Mundie Moms

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Monsters & Mayhem Blog Tour: Survival Guide to the Apocalypse by Ilsa J. Bick



Welcome to today's Monsters & Mayhem tour stop hosted by Egmont USA! I'm thrilled to be apart of this tour, and to feature Ilsa J. Bick's MONSTERS on it's release day!


***MONSTERS BOOK BIRTHDAY***


Survival Guide to the Apocalypse


Really, the only suggestion I have in terms of zombies per se is this: ladies, cut your hair.  I’m serious.  Not only can a zombie hook and reel you in like a trout, it can strangle you if your hair’s down to your butt.  So lose the hair. This goes for any of you guys out there with the long locks, too.  Trust me: the apocalypse is no time for vanity.


Now, if you’ve taken care of that order of business . . . let’s talk about real survival, okay?  Let’s assume you’ve all assembled a bug-out bag, too.  Really; if you haven’t, stop what you’re doing and go slap that sucker together this instant.  If you want advice on what to put into a bag or fanny pack . . . do a Google search, or get in touch with me, and I’ll tell you exactly what’s in mine and ought to be in yours.
So, you’ve bugged out of your house and you’re on your own.  Zombie or otherwise, these are the things you have to focus on if you want to make it through more than the first couple of days.

First order of business: listen to Douglas Adams, and DON’T PANIC!!  I’m serious.  Panic is a killer.  So assuming that you’re not in imminent danger of drowning or falling off a cliff . . . go hug a tree.  Or sit down.  Do yoga or sing your favorite song, but do something to calm yourself down.  Really.  Panic will get you or someone else killed.  In an emergency, take your own pulse.

Second order of business: get and/or stay warm.  This frequently translates to finding shelter, building a fire, peeling out of those wet clothes, whatever.  Avoid hypothermia because that will kill you pretty fast.  Successfully getting that fire going is a real morale boost, too.  (And this is where that handy-dandy bug-out bag comes in handy because, of course, you’ve got at least three different strategies for making fire.  Why three?  Because two might fail.  If all three fail, I might be screwed, but I know a couple more tricks.  But stick with three—and it goes without saying that you know how to use these tools, right?  Because you’ve practiced?  Of course, you have.)

Okay, Got your fire going?  Warm and toasty?  Thinking you might survive after all?  You bet.  It’s also occurred to you that a signal fire is a great thing, too, so you’ll keep this going.  But now . . . well, all that hard work and you’re kind of thirsty.

Which brings us to water.

A true fact: you can live for three weeks without food, but try going three days without water—and you’re history.  So water is key.  In crummy conditions—say, it’s really hot—you can figure on needing a quart every couple of hours.  For the sake of argument, we’re going to pretend there’s a water source: a scummy pond, a stream, rain, whatever.  Well, you can’t just drink.  There are all sorts of nasty things floating around in there.  But, lucky you, there are two basic ways to purify water: heat and chemicals.  Natch, you know how to do both, yes?  Google this if you don’t; all sorts of tricks out there.  If you’re really stuck, just grab some pond water in a clear plastic bottle, let it settle, carefully pout out the less-gucky stuff into another clear plastic bottle, and set it in the FULL SUN for about eight hours.  Kills just about everything that’ll kill you.

Lastly, there’s food, which is easy, because you’ve packed a really nice bug-out bag: a couple power bars, a few packets of Kool-Aid, and two or three pouches of energy gels.  In a pinch, you can make that one power-protein bar do for a day.  Would knowing the region’s edible plants help?  Would it be really good to know how to fish and make snares?  Sure, but I’m just trying to get you through the first couple of days.

Other stuff?  For my money, the most important piece of equipment in your survival arsenal is a good, sharp knife.  Two, actually.  I always wear one, carry the other. If I somehow lost my fanny-pack, I would still have a decent shot of making it with only a knife.  (Anyone who doubts this, go read Hatchet.  Paulsen was right.)
Other than that?  Pack a deck of cards.  If you’re the only non-zombie around, it’s going to be a long and lonely post-apocalypse.

About The Book




The Changed are on the move. The Spared are out of time. The End...is now.

When her parents died, Alex thought things couldn't get much worse-until the doctors found the monster in her head.

She headed into the wilderness as a good-bye, to leave everything behind. But then the end of the world happened, and Alex took the first step down a treacherous road of betrayal and terror and death.

Now, with no hope of rescue-on the brink of starvation in a winter that just won't quit-she discovers a new and horrifying truth.

The Change isn't over.
The Changed are still evolving.
And...they've had help.

With this final volume of The Ashes Trilogy, Ilsa J. Bick delivers a riveting, blockbuster finish, returning readers to a brutal, post-apocalyptic world where no one is safe and hope is in short supply.

A world where, from these ashes, the monsters may rise


Purchase Monster via Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
Add it to Goodreads

The Giveaway
Thank you to Egmont USA, I've got 1 set of Illsa's Ashes trilogy to giveaway! US only please. To enter, please fill out the form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

*****Please visit All Things Urban Fantasy tomorrow for the next stop on the Monsters & Mayhem Blog Tour*****


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