More About the Author
Dan Martin was born in Detroit, Michigan , the eldest son of the eldest son, five generations long. The offspring of divorced parents, at thirteen Dan went on to live with his father high in the Rocky Mountains where he learned how to hunt, trap, work on engines and generally be self-sufficient.
At age seventeen, Dan joined the military, was stationed in Hawaii and eventually deployed and fought in Desert Shield. He received a degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Hawaii; and upon arriving back in the States, he attended the University of Texas studying physics and Engineering. It was also then that Dan volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and Greenpeace, where he must have gotten his first taste of living and working outside of the 'norm'. He then went on to work for Boeing Aerospace on Air Force C-17 Globe Masters. During Dan's time with Boeing, he attended San Antonio Community College, taking undergraduate courses in Pre-Med, Sociology, World History and Psychology, earning enough credits for a Ph.D. and another Bachelors degree. But he never wanted a degree, only the education itself.
Today's faulty educational system led Dan to begin to realize that something was wrong with the world, but especially the United States. People moved around like "sheep," to and from work and home as if asleep, essentially ignoring the planet around them. So in the spring of 2000, he spent all of his waking spare time in Central Mexico taking up odd part-time jobs, learning mechanics, welding, fire control, security, farming, ranching, construction, architecture, wood working, first response, sanitation, plumbing, electrical, heating and air-conditioning, and metal working, where he later met and married his wife, Lucia. They would then both re-enter the U.S. and live another year in San Antonio, Texas, before quitting his high-paying career with Boeing at the age of twenty-five; cashing in all his investments and 401K; selling all their homes and personal belongings, to move out into the desert, leaving the world, family, friends and the rest of the sheep behind.
For the next 6 years, the two lived 100% off-the-grid, completely cut-off from society. There were no electric lines, no telephone lines, no garbage or sewer service, no mail, no city water, no cell service, not even a road to the property. Dan built their home alone in the shape of an octagon without walls, completely open to the surrounding landscape so that they could live 'with' nature. They lived off rain water catchment, raised, bred and slaughtered goats, chickens, catfish, turkeys and ducks for food, made their own fuel and grew underground hydroponic fruits and vegetables.
Dan Martin became a consultant performing hundreds of similar sustainable living projects, teaching others about making their own renewable fuels and ways to harness alternative energies, along with building with natural materials and living independently. He has designed and overseen dozens of projects for governmental agencies as well as private corporations and overseas clients.
For the last three years, Martin has written and published over forty do-it-yourself guides on the subject-from how to make your own ethanol, to how to build your own solar panels. These books are all available on Amazon or on his non-profit organization website: www.agua-luna.com. Dan Martin has also drawn the attention of established newspapers, websites, and magazines from several countries, and has been the source of half a dozen radio and television interviews.
In 2010, he began writing Apocalypse, How to Survive a Global Crisis in preparation for 2012, which is an accumulation of his life's work, education and experiences, in addition to writing his sustainability guides in preparation for the possible end of the world as we know it, to coincide with the end of the Mayan calendar "or beyond."
