Prudent RVer & Boater
someone who is far-sighted, thrifty, wise, frugal, vigilant, & wary

The Prudent RVer & Boater website is a marketing tool for Two Penny Publications , started in 2004 by Sam and Alice Penny after Sam wrote a novel about the effects of a giant earthquake in the middle of the United States and the lack of disaster preparedness in our country. After publishing his work, he began a search for the ways and means to survive in troubling times.

Among other things, he found an LED product line that offered RVers the light they needed that would not exhaust or destroy the batteries in their rigs. He became a dealer for the LightBlasters LED Lamps, now known by the trademark nexLED, a product line that fits the profile of what is needed to survive in the future. These lamps are available at the store on this website and at these other stores .

The primary domain name of this website is PrudentRVer.com. The website is also accessible by reference to PrudentBoater.com and by the plurals (prudentrvers.com and prudentboaters.com). In addition, direct access to the Product Store is provided via the .biz domains and direct access to the News and Information Kiosk is provided via the .info domains.

TwoPenny Publications is a Sole Proprietership DBA formed in 2004 in Livingston, Texas, by Sam and Alice Penny as the publishing entity for the works of Sam Penny, and for any other budding authors that the Penny's may find who seem deserving. The business has expanded to also offer advice for survival techniques and products (and sell them), both for catastrophies and for today's world of diminishing energy and increasing world tensions.

Sam's first novel, Memphis 7.9 , was originally published October, 2003 by Booksurge, LLC, and assigned one of their ISBNs, the number used in the book industry to uniquely identify each published work. It wasn't until the following year that the Penny's found that the "owner" of the ISBN was the only one who could really work the book industry channels. The doors to the major bookstores and distribution networks were closed.

In the meantime, Sam and Alice had devoted much time, effort, and some money to the marketing of Sam's books. This all looked to be for naught when the industry always turned to Booksurge, and that company was not devoted to Sam's book, but focused on being a profitable company serving many beginning authors with POD services.

After studying the industry, including attendance mid-year at the Publisher's Marketing Association Univeristy in Chicago in conjunction with Book Expo America, the Pennys developed a new business and marketing strategy. That included the establishment of their own imprint and a serious entry into the business of the book industry.

This strategy was applied to the publishing of Sam's second novel, Broken River, and the republishing of his first book under the new title of Memphis 7.9 (revised).

TwoPenny Publications now has its own set of ISBNs, and both novels now are being printed with those identifications. The books have been edited and formatted professionally with proper formats and identification. The intent is to be a success, both literally and financially.

Sam has since expanded his studies to include global warming and peak oil and is working on a new book entitled There Was A Time When telling of a possible future affected by those two calamities.

As a point of history, the TwoPenny logo on the first page is the rubbing of a United States Two Cent piece, minted in 1847, that Sam did in 1986 when we established the TwoPenny Fine Art Galleries in Sacramento, California. Though those galleries have gone defunct, we still carry the logo file with us, and at times like this, bring it out and dust it off for another go at being entrepreneurs.

We live in retirement unbeholden to anyone or any real property, but the blood of business still runs in our veins. It is fun to be creative and to try to make a difference in this world. More books are in the works, and we have started PrudentRVer.com to sell LED lamps for RVers such as us. Maybe someday we will produce a movie, or at least publish a script.

Our journey through life begins anew each morning, and we will do as much and go as far as we can.

Sam and Alice Penny
TwoPenny Publications
3/1/2008

My name is Sam Penny. I was born in Oklahoma, went to school at the University of Oklahoma and then to the University of Illinois for my Masters in Physics. I moved with my family to California in 1960. I am now retired. Writing and traveling are my avocations.

My wife and I live full-time in our Recreational Vehicle, a fifth-wheel trailer pulled by a Dodge truck, following the best weather from place to place throughout the North American Continent. It gives us a chance to meet the wonderful people of this country and to research interesting ideas for writing.

Prior to retirement, I spent my working life around the San Francisco Bay Area, beginning at the University of California Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley working for Nobel laureate Dr. Luis Alvarez.

In 1970 I joined with three partners to form a startup software and electronics company, a fairly novel idea at the time. Though we have all since left, I am proud to say that the company we started remained in business until 2007 when it was finally purchased and merged into a newer business structure.

I worked as a physicist, a computer software designer, an engineer, a computer scientist, a geophysicist, an entrepreneur, and a corporate executive. Over that time I authored a number of technical and trade articles.

Today I write occasional magazine articles on life in an RV, but my passion is writing larger contemporary fiction focusing on disaster scenarios, what some people consider old-style science fiction, something involving big science. A major earthquake along the New Madrid was an easy choice. The reawakening of the Yellowstone caldera bears investigation as a future project. I thought a flip in the great ocean currents to produce a new glacial period would also be entertaining, and then they produced the movie Day After Tomorrow. Now my writing efforts are focused on a new book about climate change and resource depletion.

My entrepreneurial spirit steered me into self-publishing Memphis 7.9 , and the new Print-On-Demand technology offered the means. Besides, at my age. I had this feeling that time is running out, both for me and for the people in the central United States. I was unwilling to wait three years for the publishing industry to make up their minds and plod along with my book.

Along the way I became very interested in survival, both in terrible catastrophies like a giant earthquake, and in just living in today's world of decreasing energy supplies and world tension. Part of that interest has been on how to live prudently, and I started a search for how to survive with a smaller carbon footprint. That led to an interest in LED lighting, and as a result, I met Kelly Walterscheid, became a dealer for LightBlasters, and started attending RV rallies to sell LED lamps.

So today, our lifestyle and avocations keep my wife and me very busy and fully occupied. We drive around the country on a continual tour, sell books and LEDs. I will do radio interviews when they offer themselves and write and work on this website when I have time. We sample the latest in technology, while keeping our base of operations ready to move out of danger.

We are survivalists. We hope you will be one, too. To help you do that, today I go public with my new website, www.PrudentRVer.com. It is a storehouse of survival information and a store for purchasing LEDs and other survival products. It is a new dimension in our travels. We hope you enjoy it.

If you travel, too, or happen to be in the path of one of our itineraries, maybe we will see you down the road someday.

Sam Penny
3/1/2008

The trade name for the LED products recommended by the Prudent RVer is

This is a name you will see, hear, and come to recognize in the future as a major player in the LED markets. Make a note; you saw it here first.

Origins of LightBlasters

LightBlasters products are designed by a young engineer in Mesa, AZ, who came out of Intel. His name is Kelly Walterscheid. Since starting his own company, Neutek-USA, in 1999, he has become a major inventor, designer, and entrepreneur of LED products.

I met Kelly for the first time in Quartzsite in January, 2006, while collecting information on what it would take to build an LED replacement for the hot 12vdc incandescent bulbs in my RV. He had been designing LED products for Radio Hams and Gun Enthusiasts, and had just produced the first article for a replacement for a common incandescent bulb used in RVs, the 1141.

When I walked into the LightBlasters booth in the big tent at Quartzsite, Kelly had a prototype of what I wanted laying on the bench in his booth, shining brighter than anything I had expected from LEDs.

He had solved the problem; I could end my search!

Kelly builds products for 12-volt DC systems around the Lumeon™ LED, a significant and proprietary advance in the LED state of the art. He has patents pending on his designs and is growing his company carefully. He has the necessary concern to produce high quality products that can realize the full 11-year life of LEDs, and he does the quality control necessary to ensure the products meet that measure. He calls the product line LightBlasters, and he has the right ideas:

LightBlasters Mission Statement: To create and bring to market a unique array of LED illumination products through its own manufacturing, direct supplier, and reselling services as sourced worldwide. From innovative warm interior RV lamps, to intelligent battery powered portable lighting appliances, we supply the products that lead the LED industry forward.

In fact, I became so enthused with what I saw that after fully equipping my 5th wheel trailer with LightBlaster LED products, I agreed to become a dealer for Kelly and help bring his offerings to the RV market. TwoPenny Pubs and The Prudent RVer heartily recommend you use the LightBlaster series of LED products in your RV or boat. Don't be fooled into accepting lower quality products that will fail when you need them the most.

You can purchase LightBlasters products at many places:

PrudentRVer.com, this website
Various rallies and RV shows visited by Sam and Alice Penny
Various shows visited by Kelly Walterscheid (the designer)
A growing list of retail outlets: see dealers .