Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters Back Cover

I just received the first proof copy of Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters from my publisher and I really like the job the design team at Ulysses Press did on this one.

Here's a view of the back cover with the description: 

 

As with all these books, don't pay much attention to the cover price, because you can get it on Amazon for around ten bucks (currently $9.72 for pre-orders).  I also discovered just yesterday that the Kindle edition of the book is available now, for those who don't want to wait or prefer their books in electronic format.  Here's the link:  Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters (Kindle Edition).

As an author, it's always exciting to see an idea transformed into a finished book you can hold in your hands and share with others.  That feeling is tempered for me this time by a great sadness, as I lost my father just a month ago today.  He was my best friend, my greatest teacher and a constant source of encouragement and inspiration in my writing and everything else I do.  His childhood years were spent right  in the worst of the Great Depression and he grew up on a self-sufficient farm using the survival skills many of us aspire to learn on an everyday basis as a way of life.  He left the farm at 17 years old to join the Navy at the tail end of WWII, and from his job as a radar technician aboard the light cruiser Astoria, he began his career as a radio communications technician. 

In my childhood years he taught me how to handle guns, how to hunt, how to fish, how to be at home in the woods and how to work the land.  Most importantly, he taught me how to work in general and that no job was beneath me or too menial.  He also taught by example in the way he always selflessly put his family first and in how well he single-handedly cared for my bed-ridden mom in the many years of her illness until her death from Multiple Sclerosis.  In his last years in his eighties, he loved reading the rough drafts of my chapters as I printed them and frequently caught my errors and typos.  He was looking forward to the release of this latest book and was particularly proud that I recently signed a contract for my first novel.  I am missing him more than words can describe, but as I reorganize and adjust to life without him, I hope to get back to posting here on a more frequent basis.

Frank H. Williams Jr.

 

Bug Out Vehicles Ready for Press

The new book is now ready for the printer.  I've been working with my publisher for the last couple of weeks on things like the photographs inside, the bibliography and all the other final details that wrapping up a book entails.  If things go as planned, it will be available in September as originally planned.  To give you more of an idea of what's inside, here's the back cover blurb:

"A Cataclysmic Natural or Manmade Disaster Has Struck Your Town or City.

How will you evacuate your family to safety?  Do you have a vehicle or alternate means of transportation you can rely on?  Can the vehicle double as a mobile retreat, or do you have a retreat shelter prepared in advance and a plan to reach it?

Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters presents a wide variety of transportation options ranging from fast escape vehicles to self-contained mobile retreats.  Back-up vehicles that can keep going if your main option fails and alternative vehicles for a variety of challenging situations are also examined.  Temporary and long-term retreat shelters that you can set up in advance and stock with supplies are also included as part of a bug out plan that can make you a prepared survivor instead of a refugee. 

Vehicle types included here range from the kinds of cars, pickups and SUVs most people use for everyday transportation to alternative options like motorcycles, powerboats, sailboats, ATVs, and snowmobiles, as well as human powered vehicles such as bicycles, canoes, sea kayaks and rowing craft.  Mobile retreat options include manufactured RV trailers and motorhomes, Do-It-Yourself house trucks, camper trailers and utility vehicle conversions, and of course, liveaboard boats from motor cruisers to houseboats and bluewater sailboats.    Each vehicle and shelter type is examined with regard to the advantages and disadvantages it offers, followed by a number of key considerations and lists of essential equipment to help you chose and optimize it for your bug out needs."

And here is a snapshot of the Table of Contents page:

Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters Update

I finished the actual writing of the new book, Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters last Friday and it is now in the hands of the editors and soon to go into production for a planned release in September. This book covers a lot of ground, which is why it took awhile to put together.  There are nine chapters on specific categories of vehicles and two chapters on fixed shelters that could be assembled or built in place at the bug-out location in advance.  The book is divided into four parts:  Escape Vehicles, Mobile Retreats, Alternative and Back-up Vehicles, and Fixed Retreats.

Some of the categories covered in the first three parts are illustrated in these photos, and while a few pictures may not be worth 78,000 words, they might give you an idea of what to expect.  I'll post more specific details on the content of the book closer to the publication date.  Meanwhile, I'm going to be hard at work on the next book project, which is a work of survival/apocalyptic fiction.