You might wonder, Dear Reader, what preparing for winter has to do with the month of May, or more particularly, with Noon & Wilder and our stories.  Let me ‘splain.

One of Rachel Wilder’s passions is being prepared for whatever might happen.  It’s impossible to prevent every catastrophe, but we can be ready for the unexpected.  In our stories, many of our characters have elements of these personality traits: there are the former Marines, who know what can happen and are ready for it; there are the Keepers, whose job is to run households and businesses and, by the nature of those occupations, to be prepared for things; and there are the lamiae shifters, alive for decades and wise from the sheer number of years on this planet.

Besides.  It’s fun to give our characters our own obsessions, don’t you think?

Moving right along then:  winter.  What about it?  Well, even if you don’t live somewhere there’s a harsh, frozen winter on a regular basis, the metaphoric “put things up for winter” is still a good idea.  Experts recommend having enough food and water, as well as other supplies, (like toilet paper, say?), for as long as two weeks at home.  The government calls this “shelter in place,” and they mean in situations like a large-scale terror attack, severe weather event, or other cataclysm such as a major forest fire or earthquake.

My question is, okay, that’s all well and good, but what do we stockpile?

Canned goods are a good place to start, Rachel told me.  Make sure you have a method of opening said cans.  (A suggestion I found brilliant, frankly, as I’m likely to be the one with fifty cans and no can opener.)  Have a way of heating the food in the cans, because we can’t be sure that we’ll have electricity or gas in a large-scale disaster.  She really likes the “Sterno Stove Kit,” because it heats very efficiently, isn’t overly expensive, and the fuel is easy to find.

What about you, Dear Reader?  What do you have prepared for metaphorical winter?  If you haven’t yet, what might you start collecting?