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Lock the doors and board up the windows. The power grids are down, food is scarce, communications have been reduced to short range transmissions, and the only sound on the radio is a killer's heavy breathing. After a catastrophic incident abruptly depletes the global fuel supply, Eddie Slate, a local car salesman, finds himself spiraling into an world where the only rule for survival is self-preservation. Alone and barricaded in the house, Eddie's only means of contact is a handheld radio. Nobody ever answers, at least not until a mysterious drifter starts transmitting and takes a dark step into his life. From the author's cellar, in his own words. (Rainstone Webcasts) Rainstone: "What's CRUDE about?" J.L. Davis: "In the end, CRUDE isn't so much about a disaster as it is about the human condition pitted against extreme circumstances. "The story itself deals with two forms of life. The one is the Eddie Slate's of the world, that everyday guy who rolls along through life, grabs takeout coffee from Starbucks, maybe stops by the local pub for a beer after work. Then one day disaster strikes. Everything falls apart. He's alone. Cold and hungry. It's the equivalent of pulling someone out of bed from a Malibu beach house in the middle of the night and dropping them in a ghetto; they either learn how to fight or don't survive. The only thing he or she hangs on to is hope of rescue and memories of a past life. It's a struggle to maintain any sense of sanity and moral conscience. The other predominant form of life is that narcissistic person, sort of the human version of a jackal or a coyote. Put someone like that in a place where social values and law enforcement are gone, it's like leaving the cage door of a lion open in downtown New York. Someone becomes hunted. "In CRUDE, both kinds of people are in play and racing towards each other headfirst. It's just a question of who survives." Rainstone: "Where did you get the idea to write the book?" J.L. Davis: "I first thought about writing CRUDE one night during a blackout. The lights flickered, the power grids went down. Sitting there in the dark, I began to wonder what might happen if the electric never came back on again. I started jotting down notes by candlelight. My initial intention was to make CRUDE a short story. After some research, there was too much to tell to contain all of it. CRUDE was supposed to be a short story but instead of a kiss it turned out to be an all night sleepover." Rainstone: "Tell me more about Eddie Slate, the main character." J.L. Davis: "Eddie is an everyday guy, ironically enough, working as a car salesman. Thinking about it, that's probably not the business of choice in an oil crisis. The story is sometimes told through past events. Eddie often reminisces about life before the disaster occurred. There's plenty of twists in the road and without giving too much away, there's even something of a love story going on in the backdrop as he tries to find a woman gone missing." Rainstone: "After I read CRUDE, I found myself sitting up in bed and saying, "Hey, this could really happen." Any last minute advice for people like me?" J.L. Davis (with a smile): "Just fill up the gas tank and point the car south." Other books by J.L. Davis CRUDE (Apocalyptic Satire) NESTING with the LOONS (Escapist Satire)
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