Like many readers, I am obsessed with the apocalypse in any form.  I’m pretty sure my obsession began way back when I read The Stand by Stephen King.  Earlier this year, I was introduced to Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis, a post-apocalyptic thriller that asks us to imagine a world where water is scarce and people are willing to kill for it.  And then one day soon after reading it, they were talking about a nonfiction book entitled Water Wars on NPR. It is possible that one day we may be facing a world not unlike the world that McGinnis imagines in Not a Drop to Drink.  So today, as part of the YA Reads 2013 Debut Authors Bash, we are talking with Mindy McGinnis about her debut ya title Not a Drop to Drink.  Stay tuned for a giveaway at the end.

Mindy McGinnis is an author by night and works in a school library in Ohio by day.  She cans her own food, which should come in handy should the apocalypse ever come. She does have a pond in her backyard.  You can read more about her at her blog Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire (where I stole this picture from). Her debut YA novel is Not a Drop to Drink, coming this month from Harper Teen and I totally recommend it, but since my word has less weight than say author Michael Grant, you should know that he also really recommends it: “A brutally beautiful debut, not to be missed.”

About Not a Drop to Drink
In an all too real future, water is scarce and worth dying to protect.  A girl sits on her roof, binoculars in hand, with her mother.  She can not remember a time from before.  All she knows is this: they must be vigilant because there are those who would do anything to steal their water.  But what is she willing to do to protect it?  Lynn will find out when they start to come.  The signs are there, there is smoke on the horizon.  Strangers are on their way.

September from Katherine Tegen books. ISBN: 978006219850

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The question of whether or not I’d survive is basically asking if I’d be willing to kill someone else in order to ensure my own survival. And, I just don’t know. I don’t think that’s something you can know about yourself until you’re in the situation. Tips? Learn self-defense, know how to grow your own food, and learn methods of purifying water with natural energy – (hint, SODIS method).

This one. It’s an entirely plausible scenario. All of the research I did for DRINK told me to be concerned… very concerned.

Here is a true but funny story.  When I lived in Ohio, it turns out that Mindy lived in the town right next to mine.  We never knew each other.  Ironically, we met after I moved to Texas.  Texas is in a drought, has been since I moved here two years ago.  Everytime I see the dry, cracking grown I think of Not a Drop to Drink, so I made this graphic for Mindy.  You can see it and more on her Pinterest page.