Dear Reader,
While Beyond the Strandline is a work of fiction, the atmospheric events leading up to the establishment of the S-Line Ranch as an oasis of prepared safety have been and might yet be very real.
Solar storms are a documented part of earth’s history. In 1859, a solar coronal mass ejection (a geomagnetic solar storm or solar flares) hit the earth. What little power grid existed at the time, mainly telegraphs, largely failed.
Our modern world, with its complicated power grids and systems, has only grown more vulnerable to the massive influence of our closest star. According to some in the scientific community: EMP’s, pandemics, dirty bombs, nuclear attack, global economic collapse, and all the rest are statistically less likely than the storms that we cannot stop but can only try to prepare for.
In the character of Colonel Kennedy, I wanted to show the potential for all of us to be able to think ahead and prepare (prep) for whatever the universe or mankind might have in store.
Curious readers have asked me, “How did he [Tess’s grandfather] know what to do to get ready?”
I rejoice at the question. Thinking about what might happen is the beginning. I like to imagine that Colonel Kennedy looked up emergency preparedness on the Internet and started reading. Something any of us can do.
This is a story of possibilities and hope and courage and love and survival. In my mind, it’s better than a fairy tale because it’s a story about the best fairy tale of all—life—in all its unpredictability.
Linda L. Zern
www.zippityzerns.com
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