Evacuation by K.D. McAdams
(The Seamus Chronicles #2)
Publication date: March 7th 2014
Genres: Post-Apocalyptic,Young Adult Synopsis:They have only one chance for survival, leave… the planet.
The virus that wiped out most of the human race is adapting to defeat the vaccine and kill the survivors. There is a government response protocol but it will kill them too, it involves a nuclear winter. The NASA scientists believe they can leave Earth and achieve faster than light travel, but Seamus doesn’t want to slog through space. He knows that to survive they have to go somewhere fast. To save them all he needs to invent a warp drive and evacuate the planet.Purchase:
- -Amazon:http://www.amazon.
com/Evacuation-The-Seamus- Chronicles-Chronciles-ebook/ dp/B00IUZAYSK/ref=sr_1_1?ie= UTF8&qid=1394641214&sr=8-1& keywords=McAdams+evacuation - -B&N:http://www.
barnesandnoble.com/w/clarity- loretta-lost/1118759750?ean= 9781496021816 ----AUTHOR BIO
K. D. McAdams writes stories about young people who make choices with their heart and not their head. ‘Don’t talk to strangers’ is the most common phrase in our house, I have failed several art classes and I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast. I have a son that loves to talk to strangers, my daughter is an incredible artist and I have another son that is a stickler for details with a near eidetic memory. We nurture our kids everyday with advice and information but deep down they all have an element of nature that overrides our nurturing and influences their choices. Kids who have the courage to follow their instinct and make their own choices are the ones who make life memorable.
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What’s in your planetary go bag?
Food, water and a 3-D printer may be keys to survivalWhat if Earth was going down the tubes and you had to Evacuate the planet? What would you put in your go bag?Thanks to the Mayan apocalypse and the popular Doomsday Preppers show on National Geographic the concept of a survival “Go-bag” has gained mainstream understanding. Survival experts can debate the best contents for one of these go bags but in general they contain food, water, security and some protection from the elements. The idea is that when civilization goes down the tubes you grab the go bag on your way out the door and use its contents to survive.Here on Earth a go bag has to help you get by. Get by until order is restored. Get by until you can make a supply trip to a safe place. But if you have to leave Earth you can’t just get by, you have to start over. You could bring plenty of stuff, but what happens when you run out? Even if you brought enough of something to last your lifetime what would your ancestors do?Our world is littered with finished goods. Even after an electromagnetic pulse or a collapse of the world financial markets if you needed a nail, screw or fastener you could find one with just a few minutes of looking. You may have to recycle or up cycle it from a previous use, but it’s there. Even a straight or flat piece of wood is only a few miles away from the places in America where most people live.Imagine building something without screws, nails or dimensional lumber.Many of us are familiar with assembling things from furniture to power tools, but can you manufacture anything? Given a tree, can you make a straight board? The earliest pieces of steel are four thousand years old, but could you smelt ore?Following directions from Ikea doesn’t mean you can make furniture.There are a few things I’m on the fence about; seeds (would they grow?), weapons (will they work) and a bicycle (can it carry enough?) for example. Given unlimited space these would certainly make it but space will be tight. For the purposes of this exercise lets assume you are leaving Earth in Nissan Maxima; doors, windows and trunk have to close. What do you bring?You need to figure out all the firsts. The first mill, the first sewer system, the first farm all things that won’t fit in your bag. So in addition to food and water here are five things that I would bring if I had to bug out from Earth and start over on another planet.1. A tent. The new planet will likely have a different weather system and you’ll need to protect against hot or cold.2. Basic hand tools. Hammer, shovels, axes etc.3. A hand crank or pedal generator for electricity4. A 3-D printer. You can make some of the core pieces needed to build almost anything.5. A tablet loaded with manufacturing how-to documents; How to build a sawmill, How to build an iron mill, How to make plastic etc.What would you bring if you had to bug out from Earth and start over on another planet?
How to work with people you don’t like:
Focus on helping them and you might be surprisedMost of us are lucky that we don’t face life or death situations daily. Still there are times in out lives that are a big deal where we have no choice but to work with someone we don’t like. When walking away, or running, is not an option how do you deal with an annoying person and still create something good?I can remember being assigned a lab partner in high school who grated my last nerve. This person had an older sibling and every assignment brought up the fact that he should ‘Just get this from my brother.’ I would have been fine with that except it never happened. He was too cool for me, for school, for everything. There was no way I was going to let him get the ’B’ I was working towards.It happened in my first job too, and I really needed that paycheck. One of my co-workers seemed to do anything she could to annoy the rest of us. After a call she would critique us even though she consistently received the worst customer feedback. She also complained constantly about call volume and the length of calls for the team, though she rarely answered her phone. The first one hundred times I heard the word headcount it was spoken by her claiming that we needed more. These are just two of many things that made her hard to work with.In both cases I didn’t have a choice, the people in charge didn’t really care if we liked each other, I was getting compensated on results.The high school lab work didn’t go so well. Too many ‘whatever’s’ and ‘I don’t cares’ helped the two of us to a low C and a threat of no sports from my parents. Letting the person I didn’t like do all the work, or not do the work in our case, wound up punishing me twice. First I had to sit with them three times a week and second I got a crappy grade.With my early co-worker things turned out much better because of some advice I got from my boss. He said, “She just wants to feel needed. Find a way to help her and she’ll either leave you alone or start being nice to you.” Helping her turned out to be easy. She loved to run reports and roll a bunch of data into spreadsheets. Instead of arguing with her about the value of her reports, they were pointless; I spent five minutes once a week sending her my data.Blindly helping annoying people is not the answer. It’s your responsibility to know whom you have to work with and whom you can ignore. But the truth is, whether you work in corporate America, own a business or perform volunteer work you’ll have to work with others. When someone bothers you think about how you can help them and you may see some of the following benefits.1. A new idea when looking from their perspective2. An easy fix like a daily compliment or saying thank you3. Increased productivity as you spend less time debating and more time on your areas of interestIf you need that grade, the paycheck or whatever and you have to work with someone you don’t like try helping them. It may wind up helping you.Do you have any tricks for working with people you don’t like?
8 Questions with K. D. McAdams
- How did you get into writing?
As a stay at home father of three I was looking for an opportunity where I could make my own hours and work only on things that I loved. After trying my hand at a few different at home business ideas that I did not enjoy I started writing almost two years ago and I have loved every minute of it.
- What is your target audience?
My stories are for people ages 16 to 25. I think that starting in junior year of high school and going through our mid twenties we all struggle with choices about what are we doing, what are we supposed to do and what do we want to do.
- What have you published to date? Do you write under a pseudonym?
I write under the name K. D. McAdams, not a pseudonym. My debut novel Annihilation – Book 1 of The Seamus Chronicles was published in 2013, the sequel, Evacuation – Book 2 of The Seamus Chronicles was published in March 2014.
- If you are self-published, what led to this choice?
For me it came down to a question of control. As a self-published author I get to control all aspects of my business.
- How would you review your book for readers who might be considering it?
The Seamus Chronicles is a twist on the post-apocalyptic story. One of the biggest problems the survivors face is that there’s no one left. Being one of the last humans alive on Earth causes them to reevaluate who they really are as people. There is action and intrigue but it is focused on the characters and their struggles as survivors.
- If any of your books were to be made into films, who would you have as the lead actor(s)?
I see Seamus as a Jason Dolley character, Grace is someone like Brenda Song and Liam is definitely Jaden Smith (my son told me that’s who should play him). I can’t think of the frumpy middle aged white man to play the Dad.
- What are you working on at the moment? Are you planning on another book?
I am currently writing Colonization – Book 3 of The Seamus Chronicles. I am also developing a new series called The Stewards of Humanity which is a Dystopian story of a sister and brother who were raised in very different worlds.
- If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and why? What would you serve your guests or where would you dine?
I would invite Ben Franklin, Teddy Roosevelt and Jimmy Buffett to dinner at one of the great Streak houses of New York. I choose these three men because they all have a reputation as storytellers and people who enjoy life.
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