Fire From The Sky | Book 12 | Embers
Page 27
Efforts to re-establish communications and control with the rest of the nation are still under way, and our signals are reaching further and further with each passing week as our repeater network is repaired and expanded. Soon, all our citizens will be able to receive the news, as well as alerts and updates from the government. We know you are all as pleased by this as we are.
This has been a newscast of the National Salvation Government Public Information Office. Stay tuned in for all news updates as well as orders and announcements issued for the citizens by the Government.”
Suddenly the air waves were filled with the soft sound of big band music, the likes of which hadn’t been played since probably the forties.
“Is this some kind of joke?” Jose was the first to speak.
“If it is, it’s a dangerous one,” Triana Flores was the first to answer him. “Radio was one of the ways the mass attacks seemed to choose their targets. If this is just a joke, they’re setting themselves up for a hit.”
“I don’t like the sound of ‘National Salvation Government’, myself,” Greg noted, looking around at everyone else.
“You’re wise not to,” Jaylyn surprised them all by speaking. “It’s been used through history more than once, and it never means anything good. Mostly it represents an autocratic junta replacing a failing or overthrown legitimate government. It has never been anything less than brutal.” Silence reigned in the room for a few moments, the silence finally broken by Clay himself.
“Well, crap.”
TO BE CONTINUED
AFTERWORD
This book was difficult to write for several reasons, and I apologize for the long wait. I hope you will find the book worth that wait. Embers presented me with problems at every turn, including tonight as I write this when I realized that somehow, I had written an entire line of characters into the Dramatis Personae that had no business being there. I kept thinking ‘I don’t recognize that name’ over and over as I typed. Well, there was a good reason for that. They weren’t in the book, nor were they supposed to be.
I have appreciated (and continue to appreciate) the encouragement and support I receive from you, the readers. More than you will probably ever realize at that. I love you all and want to always do my best to give you quality material, wherever it is or whatever the subject might be. As always, I will let you decide how successful I am.
If you do think I’ve done well, then please consider leaving me a review. Reviews drive the search programs that will make recommendations to new readers. Your review is worth far more than simply making me smile, though they do, indeed make me smile (the nice ones do, anyway). Also, a share on social media is always appreciated. Several new readers have written to me that they only initially looked at my books because one of you out there recommended me to them. Your help is always appreciated.
In addition to thanking all of you, I need as always to thank Dan Edwards and the crew at Creative Texts Publishing. No matter when I call or e-mail, he gets back to me ASAP, and is continually looking after my best interests even as he does his best to make me look like a real writer. Thanks Dan, for sticking with me ��
Last but in no way least are thanks to my wife and nephew, who serve as my conscience, sounding board, editors, and chief complaint takers (my complaints, not readers). I honestly don’t know what I’d do or where I’d be without them.
A couple of notes about things that have been brought to my attention. First, that my books were not showing up as available in print, or on audible. The publisher contacted Amazon and spent a good bit of a day ironing out whatever glitch caused that, so it should be solved. In truth, everything was available all the while, but you had to be on another web page to access it. An identical web page, but still separate. How that happened is anyone’s guess, but no one is perfect. I appreciate very much those of you who wrote me for taking the time to send me a note letting me know something was out of kilter.
Second, something I should have known all along, but didn’t even think of. A veteran who reads my work informed me that the narrator who read the Fire Novels onto Audible was continually pronouncing such titles as MRAP by their acronym, rather than simply saying ‘m-rap’ like the rest of us. After consulting with that veteran and a few more, we decided that it would not take away from the book for me to simply go ahead and write m-rap in the manuscript. So, if it looks a little strange, that’s the reason. I don’t think it will fool any of you, but it might help the audible go better.
Added to that is references to ‘Mark’ this and ‘Mark’ that, which is normally written either as ‘Mk’ or just ‘M’, I am now spelling those things out as well, rather than just use the ‘Mk’, again trying to avoid any confusion for narrators that have no military background or familiarity at all. If I missed any this time, being new, then I ask your forbearance, please.
These are things I should have considered earlier, but since I was a wee laddie, it’s been ‘Mark such-and-so’ and so forth, so to me it was familiar, and I think I kind of assumed it would be to everyone. Sorry about that, and a big thanks to the people who were kind enough to point the problem out to me. I can’t thank you enough.
In closing, I do hope you enjoy Embers. It is a big book for this series, with many, many changes and more coming. Hopefully, you’ll all enjoy them. As you read this, if I’ve made you laugh, cry and cuss all in one sitting, maybe I did something write (see what I did there? Little righter humor. Oop, there it was again! Am I not hilarious? I mean seriously.)
Anyway, the book is yours, and by the time it reaches you I will probably be elbow deep in another. Don’t let that stop you from dropping me a note, just realize it may be days before I answer. Thank you all, from the shores of Pickwick Lake,
NC Reed
More Books by Author N.C. Reed
Book Series
Fire From the Sky
Book 1: The Sanders Saga
Book 2: Brotherhood of Fire
Book 3: Trial by Fire
Book 4: Home Fires
Book 5: Friendly Fire
Book 6: Hostile Fire
Book 7: Hostile Fire
Book 8: Hell Fire
Book 9: Brimstone
Book 10: Damned Nation
Book 11: Ashes
The Black Sheep of Soulan
Book 1: Parno's Company
Book 2: Parno's Destiny
Book 3: Parno's Gambit
Book 4: Parno's Peril
Book 5: Parno’s Gift
Stormcrow
Stormcrow: Book 1
Stormcrow: Book 2
Stand Alone Titles
Odd Billy Todd
Roland: Reluctant Paladin
Tammy and Ringo
Friggin Zombies
The Kid