Saga After the Surge

I originally wrote and self-published the first edition of this book, Saga After The Surge, in 2009 after I wanted to share my experiences of Hurricane Ike. With no promotion or marketing I sold over 150 printed copies and never really wanted to make money off of this story and eventually broke even. Over time, many have asked if they could purchase the book online or download digitally. I had intentions of converting it digitally, but never had any motivation to sell my story.

In August 2017 Hurricane Harvey affected many close to me. During that journey I collected thoughts and some notes on my phone with a "just in case" mentality of writing another book. I didn't really see the point of writing a book about Hurricane Harvey because it did not physically affect me the way it did to many others that I knew.

In February 2018, I was in Los Angeles, CA for business and I was having dinner with my cousin Amanda Clauson and her husband Sanjay. While were eating I was telling them about how the catastrophe of Hurricane Harvey had on close friends and family. I went on to tell them about how Hurricane Ike affected my wife Julie and I and how I wrote a book about it and carried on about other hurricane talk. There was a moment when Sanjay said "hurricanes really seem to fascinate you". Embarrassed by his observation, I agreed with him.

From there I knew this was the time to put together a revised 2nd Edition of Saga After The Surge available for digital download with my story of Hurricane Harvey added. With completion of this story, I hope this will bring some closure for me with this fascination that destroyed my hometown. I edited the book and combined it into two parts; Part 1: Hurricane Ike 2008 with the original manuscript and the new Part 2: Hurricane Harvey 2017.

This is my story about Hurricane Ike and the weeks following the landfall that changed my life and the emotional toll Hurricane Harvey did on me while watching helplessly from afar. I hope one that reads this can reflect on those days and maybe relate. The aftershocks of Ike and Harvey had on me is not comparable to the many problems that people, including close friends and family members, experienced during those hard, troubling times.