The Adventures of EarthTone and LoGear: January 2023

I have had this story in my head for about a decade or so and over the last several years, I have finally knocked it out of my head and into a digital universe. I had started the beginning somewhere around 2018 or so. About 19,000 words. Then I discovered something called NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where you attempt to write 50,000 words in the month of November. I won my first NaNoWriMo in 2019, shortly after we started full time RVing. But the story, now at around 70,000 words was only half done. The story sat for another 11 months and then I did my second NaNoWriMo and got the first draft done at about 120,000 words. There is sat for a couple years. In 2022 I decided to pick it up again and do my first edit of the story. Fleshing out things I left incomplete, adding and deleting stuff, finding typos, bad grammar and punctuation. and adding about another 9,000 words.

I had no professional help, but I'm ready to put it out there. Soon, I will be converting the somewhat finished product into an eBook and publishing it on Lulu.com. For now, I'm posting a chapter a day on my AT Facebook Page until I either get the whole thing on there or I catch up to where my "final" editing is. (One last go through until I pull the trigger).

I'm going to post the chapter links here if you want to read them from here and don't do Facebook or whatnot.

Here's the synopsis:

Sergeant First Class Clayton Collier has been in the Army for 19 years. During a survival training evolution, some very bad things happen. The war that brought on this new world only lasted four days, but it really did the job. Clayton is now separated from his family by a landscape full of beauty and danger. He decides to forsake his duties and get back home, where he hopes to find his family still alive and waiting for him. As he makes his way over the 1000 miles he needs to travel to get home using the famous Appalachian Trail, Clayton encounters many challenges along the way and meets several interesting people. Clayton teams up with several unique hikers, who help each other during their trek.

Legalese:

This is a work of fiction. All the names, characters, businesses, places, and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Dedication:

Dedicated to my hiking partner, LoGear, who always walks beside me, even if she is several meters ahead, and to my girls, who inspire me every single day.

Lastly, to Xander, my little fox. Your loss will be felt the rest of my life, being able to imagine what could have been, was my therapy.