[Travis McGee]

IN my third novel Foreign Enemies and Traitors, at the beginning, the protagonist is trying to smuggle Brazilian coffee and Japanese solar panels into a collapsed Gulf Coast.

[kaylar]

During the civil war, coffee was one of THE big things the blockade runners tried to bring in to the confederacy-almost up there with drugs. There was only so much the blockade runners could do, so one coffee substitute after another was discovered or invented. I believe that's how chicory coffee came to be, though maybe it was around before that as a poor folk's drink, and the civil war popularized it for all social classes .

I wish there were still coffee sold in the old fashioned cans , without the peel off seal. Even the store brands (eg Great Value) are using the pull off inner seals. Maybe it doesn't make any real difference, but I can't help but feel that cans that require a can opener will keep stuff fresher and longer than the kind with an attached means of opening.

[Ramius]

Hey! I just yesterday finished your fourth book, Castigo Cay. As with the EF&D series... Loved it! It’s all way too frighteningly plausible.

I hope you’ve got a plan to keep publishing after you bug out... :-)