Tom Abrahams TV News Anchor/ Novelist

A conversation about today’s headlines and what they could be in the post-apocalyptic novels of Tom Abrahams.

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Hi everyone, I'm Ktrhs Shryff Fryerand this is my heart of Texas.
This time we're traveling Texas in theaftermath of a deliberate armageddon. Really well

(00:32):
sort of. It's through the fertilemind and authorship of one of my favorite
Texans. Tom Abrahams is a televisionanchorman and political reporter with a concurring career
of writing novels the genre dystopian aftermathof armageddon, and in his latest novel,
just released, Prepper, It's allabout what happens when domestic terror is

(00:55):
aimed at Texas and how Texans copewith a massive EMP attack. Here's an
excerpt from the audiobook Prepper, narratedby Kevin Pierce on how an EMP in
a flash can change the course ofhistory and You're very surviving. Room twenty

(01:19):
one eighteen was a shallow hearing room. It accommodated a handful of visitors in
the audience. The thick blue carpeton the floor and the matching drapes that
hung on the wall behind the dasdampened the sound. It gave the space
a tune like quality Tim found appropriategiving the context of the hearing he understand,
doctor Ram, and the man justtold Congress that an unsophisticated enemy might

(01:42):
bring the United States to its knees. Was a room getting smaller. A
wave of heat washed through Tim.He swallowed and tugged at his collar.
The tie was too tight. EMPis one of a small number of threats
that can hold our society at riskof catastrophic consequ Graham said, A well
coordinated and widespread and syber attack isanother potential example. Great, the hitch

(02:07):
just kept on coming. Tim scannedthe DAIS. Members of Congress shifted in
their seats. They appeared as uncomfortableas he felt today in two thousand and
eight, less than seven years afternine eleven. The pain was wrong.

(02:29):
Okay, I just want to startright off the top here. I'm reporting
on our radio show this morning thata new gallop hole shows that saying hello
to your neighbors is linked to ahigher sense of well being. Well,
they obviously didn't read your book.Although I guess if you said hello to

(02:51):
your neighbors and you talk to thema little bit more, then maybe they
would share with you how prepared theyare or are not, and then they
wouldn't come to you in the littleof a catastrophic event, asking for what
you've saved for you and your familyexactly, and you wouldn't have to kill
them in other words, right exactly. I mean that was all I could

(03:13):
think about it, and truly,since reading your book, I've had a
hard time thinking of anything else.I mean, it's just amazing to me
how on target you are with whatwe're living in today in many people's minds,
of course, taking it out intoa very dramatic sense of dystopian survival.
Never knew you had it in you. I'll take that as a compliment.

(03:38):
Sometimes, you know, my wifewill read something I've written and asked
we've read it. That come fromYeah. I mean, I think being
in the profession that I'm in readingas much as I do, I'm constantly
aware. I think of maybe howbad things could be, or how bad
things have been, and so whenwriting I come at it from that perspective,

(04:00):
what's the worst that could happen?And then that's where the story starts.
I remember reading your very first book, and it wasn't that very long
ago, and I had no ideauntil I just bumped into you that you
were releasing book number thirty eight Howdoes a television news anchorman Besides having all
this material, I guess that youcan base your stories on. How in

(04:24):
the world can you churn out thirtyeight novels? I think it's just discipline.
I try to write an average ofa thousand words a day, which
is between three and four pages.I try to write, you know,
at least thirty thousand words a month, and ninety thousand every three months is
a book. So every three monthsI finish a book, finished writing a

(04:48):
book, and it's just sort ofstacked up. And there have been cases
where I've written them faster than that. I think Buffalo by You I wrote
in six weeks. But for themost part, it's every three months.
And that first book you mentioned tookme three years, and then the next
book took me a year, andthen nine months, and then you just

(05:08):
kind of get into a rhythm andyou know what you could do and what
you can't do. And I fittedin in the mornings or at night,
and on the week, you know, my weekends, which your Thursday and
Friday. And I have a reallyunderstanding wife who's good with me disappearing for
a few hours to write. Yeah, but you've raised children in the middle
of all this, we did.They also were understanding. You know what

(05:28):
I would do actually when my sonwas in high school is we would get
up really early in the morning beforehe had to be at school, and
I would either drive him too orthen when he was old enough to drive,
drive with him to what a Burgerand we'd sit in the back corner.
We'd have breakfast together before he wentto school, and then I'd stay
for another couple of hours and write, just sitting in a booth at what
a Burger. So that gave meextra time with him in the morning before

(05:50):
he went to school, and italso gave me a motivation to get up
early and get my writing done beforeeven before my wife was awake. And
then you had to switch gears,or in many cases, maybe you weren't
switching gears too much. I mean, not only were you an anchorman,
are you an anchorman still? Butyou're a primary political reporter. And politics

(06:12):
certainly has been dystopian for the greaterpart of the last ten years or so,
it really has. And I youknow, my first five novels were
political thrillers for lack of a betterterm, and then I got invited to
write a story in a dystopian worldfor Amazon and it did really well,

(06:34):
and so other author friends encourage meto sort of switch genres, which I
did and had some success, andthat's sort of where I've stuck. And
this most recent one, though,I've kind of gone back to the political
route there certainly as you read somepolitical elements to the story. So I
don't feel like I'm writing the samestory, even though I think post apocalyptic

(06:55):
readers, much like romance readers likethe Binge, read and they will.
I wouldn't say it's the same storyover and over again, but they read
those same tropes over and over again. I think sometimes a because they just
like the genre, but also becausethey're looking for tidbits. They're looking for
things they can learn so that theycan prepare themselves. And you know,

(07:16):
as we saw during COVID, it'sthe strangest things that you don't think about
that you need when the world shiftson a taxus a toilet paper. I
was looking back at the titles.I didn't have time to go back and
read all thirty eight. I justran into you last week Dystopian World after
Armageddon and during the COVID time,it was plagues, it was various health

(07:42):
things. This one is not thethings that are going on currently that you
cover as a newsperson. Very muchhas a place in your book. It
does, and you know, EMPis probably the most popular of the genres.
You know. My first series wasabout a plague, and I wrote

(08:03):
that in twenty sixteen, and thenwrote a spinoff that was completed right before
COVID hit and released during COVID,and I at that point was sort of
tired of writing about plagues, obviouslybecause we were kind of living through one,
and so I decided to shift andwrite about the MP's, which were
popular. I wrote another series calledCrusader that focused on a foreign adversary attacking,

(08:26):
and then this one is sort ofa combination of where there's there's a
domestic terror attack that affects not onlythe grid, but then also a release
of the MP's via weather balloons.How appreci Yeah, that kills that kills
every you know, all pretty muchevery electronic in the major urban areas in

(08:48):
Texas, and then then the gridis dead all over the state. So
yeah, I mean, I certainlyam trying to make it read as if
it could happen today or tomorrow.That's the point. It really grabbed me
Prepper because you sort of make adistinction between what's a prepper and what's a
survivalist, and there's a certain amountof disdained for people who are preppers.

(09:11):
I always thought survivalists was more outthere, wacko, But you sort of
make a different argument in your book. I think so, and I think
you know people who are in thesurvivalist community or the preparedness community. I
mean, prepper can be sort ofa pejorative term. But the reason I
named the book that is for anumber of reasons. One when deciding what

(09:33):
to title this series, believe itor not, of all the millions of
books that exist on Amazon, manyof which are post apocalyptic in nature,
nobody's named a book Prepper, whichshocked me. And actually, when I
was telling other author friends, theywould go and look and try to find
one and couldn't find one. Andso I thought, well, this speaks

(09:54):
directly to the community that likes toread these novels, and it tells you
exactly what the book is about.Although in the book there are different levels
of there's not just one prepper andthere are different levels of preppers. There's
a suburban prepper. There is theguy who has bugged out and is living
on his property in the middle ofnowhere in Texas and is essentially self sufficient.

(10:18):
So yeah, I mean, Ido think there are different levels of
people. That most people in SoutheastTexas are prepared for hurricane We all have
our hurricane kit, or at leastwe should. And then there are those
who go a step further and we'reready for say the pandemic, or would
be ready should the power go out. I mean, there's a preponderance of

(10:41):
people now if they can afford them, who have whole home generators because of
freeze. So we learn from ourexperiences, and so there are different levels
of people. And I you know, certainly, I think in any any
hobby or any interest can become obsessive, and so there's certainly people who are
obsessive about it are on the fringe, but most people are not. Most

(11:03):
people are just trying to make surethat if the worst were to happen,
they could protect themselves in their family. I think there's a sense of self
sufficiency that comes along with a statelike this, So a lot of people
maybe not just preparing for weather events. They're just preparing for if they have

(11:24):
to bug out. They don't wantto have to depend on somebody else in
order to make sure that they ortheir family survives. And I get very
much that attitude from your character inPrepper. He's a construction guy, and
yet he's believed, you know,maybe I'd better be ready, and he
certainly is. Are you that guy? There's certainly elements of me in every

(11:48):
character that I write, good andbad, but I'm not any of those
characters. I wouldn't say I'm necessarilyas well prepared as the main character in
the book, jack At, butwe are prepared. Both my kids,
my wife, and I all havebags in our cars, backpacks that have
survival supplies, you know, likethey look like to pre sunbags, but

(12:11):
their water and high energy food barsand emergency kits and first aid kits.
Both of my kids have the garmentsthat are featured in the book because our
daughter lives in California, so ifthere were an earthquake, she could be
located. Our son likes to hikeand whatever. He lives in Austin.

(12:31):
I wouldn't say we're fanatics, butwe are prepared. And there are elements
of all of these things, eitherthings that I have done or things I'd
like to do, or things Ifailed to do that are that are in
these books. You're right about Texansvery self sufficient, and that's why I
placed a lot of my stories inTexas, because I just think it is

(12:52):
its own country. And on thatwe'll be right back. What is fascinating
to me and talking to Texans isthe consistency of shared traits, whether they

(13:15):
are native Texans or those who chooseto be born in Louisiana. Tom grew
up in North Carolina, where hedecided in high school that journalism and broadcast
would be his career, majoring init at the University of Florida. TV
news jobs in Gainesville, Jacksonville,Orlando landed him in the ABC thirteen newsroom
in Houston, where we were colleaguesfor several years, and many of us

(13:39):
knew of his writing passion, howhe is perfecting it though in action and
attitude is what sings Texas to me. There are two distinct places within that
book, one of Prepper that youbasically say only Texans really like Texas.
Where did that come from? Well? I think because you have you have.

(14:03):
You know, the main the mainbad guy in the book is a
tech genius from California. And soI think there is there is a perception
on the West Coast that Texans thinkthey're better than everybody else, maybe in
part because we are. But youknow, and that's one mistakes share of
sometimes that people make when when readinga book, is they transpose what a

(14:24):
character thinks or feels or says ontothe author and that that's how the author
feels, and it's not. It'sjust that I'm thinking through the character,
how how would these characters feel aboutit? And I will tell you when
we came to Texas almost twenty fiveyears ago, we were I wouldn't say
shocked, but it's certainly we certainlynoticed how proud Texans are of Texas and

(14:48):
how you know, on freeway overpassesthere's the state emblazoned in the concrete and
everywhere you go there's a Texas flag. Texans are very proud of their heritage
and where they come from, asthey should be. And you know,
being sort of an adopted Texan,I think I see how people on the
outside feel about Texas. They eitherreally really are fascinated by Texas and want

(15:13):
to wish they were Texans, orthey're envious and they don't like Texans.
They put us down. I'm tryingto explain to people why Texas. Maybe
you can explain why Texas? Whydid you decide to stay? You hit
certainly with your talent both on thenews desk but also now as a writer.

(15:35):
You could live anywhere. Why Texas? We did have opportunities to leave
at certain points and chose to stayhere a because of the people, be
because it is a great place tolive and raise a family, and the
economics here makes sense, you know. We While costs of living certainly has

(15:56):
gone up for everybody Texas, thisis still a reasonable place to live,
Houston in particular, and I loveI tell people all the time jokingly that
unlike New York, which is agreat place to visit, but you wouldn't
want to live there, Houston mightnot be a great place to visit,
but it's the best place to live. You know. We have everything here
in Houston, Road opening Day,Rodeo Houston, work in the ankle,

(16:22):
I Labert on Houston's Morning News,and have a great time in Houston,
Texas. This is the first bookI've placed in the post apocalyptic book that
I've placed in Houston. Houston playsa role in a lot of the books,
but this is the first one wherethe primary character lives and works in
Houston. And I just think it'sit's a fantastic place, and there's nowhere

(16:45):
better. And I don't think mywife and I see ourselves leaving. We've
talked about when when we eventually retire, where will we go. Well,
if we leave Houston, will stayin Texas. There's just no reason to
go anywhere else. Well, Ishould point out to people it's notious about
Houston. It's about your far WestTexas survivalist. It's about Frederick Fredericksburg.
We haven't gotten to that part exactlyyet, but we know that the family

(17:07):
is going to have to bug outsomewhere. You write a lot about Austin,
but I think more than anything,to me, you make the characters
really alive and real, and itsort of takes me into what is on
the fringes of creativity these days allover the world. Will AI replace that
creativity? Can AI ever replace that? Because AI certainly couldn't create the people

(17:33):
that you are creating in your book. In my opinion, that's a really
good question share. And it's certainlysomething that a lot of people in the
writing community are concerned about and aretalking about. And I know there are
authors who are already using AI inthe development of their stories. AI has
not advanced to the point where itcould craft an eighty five or hundred thousand

(17:53):
word novel, but it is helpingsome authors. I'm not using it,
but it is helping some authors withplot points or chapter outlines. It can't
create the human experience like a humancan, and I think that's the one
place where if AI were to takeover, we would really lose something,
and that is in the arts,whether you're talking about writing or music or

(18:14):
painting. It lacks the emotion becauseand all everything it's doing is derivative,
because it's only working off things thatother people have already created. But yet,
there is certainly a concern about whatAI means for the future of books,
and I know that a lot oftrade groups are already concerned about it

(18:40):
and have talked about it, andmore and more post apocalyptic stories have AI
as the bad guy. I dothink it's something that everybody, regardless of
where you live or what you dofor a living certainly has to keep in
the back of their mind of whatcan AI do to help you and what
can it take away from you?In dystopian society, somebody does go on,

(19:06):
don't they? Ultimately yes, thequestion is are we Are we the
one in charge? Or is AIin charge? I'd like to think that
humans are smart enough, that peopleare smart enough to contain AI in a
way that it continues to work forus and not the other way around,
which, well, thinking, allright, so do can we see a

(19:26):
lot more plots coming forth in thefuture as we move towards Ai where the
AI is going to be the badguy? Are you going to be that
guy who writes that one? Idon't know. I'm not. I do
a lot of research when I write. I try to get everything right,
because people certainly let you know whenyou don't. I don't think I know
enough about AI to write that bookyet, maybe down the road. I

(19:52):
don't know half dozen other ideas ofwhat comes after this five book series,
but AI is not yet one ofthem. Did you always want to write?
Where did this come from? Thispassion for writing? Are you a
writer or are you a television newsanchor. I originally got into journalism because
of writing. The first I wasa reader. I loved to read when
I was a kid, and Ididn't understand the correlation between reading and writing

(20:15):
until I was in ninth grade andmy english teacher handed back my first paper
in high school and she wrote atthe top of it, you must read
a lot. And that's where Iunderstood the correlation between reading and writing.
And I always wrote stories and playedwith writing, and that's why when a
kid came into study hall my freshmanyear and asked if anybody wanted to write

(20:37):
an article for the newspaper, Isaid I would do it. And that's
kind of where my interest in journalismbegan. I was as a freshman in
high school, and so when Iwent to college, I knew I wanted
to be a journalist. Right beforeour daughter was born, I started writing
That book took me three years towrite and it'll never be public. And

(21:00):
I kept starting and stopping books andI just couldn't find the right story until
I decided to write a political thriller. So yeah, I mean, I
guess I've always been a reader thanI was a writer. Then I was
a journalist and that love of writing. It's a creative outlet and it never
left me. Well, while we'retalking about modern times, twenty first century,
AI, certainly it has allowed youto be the entrepreneur that you've turned

(21:25):
into being. Are you self published? You certainly are able to self promote,
self market Is it easier in thisday and time than it would have
been had you started this, saytwenty five years ago. Oh? Absolutely.
And what is referred to as ahybrid author. So most of my
stuff is self published, but Ihave a lot of stuff that is not

(21:47):
self published. My first book wasself published and then it got picked up
by a publisher and reprinted. Andso my first five books were published by
Postal Press, and I just wasn'treally making any money on it. It
wasn't their fault. I just wasn'tmaking any money. And so I had

(22:07):
friends telling me should go back toself publishing, and so I did.
And my book Home, which wasmy first re entry and self publishing.
For whatever reason, Amazon, Idon't they like to cover or whatever,
but they started putting the book onthe home screens of kindles, and so
when people would turn on their kindle, they would see my book, and

(22:29):
I didn't even know they were doingthis. The book exploded and sort of
gave me this second career enough sothat we had to form a company.
So we have a publishing company thatpublishes all my books. So it's not
just the writing, it's running acompany and doing all the marketing and everything.
I have other books. I havea publisher in Germany who who has
bought the rights to a lot ofmy books and they they do everything.

(22:52):
Audible has published several things. Anothersmall publishing company called Athon has published some
books. And I haven't a novelcoming out supposed to come out in September,
though it might get pushed, whichis published by Blackstone Publishing, and
none of which I don't think wouldhave been possible before the Internet or before

(23:15):
all the tools came available. We'llbe right back with some final thoughts and
how you can access the novels ofTom Abrams. For all the imagination that

(23:40):
Tom Abrams brings to his dystopian thrillers, it's backed by a lot of solid
factoids about the Lone Star State andits real life impact on the United States
and the world. Remember, it'snot bragging if it's true. Descriptions of
scenery and culture ring true as well, but most importantly, it's the characters

(24:00):
you quickly care about. Prepper Bookone has me anxiously awaiting the rest of
the saga. Who survives and how, and yes, what I can learn
from it all. I'm on theedge of my seat. I do want
to say this. You're not tookind to the governor and the politicians of
Texas. A fictitious governor of course, in this book. But I will

(24:21):
tell you that the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, today is doing a
fireside chat about nuclear energy and we'reall going, oh my, And my
first thought was, oh no,here we go again. Today's news stories
keep making me think about your book, Prepper. It's amazing. I guess
it's good and it's bad, andI'm sorry that the other books aren't out

(24:44):
yet. I'm writing as fast asI can Book two. I'll finish writing
it by the end of the month, and then it goes to two different
editors and then a formatter and aproofreader, and it'll be out in November.
I wish it could be out faster. You can access the novels of
Tom Abrams on Amazon or at hiswebsite. Ptonpress dot com. That's p

(25:07):
I T O N p R ess dot com. You'll discover for yourself
why I'm a big fan of thisparticular Texan. You know, our lives
have been incredibly blessed, and mywife and I know that when we chose
to come here at Houston in nineteenninety nine, a lot of people wonder,
why are you going to Houston.It was the best decision we ever

(25:30):
made, and we'll never leave Texas. I think people who live here understand
why it is what it is,and people you know, it's one of
those things if you know, youknow. And the people who aren't positive
about Texas are those who've we've neverspent time here, because there's nothing not
to love about this state. Thanksto Tom Abrams for talking with us,

(25:51):
and as always to producers Jeff Biggsand Jacob Danto who make these podcasts.
Tom, and thanks to you foraccessing My Heart of Texas. More to
come. I'm ktr h's Sarff Fryer