Kindle Edition Amazon Ordinary World Amazon - Kindle Amazon - Paperback Category:  Family Publisher: Jackrabbit Prose/Amazon ISBN-10:  1491282878 Type: Fiction Pages: 380 Copyright: 2013 ISBN-13: 9781491282878 Price: $3.49 (eBook) As the financial system crumbles, a rural family learns to survive in an unfamiliar world. Their challenges are not always easy, but they face them together. As the financial system crumbles around them, a family learns how to survive the challenges of an unfamiliar new world. Bill, Gracie, and their son Joe learn new ways to live as their reality changes. Bread, gasoline, and even toilet paper all become scarce when the trucks stop rolling. When a ghost from the past threatens their lives, there are no police to call. And even greater, unexpected trials lie ahead. Faced with a new and unfamiliar economy, they find new friends and learn to cherish the community around them. From food to self defense, there is no one to rely on but their neighbors and themselves. Available in Paperback and Kindle edictions.  Coming soon to Audio..       Excerpt Zombies and Boy Scouts I’ve seen many things in my lifetime that I did not expect to see. Outrageous fantasies of my youth are now history. I remember when video communication was the stuff of science fiction; now an internet connection and a free software program allows me to video-chat with almost anyone in the world—for free. Three-dimensional printing allows an idea for an object to be sent by internet to a distant printer and made into a solid object. It’s been used for dental implants for years; recently someone did it with a working gun. Beam more weapons, Scottie! The reunification of Germany, the fall of the Soviet Union, a two-state solution for Palestine: they were once the fantasies of futurists. All of which reinforces what the Boy Scouts taught me many years ago: “Be Prepared.” I live in one of the most prepared states in the country: Utah. The Mormon Church, as it is called by non-members like myself, has taught preparedness for decades. Most families here have a year’s worth of food in storage, an abundant supply of ammunition for their firearms, and a seventy-two hour kit in case of evacuation. Outsiders seem to find that strange. Evacuation? Why prepare for that? They have already forgotten about hurricanes that hit the Gulf and the East Coast, floods in the mid-west, wildfires in California and Texas, and any number of other natural disasters that displace tens of thousands of Americans each year. Since 9-11, the federal government has gotten on the preparedness bandwagon. Homeland Security advises us to be prepared, to have an emergency plan, to keep a supply of food on hand. But I wonder how many folks outside of Utah and the Mormon Church are listening? Ironically, the Mormon preoccupation with preparedness stems not from fear of the future, but from memory of the past: Buchanan’s Blunder sent troops into Utah in 1857, making Utah one of the few states north of the Mason-Dixon to be invaded by a Federal Army. The settlers, unequipped to confront the Army, grabbed what they could and headed for the mountains. The Mormons have taken preparedness seriously ever since, and that’s an interest I have gained since I moved here. Like them, I have a year’s worth of wheat and other provisions, a healthy supply of ammunition, and a seventy-two hour kit in case we have to evacuate because of wildfire, flash flood, or any other reason. Preparedness is never complete. Think about everything we buy from the store each week, and all of the inputs that make our lifestyles possible: electricity, water, gasoline. Vegetables. Pet food. If we expect to live a similar lifestyle in a time of economic or political uncertainty, we face a continuing process of making ready. That is how I come to be talking about zombies in a preparedness store in Cedar City. “It’s all fun and games until you run into one,” the store owner tells me. He is a young man with dark hair and a neatly-trimmed beard. Despite the camouflage clothing on display around his store, he wears blue jeans and a t-shirt that advertises a micro-brewery in Colorado. Clearly not a Mormon. “There have been several cases in the United States already,” adds his wife, a plump woman who looks to be in her late twenties. “Crazy people who murder people and eat the flesh of their victims,” says the owner. “There was a case in New York City where a woman ate her own child!” exclaims the wife. “Just like it says in Revelation.” We all pause for a moment to revel in the drama of that claim. Then she adds, “Well, Revelation doesn’t specifically say it will be New York. But it’s scary. The end times are coming.” This is a topic I enjoy. I got my degree in theology, so it’s something I know a little about. “Revelation,” I say in my best teaching voice, “has no context of its own. What it means depends on the context we give it. At the time it was written, readers believed it was about the fall of Rome and the restoration of Israel. These days people think it’s about the end of the world, in which case we ought to ask ourselves who the great power is that is going to fall. Aren’t we the most likely Babylon? “Some say it’s about the evils of empire, and how every empire must fall before the Justice of the Lord. “My friend the rabbi says it’s not about politics at all, but about the struggle of free will inside the human soul. “It all depends on what context you give it. By itself, it says nothing.” The store owner nods. His wife nods. Then she turns to him and asks, “Greg, can you put the zombie wall back up over there? I think customers will find it interesting.” “I think that’s a great idea,” he replies.

Disturbing and Provocative Novel - Highly Recommended
I was mesmerized by DJ Mitchell's new novel, Ordinary World. It made me look at life in 2014 quite differently - realizing how tenuous our grasp is of our current "reality," and that it could collapse at any moment without notice - for a variety of global and national reasons. Dj tells the story with aplomb, and sets a pace that increases speed to the end. I appreciate his fine character development, and the way he was able to engage my empathetic feelings for everyone involved in the story. I thought about Ordinary World for several days afterwards - appreciating the small things I take for granted every day that could be swept away by a perfect storm of negative conditions; thinking about it was very disturbing and revealing at the same time. I look forward to future books by this writer

One of the more rewarding apocalypse novels
This is the story of a rural, small scale cheese maker raising goats and struggling to provide for his family through a large, country-wide economic failure. The narrative is in the first person, and there isn't any pervasive, hateful ideology being pushed down your throat as you read. Characters are varied and seem true to life, and the struggles against hunger and weather held my interest and attention. There is a lot of unskilled storytelling in this genre, but this tale is well told. Now that I have finished reading, I'm left with a really good reading experience and considerable respect for this author's craft. Too many post apocalypse books rely upon scrounging up endless amounts of super-cool stuff just lying around, or bug out locations assembled by a wise, thorough multimillionaire. I am also a bit sick of main characters that never make mistakes, violent actions free of consequences, and soldiers having the only valuable skills when things go bad.

This story isn't an embarrassment to share with someone. I'm happy to find an author that wrote about an apocalypse in which people still remain human, try hard, make mistakes, and whose efforts sometimes fail. I'm grateful for having read a well written story instead of somebody's fantasy walkthrough of a deeply political, hyper-violent video game. This book was an excellent value, and I am happy that I found it.

Refreshingly Different
This is clearly one of the best out of the many books that I've read on societal collapse. I found the slow collapse scenario to be more plausible than some other novels where everything collapses in a single day. So often this genre of fiction involves countless gun battles. While there were still some references to guns and violence, this book finds a way to grab your attention with action of a different kind. It was very refreshing to read something that dealt more with the day to day challenges one would face in a post carbon world.