinery running. And after you’re done “ewwwwing” and turning up your nose at this refreshing and nutritious drink that blood can be, then you can add it to your list of things you will need to eat (okay – drink) in a futuristic world that’s gone straight to hell. In After The Darkness, blood is a integral part of most people’s daily sustenance. It’s synthesized and enriched with essential vitamins and minerals that keep citizens healthy despite the scarcity of food. So when you’re living in a protective dome city like the citizens of Calcane, just think of your bloody drink as a thick and colorful tonic that’ll keep the reaper at bay.
Genetically Enhanced Food
When the planet has gone through an ecological collapse, there isn’t much room for growing crops, pruning fruit trees or foraging in vast rainforests teeming with life, because those things no longer exist. So the society will need to summon every single creative brain cell to figure out exactly how to grow food. Now think carefully, what can a society do when every last inch of the planet is covered in snow and ice? Well, they do what any smart post-apocalyptic society would do –start fiddling around with genes, synthetic light and pick the brains of their most diabolical scientific minds and Viola! they’ve got just enough genetically engineered food to feed (and control) an elite class of citizens. If you can climb your way to the top, you too can enjoy synthetic and vaguely nutritional ham and eggs every morning.
SunHi Mistwalker writes dystopic and post-apocalyptic fiction. Her science fiction series After The Darkness is set in a dark, wintery dystopia where an elite class of citizens uses food, shelter and protection from the harsh elements to control the powerless. A child of a powerful family, Nadia, is categorized and cast out of the elite class. Now she must fight to save herself and what’s left of her family. Percy, an agent of the oppressive city government, searches for redemption by doing what no other citizen would do – help someone who’s been categorized. Please sign up for the mailing list to receive updates, freebies and special discounts.
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Attention LibraryThing Winners
9 MayIf you’re one of the lucky winners of my recent LibraryThing giveaway for the first two episodes of “After The Darkness,” please note that you will receive a free Smashwords coupon to download your copy of the books (in the format of your choice) by Monday, May 13, 2013. Thanks for your patience! If you’re a winner of the giveaway and you want to receive a complimentary copy of episode 3 and 4, please signup for the mailing list. Thanks!
ETA: If you’ve won a free copy of New Hope City, you will receive the free Smashwords coupon by May 14, 2013
Evil Thrives When We Choose To Ignore It
7 MayPhoto by Tiffanie J.
I’ve been following the news story about three young women in Cleveland, Ohio who were reunited with their families after ten years in captivity. It certainly is a horror story, albeit one with a happy ending. It’s so rare that kidnapping victims are found alive that the discovery of these three women is nothing short of a miracle. Everyone, including myself, is happy to see these women rescued. But there are these nagging feelings and questions that have been bothering me all day. How is it possible that three women and a child can be held in captivity for ten years and no one notice? Had not one person in that neighborhood stepped inside that house – IN TEN YEARS? Had not one person recognized signs that something was wrong? Or, did they see and turn a blind eye? Or maybe they did report it to authorities and the authorities didn’t care? According to CNN, one of the next door neighbors of this house of horrors was brave enough to call the police but wasn’t taken seriously.
“She was just walking around, and naked,” Samoylicz said. “We thought that was weird. We thought it was funny at first, and then we thought that was weird so we called the cops. They thought we was playing, joking, they didn’t believe us.”
And that’s not all, another neighbor, Israel Lugo, heard screaming coming from the house, but when he called the police they only did the minimal investigation which was to knock on the door and leave when no one answered. Can you imagine being in that house and hearing the police outside, hoping that they will rescue you, only to have them walk away? Now can you imagine hearing people partying in the backyard and barbequing while you’re inside suffering? Just the idea of this makes me angry. I do not believe for one split second that everyone in that neighborhood was somehow kept in the dark about what was happening in that house. I believe that SOMEONE knew. Someone knew and decided to shrug it off or tell themselves that it was none of their business. That’s what my instincts say. My instincts also say that in a city that is ranked as one of the most dangerous in the country, minding your own business is probably the unspoken rule.
My novel New Hope City is set in a place like that, a place where people turn a blind eye to the crime, abuse, corruption, and where the police simply ignore your suffering – and that’s if you’re lucky. These types of places exist; they’re here, right now in America and all over the world. And I think it’s critical for all of us to recognize that there is evil in this world. If we fail to recognize that evil exists, how can we stop it? How can we choose to be one of the good guys if we believe that these types of things don’t happen? This is one of the reasons that I write the type of stories I do. I want people to get a glimpse at how things sometimes go wrong and how bad things sometimes happen to good people for no apparent reason.
SunHi Mistwalker writes fiction set in dystopic and post-apocalyptic worlds. Her new novel New Hope City, a dark coming-of-age story set in a post-apocalyptic America, follows the life of Sunni Brown, a teenage girl exploited by sex traffickers who tries to get a fresh start when she meets a disillusioned cop. She is also the author of the science fiction series After The Darkness. Please sign up for the mailing list for receive updates, freebies and special discounts.
NEW HOPE CITY
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Don’t Sell Your Babies On Facebook
23 Apr
This is a public service announcement to all the would-be baby sellers out there – moms and dads just say no to selling your kids on Facebook. I know that our society has gone all capitalistic with a capital “C,” but really let’s get real, not even the Babylonians would condone bartering off your kids on Facebook just to raise bail for your loser boyfriend who’s probably in jail for a good reason. Really, just stop.
When I read this article about a woman who had the audacity to post a “kids for sale” status update on her Facebook account I felt like I needed to check and see if the world had just ended. Because who does that? Doesn’t she have the good sense to at least hide the fact that she’s bartering off her own flesh and blood? Apparently not. And I thought Sunni’s mom was bad. Well at least she has an excuse – drugs and a mean streak. While the “kids for sale” article didn’t come right out and say that this woman was selling her kids to possible pimps and other pervs, let’s just be honest and face up to the fact that these are the type of people who would even think buying a kid on Facebook was a legitimate thing to do.
I know that many of us would like to believe that selling kids is mostly the domain of fiction, but unfortunately it’s a sad reality. And I can’t help but wonder how many other kids get bought and sold without anyone noticing – or caring.
SunHi Mistwalker writes fiction set in dystopic and post-apocalyptic worlds. Her new novel New Hope City, a dark coming-of-age story set in a post-apocalyptic America, follows the life of Sunni Brown, a teenage girl exploited by sex traffickers who tries to get a fresh start when she meets a disillusioned cop.
NEW HOPE CITY
Available at Nook Kobo Smashwords Apple Amazon Google Play
4
Apr
Retro Thursday: The Darker Side of Childhood w/ updated links
When I wrote “The Shelter” I was terrified of writing something that would offend a lot of people. But then my old writing mentor’s words rang in my ear, “Bleed on the page!” Bleeding on the page is when a writer creates something without censoring themselves. And it is in this spirit of non-censorship that I wrote “The Shelter.” Why was I initially afraid of my own words? Well the truth is that so much of today’s dystopian fiction chooses to avoid tough issues around growing up, especially when it comes to issues concerning girls. Issues like poverty, sexism and sexual exploitation are often avoided or treated in such a way that the end result can only be compared to magical thinking. Because of this I knew that my story might be viewed as extreme.
Last Spring I was reading a YA novel that’s been compared to Hunger…
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Cover Reveal: After The Darkness: Episode 5
2 AprHey guys!
The talented designer Keri Knutson has just finished the cover for “After The Darkness: Episode 5.” Check it out! Also, don’t forget that the first four episodes are on sale for .99 cents as part of our Springtime Sale. You can get your copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.
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