The Survival Apocalypse Series Book 6 – Sword Over Cuba
The sixth book in the Survival Apocalypse series is called Sword Over Cuba. It takes place 91-100 years after the world has gone to hell.
The story of the story of Sword Over Cuba
Book 6 of the Survival Apocalypse series “Sword Over Cuba” brings new challenges to ardent fans as it revisits two characters introduced at the very beginning of the beloved and complex epic.
The landscape expands as Dommy Roosevelt of Philadelphia and Nelson Martin of Cuba begin their journeys which will eventually culminate in the Choccolocco Valley. How we get there is the magic ahead.
In “Sword Over Cuba” young Nelson Martin, son of a plantation owner, goes to war in the post apocalyptic Cuban landscape. Elsewhere Dommy Roosevelt begins a bloody march south to a fabled place called Tara.
The Choccolocco Valley timeline expands from the year 90 to the year 100 (after the apocalypse.) Jed becomes a man before our very eyes and we learn that he has not been idle in the intervening years.
As always in all our Survival Apocalypse books, the places and things are real and well researched so that what may be… could actually be.
Book 6, “Sword Over Cuba” was released the very day Fidel Castro died. Castro was but one in a long line of despots that reached all the way into the Survival Apocalypse where Nelson battles his own. Will he win Cuba and challenge Jed for America? Read on and much thanks to all my fans!
The story behind the story…
Way back at the beginning of the Survival Apocalypse series, once I had laid down the prime real estate in the Choccolocco Valley itself I felt that there must be more going on. After all, a really good action adventure novel is about more than the day to day in one place.
Dommy popped into sight first followed by Nelson. I introduced them both in the first book and promptly laid them aside so that I could concentrate on Jed.
At the time, Dommy’s benefactor, Jeremy’s proclivities for baby chops seemed pretty sensational. This was some time before The Walking Dead introduced Terminus. Afterwards his appetite seemed a bit tame actually.
Time marches on and we get back to what Dommy and Nelson have been up to. Dommy, who presented few problems, I’ll leave for the present.
The further adventures of Nelson Martin of Cuba stopped me cold. It stopped me cold for over a year. The reason? At the time I knew as much about Cuba as most. There was Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders and then there was the cigar chomping Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution that happened when I was 6 years old or so.
Cuba, I knew, is a nation and country somewhere in the vicinity of the Caribbean out in the Gulf of Mexico, peopled by folks of Spanish descent. It is a communist government which used to make cigars regularly. It is 90 miles from Florida. And of course there was the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban missile crisis and the ever famous Guantánamo Bay. This was hardly enough information for me to write competently.
So I hit the books. Turns out there aren’t all that many good books on the subject. Where to even find the books? Then I discovered the books and amassed quite a tidy library of them. All my books are from the Spanish American War period, and they are absolutely PERFECT for the purpose of extrapolating the future, post Apocalypse!
I learned such things as Havana is Habana. The population, while quite Latin is also abundant with Africans, former invaders from Spain, and even Occidentals. The Chinese did not only come to America.
I also happened to learn that Cuba’s natural state is revolutionary. It’s what they do. The only reason that they have gone on as long as they have without a war is that Fidel (Of whom I have NO love for) would not let them have one. I expect that this may change.
As Islands go Cuba is only about half as populous as America. This will probably flip after the Apocalypse. The reason being is that the rural cubanos have so much less to lose than the Americans of the same time frame do. The poorest of the country class will notice hardly any change at all, although they too will be swept up into it by the city Cubans fleeing to the outlands for food.
After the Apocalypse Cuba will no longer be a target for Colonial occupation, but some day it just may decide to be a Colonial power. Something to watch for. The capital of Cuba just may want to be the capital of the world. Perhaps even the Catholic capital. Time will tell.
I was surprised to learn of the historical tension between the east and west of the Isla de Cuba, particularly Santiago de Cuba and old Havana. Also, as previously mentioned, the eternal warlike nature of the Cuban culture.
Once I had filled my noggin with interesting facts, and Nelson, along with his friend and brother Renaldo were vivid before me, and ready for action, it was at last time to tackle the challenges of Cuba of the Apocalypse, and to boldly craft a brand new world, quite different from the Choccolocco Valley.
As in all my books I strive to teach a little and entertain a lot. The places you will visit and many of the things you will see as you come along for the adventure are as real and accurate as possible. If we were to trudge along behind our characters, when they cross a creek, we would cross a creek, and if they walk fifteen miles to get to such and such a place we do also. The places and things actually exist today.
If I have a fault, it is perhaps using a little bit too much detail. I hope you won’t mind. I was trained by the long dead masters. That library I mentioned? It consists of books, some of them read perhaps a dozen times in the last one hundred years. Some of them much more. But none of them on loan from the library today. I work from an absolute treasure trove of information. Lifetimes of information, now all but lost.
I’m a lucky guy for an armchair historian, lately, teller of the future. As always, out of our ignorance we underestimate the intelligence and ingenuity of our ancestors, particularly our American ancestors. They KNEW they were pioneers and relished the notion. The Survival Apocalypse series is about the new pioneers who, though they face even harder challenges, operate in a world basically like it used to be 300 and more years ago. If they want something to eat they grow it or kill it and cook it. If they want something they make it or steal it. Surviving in the Survival Apocalypse is no more difficult than that.
I’m having ALL the fun with the series, largely written by the characters themselves. For the most part I just report what I see. How am I doing so far?