People
Fall, 2009 --Here around town, folks don't really know what to do with local author and Montreat history professor Bill Forstchen. In general, folks admire his knowledge of history. Many are touched by his deep sentiments for veterans. Then he came out with One Second After in March.
In this apocalyptic book, an electromagnetic pulse weapon -- EMP -- destroys America’s power grid, and murder and mayhem hit the streets of a pastoral town in Western North Carolina which strongly resembles Black Mountain (actual shop names are used in the book). The hero, a retired colonel, uses firepower to secure insulin for his type-one diabetic 12-year-old. After the EMP has gone off, nothing that uses a computer will work.That means that no cars built after the 1970s will drive and no aircraft built after World War II will fly.
As Amazon.com says, "Deaths start with heart attacks and eventually escalate alarmingly. Food becomes scarce, and societal breakdown proceeds with inevitable violence; towns burn...as military action by unlikely people becomes the norm in Forstchen’s sad, riveting cautionary tale...." 
Under contention currently is whether or not the book offers a realistic portrayal of the potential damage that could be rendered by an EMP attack on the continental United States. A recent writer for the local entertainment rag Mountain Xpress was clearly enchanted with Forstchen, who after all is tall, handsome and charming. National media are for the most part enthralled with the type of drama that he invents, and few folks are doing their own research these days.
Forstchen writes compelling tales; he is a natural at drama, war, and heart-tugging scenes in which everything is on the line and many lives depend on a hero keeping his head while all others lose theirs. One Second After is under option by Warner Bros. for a possible feature film. Bill has great connections. He is a friend and compatriot of Newt Gingrich, also something of a history genius and who helps Bill sell books by pairing their names on the covers and by loudly endorsing the books.
Some locals are glad Forstchen is sounding the alarm for preparedness, some are irritated by his seeming affection for the glory of violence. One comment overheard recently was, "I like to think that if there was a town where people would pull together and help each other through this kind of disaster, it would be Black Mountain." At least one local Quaker is preparing a response, from the perspective of nonviolence, to One Second After. Meanwhile,readers look forward to future editions of the book showing evidence of coming under the hand of an experienced book editor.
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This photo of Noah Kevern Considine was taken by Rebecca D'Angelo.
