What's Left of My World: A Story of a Family's Survival

I want to wholeheartedly offer my deepest thanks to all those who've helped turn my first book into an Amazon post-apocalyptic/dystopian best-seller. I'm enthused that so many of you were (and still are) able to connect with the story. There is much, much more to come.

What's Left of My World will always be my debut novel as a beginner author. That being said, the process of writing and self-publishing my freshman release wasn't only a major undertaking for me but a learning process as well - one that hasn't ended at the point of offering it for sale to the vast expanses of readers on Amazon.

I'm practically dumbfounded even today at how remarkably robust, diverse, supportive, and opinionated my readers. I'm also astonished at how remarkably blind I was to have written a story with such potential while not having taken into consideration the impact each and every individual word might have on a totality of readers from every walk of life - from the front cover to the end matter. Hindsight being what it is, I made a lot of rookie mistakes.

I've received many accolades for What's Left of My World, but I've also obtained a fair share of negative commentary. I'm no stranger to criticism - both good and bad - and it is my intention to learn from both to become a better author - one able to write books that can appeal to a much broader audience in the future.

~CA

emailtheauthor@carudolph.com
"With an EMP, almost everything powered by electricity would effectively be wiped out - not physically, but practically. Such things would simply cease to work...

Sound like science fiction? It's understandable that some people would think so, especially anyone who has seen the flashy EMP attacks dramatized in TV shows such as '24.' Unfortunately, it's all too real. Why? Because an EMP isn't an altogether new, high-tech weapon. It's the same nuclear blast we've come to fear as a potential destroyer of our cities. It's just used in an alternate way.

The difference: the location of the blast. In a conventional nuclear attack, the bomb is timed to explode close to the ground. The resulting radiation blast wreaks great physical damage. But with an EMP, the same kind of bomb is set to explode high in the air. When that happens, the blast doesn't level a city, but it does knock out the power grid, leaving the residents who have come to depend on it largely helpless."

Edwin J. Feulner Ph.D, December 12, 2011