Realistic grid-down thrillers about ordinary households and hard choices. Author of The Ridge Universe. Rural PNW | Former DOD tech rep & volunteer firefighter.
Pacific Northwest
Joined July 2025
- Tweets4.4K
- Following3.8K
- Followers4.2K
- Likes7K
Pinned Tweet
The grid was taken down. Then sleeper cells moved to keep help from coming.
In Washington’s Olympic Peninsula foothills, ordinary households face a winter their preparations may not be enough to survive. Water, heat, and food must last.
Neighbors must learn to trust one another while protecting the people they love.
THE RIDGE PLAN by R.T. Fagan
When the Grid Falls, One Ridge Stands.
Read a sample on Amazon:
amazon.com/dp/B0GX396FS3
🤖 Made with AI
A full rain barrel isn’t ready-to-drink water.
Roof runoff can carry germs AND chemicals. Many camping filters miss viruses; carbon doesn’t remove every chemical.
I compared 3 power-free purifiers: griddownfiction.com/before-y…
What’s your plan for treating barrel water?
When the lights go out, stores will empty quickly—and some may be unable to sell anything once card readers and registers stop working. Cash may work for a time, but as shelves empty and reliable information disappears, stress will rise. Even normally peaceful people can make desperate choices.
Those of us who prepared beforehand won’t need to join the rush. But if you waited, don’t waste time fighting over the last case of water.
Go home. Take inventory. Fill clean containers while water pressure remains. Check on your neighbors and combine resources where it makes sense. Ration early, not when supplies are nearly gone.
Your options may be limited, but panic will only make them worse.
🤖 Made with AI
My guess is that these incidents are copycats rather than one coordinated operation. The investigation may tell us more.
Even so, they create exactly what hostile actors want: public fear, less confidence in the authorities responsible for protecting critical systems, and confusion about what can still be trusted.
It doesn’t take one massive attack to create chaos. A series of smaller disruptions—especially when others begin copying them—can have much the same effect.
When phones go down, a radio is not enough.
Neighbors with a coordinated emergency plan are a force multiplier if everyone knows:
• the channel
• check-in times
• call signs
• what stays off the air
• where to meet
The radio is the tool. The plan is the capability.
Your toilet may flush during the first hours of a blackout. That does not mean it will keep working.
Water systems require electric pumps to maintain pressure. Sewer systems rely on pumps and lift stations to move waste.
When backup power runs out, sanitation becomes a health problem fast.
Urban sewers and rural septic systems do not fail the same way. A gravity-fed system may keep working; grinder and effluent pumps need power.
Here are practical sanitation options for city and rural households: griddownfiction.com/when-the…
R. T. Fagan | Grid-Down Thrillers retweeted
A few people have mentioned buying extra food for preparedness, only to have it spoil... there is a very simple way to avoid that, and it's something my wife and I have practiced for years...
It's called a "rotating pantry" using a principle known as First In, First Out (FIFO)...
Think about the shelf stable foods you already eat... canned soups, vegetables, beans, rice, pasta, peanut butter, and other everyday staples...
Simply keep a little extra on hand... when you buy new groceries, place them behind your existing supplies... use the oldest items first, check expiration dates, and replace what you consume...
Over time you gradually build a 30-day reserve of the same groceries your family already enjoys...
If those extra supplies are never needed, you simply continue eating them and spend a little less on groceries until your inventory returns to its normal level. Nothing wasted...
The same common sense approach works with fuel... keep your vehicles topped off, maintain a reasonable amount of extra gasoline in approved containers stored safely away from your living spaces, and rotate it through compatible vehicles or equipment...
Keep an extra propane tank or two for the BBQ, stored upright outdoors...
Three simple principles... store what you use... use the oldest first. Replace what you consume...
You can gradually build this into your normal shopping routine, within your household budget... there's no reason to buy a hundred pounds of lettuce that's going to spoil next week...
Thirty days of preparedness simply means keeping a little more of what you already need and use every day...
No panic buying... no complicated survival plans... just a sensible household routine that becomes second nature...
Preparation becomes a habit, your supplies remain useful, and your family gains a little more peace of mind...
Stay calm, enjoy your lives, and take care of one another... ❤️
Everyone, remain calm... there is no need for fear or panic... a little preparation goes a long way toward peace of mind...
Take care of the basics... extra food, water, medications, household essentials, batteries, fuel for your vehicles, and propane or generator fuel if you use them...
Pick up a few extra things during your normal shopping trips... I've put together this simple 30-day household guide to make it easy for everyone...
Take care of your family, check on your neighbors, and keep living your life... a prepared household is a more comfortable, confident household...
Everything will be okay... ❤️
The money in your bank account may survive a blackout. Your access to it may not.
ATMs, card readers and banking apps depend on power and communications. A store that stays open may be cash-only—and unable to make change.
Keep a modest reserve in small bills. Cash buys options, but mostly while goods are still on the shelves.
A chick in April is not a food plan. It is a promise you will be in the yard twice a day in November, in the rain, when the novelty is gone.
Chickens need feed, water, shelter, predator protection—and someone willing to do the work every day.
Build the system first. Animals second.
If the power grid were taken down tomorrow, what would you do?
The Kellers aren’t preppers. They’re an ordinary family trying to survive the first 28 days after the systems they depend on disappear.
TWENTY-EIGHT DAYS WEST is FREE on Kindle today only.
amazon.com/dp/B0HFXNVQ5Q
When staying home becomes more dangerous than leaving, the Kellers pack what they can into their Subaru and head west.
What follows is a journey through a world that still looks familiar—but no longer works the way it should. Every gallon of fuel matters. Every stranger presents a choice. Every night requires another decision about whom to trust, where to stop, and how far they can keep going.
And through it all, one question follows them:
If this happened tomorrow, what would you do?
TWENTY-EIGHT DAYS WEST is FREE on Kindle today only. amazon.com/dp/B0HFXNVQ5Q
#mustread authors:
@KPKBaltimore
@JBotzenhart
@PipQuillwright
@JoshuaScribner3
@Davidblr7777
@SMRevolinski
@JonColey5
@shrewsreh
@lisamariehaden
@MarcosFizzotti
A rifle in the safe is not a food plan.
Can you legally access productive land, find game, recover the animal, field-dress it, transport it, butcher it, and preserve the meat without relying on a freezer?
Accuracy at the range is only one link in that chain.
Hunting can provide substantial calories, but only for someone who has already practiced the entire process—not someone planning to learn it after the grid goes down.
If hunting is part of your emergency food plan, which part of that process have you tested the least?
Fishing looks like an easy grid-down food path because many people already own a rod.
But can you reach productive water without fuel? Catch fish in different seasons? Clean and cook them? Preserve a larger catch without a freezer?
A tackle box is not a food plan. Until you can reliably turn your local water into meals, fishing remains recreation—not food production.
If fishing is part of your emergency food plan, when was the last time it actually put dinner on your table?
Catching the fish is only the first half of the plan. The next problem is time: How will you keep it safe when refrigeration and bags of ice are no longer available?
I go deeper into the cooling and preservation problem here:
griddownfiction.com/a-fish-y…
Do not make mushrooms your first wild food.
A photo-matching app is a hint, not an identification. Foraging starts with a short list of local plants you can identify without guessing—and knowing the lookalikes, season, legal ground, and contamination risks.
Hunger does not make you careful. It makes you hopeful.
The full guide helps you build a five-plant local list, verify each plant using two independent sources, check whether the ground is legal and clean, and complete an identification walk before anything is eaten.
griddownfiction.com/the-plan…
A garden can look abundant and still produce very few calories.
Lettuce, herbs, and tomatoes add flavor and nutrition. Potatoes, dry beans, and winter squash do more of the calorie work—and can be stored long after harvest.
A preparedness garden needs both. But when space is limited, every square foot needs a job.
Not sure what your garden should grow?
The full guide walks you through sunlight, water, space, crop selection, and preservation. It then gives you a one-week test: plant one calorie crop and one quick crop in the light you actually have.
griddownfiction.com/plant-ca…
