Apocalyptic Empire change of direction!

So I've kept this largely under wraps, because I wasn't sure how I wanted it to play out, but I've decided to let everyone know exactly what has been going on with the Apocalyptic Empire Series.

Over the course of the last few months I have been secretly working on re-branding the series, rewriting the first two books, and completely changing the entire look and feel of the books. I have changed the author name, the character names, and completely changed the style of writing in the books. I feel like this will enhance the story, make the book more readable, and make an overall much more enjoyable experience for everyone.

I have also enlisted the help of a very professional editor, and a new cover designer to create the look and feel that I was sorely missing. I have also enlisted the help of Alika from SHTFReady.com as an advisor. He is helping me create a much more vivid and reader friendly series.

Add to all of that and I also have a new website that I will be rolling out in the coming months.

I will create future updates with my progress as I go through this great transition period, but I didn't want to keep fans of the series in the dark for any longer than necessary.

As it stands, book one is currently about 25% through the rewriting process as I had added about 100 pages of content in just the first quarter of the book. I have added new characters to flush out some of the beginning stories of the Outbreak, and also to add more action and suspense through the beginning days. I've removed a lot of the issues that I had the first time around, and this will greatly help a lot of people thoroughly enjoy the books.

Lastly, I just wanted to leave you guys with the new details of the series.

The series will now be called "The Hatchery Compound" with the titles of each book as follows:

The Extinction Pandemic: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Hatchery Compound)

Eradication is the Solution: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel

 (The Hatchery Compound)

Operation Reclamation: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel

(The Hatchery Compound)

Time for Expansion: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel

 (The Hatchery Compound)

Grayson Hawkins will be the author of this series, which I think readers of the original series will enjoy the new name. I thought it was pretty clever.

As always, I would love any feedback that you can offer, please feel free to email me or leave a comment.

Thanks so much for hanging in there during the transition and I promise the wait will be worth it. For all readers of Apocalyptic Empire, once we are done I will send out free copies of the new series as a gift for coming along for the ride. I really appreciate everything you guys do for me, and I want to do what I can to show my appreciation.

Also I will leave you with the book covers for the first two books. Let me know what you think please!

Stay safe out there,

Chris Blake

A.K.A.

Grayson Hawkins

Tomorrow's Episode of Prepper Chicks!

Tomorrow's episode of Prepper Chicks - After Dark will feature JD from Conflicted, Lori from PrepperChicks, and Alika from SHTF Ready like always! We also have FOUR guests this week.

First up is Julie, Ginger and Joseph from Conflicted: What Would You Do Scenarios. They are a group that takes a page right out of JD's book! Check them out on Facebook for more scenarios that make you think.

Next up, is Sharon from Trailer Park Homesteader. Her family is all about preparing for a real deal SHTF scenario. Not viral apocalypse like we are, but more down to earth stuff like storms, financial disasters, illnesses, etc. Check them out on Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, or their Podcast as well.

We are excited to have all these new guests on our show to try out our new scenarios. We will be branching out from our normal routine and trying something new by taking only a couple scenarios and digesting them and breaking them down. We will try and come up with potential ways to avoid the scenarios and also how to get out of them or deal with them.

It should be a good show tomorrow evening so tune in and check it out at 11PM ET on Tuesday January 7th over at Prepper Chicks - After Dark!

Stay safe out there,

Chris Blake

Back in action! Checking in!

I finally got a new Macbook and I have started writing book three in the series Reclamation. I have made some changes and switched to a past tense writing style to better fit the mold. I have also made some other tweaks and minor adjustments to get a better handle on everything. If I can keep up a normal writing pace I should be able to get Reclamation out before summer comes along! So keep an eye on the blog and website going forward for more updates.

I have been participating on a weekly basis over at Prepper Chicks - After Dark. We have been gaining a steady listener base and playing Conflicted, making hard decisions and deciding who gets to live and who needs to go. This of course made some waves and has caused us to rethink the whole show. I will be creating some crazy scenarios and then the team will be breaking down those scenarios, coming up with ways to avoid them and tactical solutions. Using this new format I think will be really engaging and get our listeners thinking about what they would do in these scenarios and also prepare them to avoid these scenarios. I am looking forward to the next episode which will be on Tuesday, January 7th.

Of course I won't be the only one on the show. My good friend, and biggest fan Alika will be on there as well. He runs shtfready.com a survival/prepper forum. They have some great information about survival and how to prepare yourself for a crazy scenario that could actually happen. I'm not saying that the Apocalyptic Empire won't reign, I'm just saying the odds are it will be a tsunami or something...

Also on the show is the host Lori from PrepperChicks. She is a crazy lady that keeps us all semi-inline and keeps the show going. She's super funny and always keeps the fun going. PrepperChicks on the other hand is all business. They are exactly like the title says, promoting prepping to chicks. Their goal is to spread the word of preparedness to women and getting the knowledge out there. She can tell you 101 ways to use a tampon, or maxipad, or something, just ask her...

Lastly, but not least is JD from Conflicted. He is the creator of Conflicted The Game. It's a deck of cards that contains some serious situations that make you and your friends/family really stop and think. If someone in your family answers each question with "just kill them all," you may want to rethink having them in your party when the shit hits the fan. JD is a funny guy originally from Brazil, and he's an awesome guy. He and I have partnered up on raffles and cross promote each others gear all the time. If you haven't checked out Conflicted, now's the time.

Tune in to Prepper Chicks After Dark at 11PM EST on 01/07/14 to check us all out!

On a personal note, I hope you all had a good Holiday season. New Years is right around the corner and I am super excited for 2014. I have two new books planned for 2014, and I plan on getting them both finished. I also plan on having many raffles and giveaways in between. On a way personal note, I have a new baby coming in March and we are so happy for that. So as we look forward to a new year, I wish you all a good one, and please check back with me later for more updates about the Apocalyptic Empire, and all that I have going on in the AE Universe!

Stay safe out there,

Chris Blake

Survival radio show

Ok first things first, my Macbook died so it has seriously hindered my ability to post stuff! Hence the lack of blog posts! Now I am on my iPad so I will keep it short!

This week I was able to be a part of a new survival radio show hosted by PrepperChicks and Survivalogics. The show will be aired every Tuesday night at 11PM ET, 8PM PT. Since I failed to get the word out in time feel free to listen to this weeks recorded show. The link is for the Conflicted Card Game. He summarizes it much better than I can!

Listen Now!

And the winners are....!

The raffle is over and here are the winners! I will be sending everyone an email to collect addresses for your prizes, make sure you respond in a timely manner to collect your prizes! The rafflecopter system doesn't assign winners to prizes so I am giving them away first come first serve. Respond to the emails I sent off with a list of a few things you would like and I will send them off or let you know!

Thanks everyone for participating, I'm really glad I got to do this! I will do another on next month, so check back for more raffle goodness!

Stay safe out there,

Chris Blake

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Apocalyptic Empire Series FREE This Weekend Only! Plus The Raffle Is Ending!

There's a ton of stuff going on this weekend so you better not miss out!

First, the raffle is ending this weekend! If you want a chance to win survival gear, signed print copies of the series, or a Conflicted card game deck, you better enter to win below!

Next, I am giving away FREE copies of Apocalyptic Empire: Eradication and The Hatchery Compound. This deal is only on Smashwords though so you have to head over there. The cool thing about Smashwords is that you can download your copy in whatever format you need to read it on your devices. Just add the books to your cart and apply the coupon codes. Both books will be FREE all weekend, but the coupon expires Monday, so grab them while you can!

Apocalyptic Empire: Eradication - Use coupon code GZ24E when checking out!

Apocalyptic Empire: The Hatchery Compound - Use coupon code JJ79P when checking out!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guns, guns, and more guns.

It's been awhile since I've talked about weaponry on the blog. Life has been an endless whirlwind for me, and I've forgotten my bloggy routes. When I originally started this blog I said I would be informative! Then I switched jobs again, finished Eradication, and got on the marketing bandwagon.

So on to the guns right...

Lately, if you live in a cave, you may have missed that there is a lot of talk going around about an "assault weapons ban." Now, before you start lighting me up with political shenanigans, I am going to just be honest....ENOUGH shenanigans. We're here to talk about no, not "assault rifles," I prefer to call them semi-automatic-bringers-of-love.

Moving on!

The funny thing about this blog post is that I do not own a single rifle, so this isn't me spouting off about all my fancy toys, and how intelligent I am about them. It's just me checking out some bad ass guns. I am going to drop some links to BudsGunShop, because well, they are pretty cool.

I'm going to start off with, you guessed it, an AR-15. Now, not all ARs are made equal, even a cave man would probably know that. You can spend thousands of dollars on one, or you can spend $700. I prefer the latter. Enter the Bushmaster CAR15. For $700, it's a sweet little package. It has a collapsable butt stock and a red dot sight to make it look even more sweet.

Ok, so nobody said I was sticking to cheap guns, this thing weighs in at $2,800. It's a Bushmaster ACR 223. I think it just looks awesome, and it is definitely ready to rock and roll.

This one isn't even in stock it's so awesome. The H&K MR556 is basically an amped up gorgeous looking M416. It still wears the same gear as your standard AR platform and fires the same rounds.

The FN FS2000 is sold out too! I'm sensing a pattern here... Anyway, this rifle is really cool, it's in a bullpup form factor which means that the receiver is behind the trigger and shortens up the buttstock. The bullpup form factor isn't widely used in the US, but I think it should be.

Just to prove a point that I'm not entirely about new fangled technology, here's a Springfield AA9626 M1A SOCOM. It's a modernized version of the standard military M1A1 from the WW2 era. I'm a sucker for WW2 weapons, and this brings me back there like a 1911, while still adding in the newer technology.

This isn't "technically" a rifle, but most of these were carbines anyway, so neither were they... Anyway, how awesome are Tommy Guns? Or Thompson 45 ACPs officially. It's still the same form factor, caliber, and 50 round drum that the gangsters were using back in the early 1900's. Need I say more?

I'm going to end with this rifle, because nothing says you're a bad ass zombie killing machine quite like the .50BMG. BARR M82A1SYS is a .50 caliber cannon. I don't even think it's fair to call it a rifle. That's like calling the Lamborghini Veneno a car, which clearly it's not, its a batmobile... and if a rifle could be the equivalent of the batmobile, the Barrett .50 is it. You can Google the M82A1 all day long and find videos and pictures of it destroying things, so I don't have to do that for you, I will just leave you with this one... Barrett Pumpking Blasting! This guy's on my Youtube list and he's legit so give him a follow!

Thanks all for today! Until next time!

Stay safe out there,

Chris Blake