Sunday, October 24, 2010

A Glimpse of Fire Alarms in the Dead of Night

There's nothing quite so disorienting than being terrified awake by a loud, obnoxious noise.

Especially if said noise is a fire alarm, it's blasting in your living room, and it's 2 o'clock in the morning. That was my Thursday night. And being two a.m., it took me several seconds to have an actual, coherent thought, which was, "Shit, where's my cat?" I didn't know if it was a real fire somewhere in the apartment building, or if some bastard had pulled the alarm for kicks--but I wasn't leaving Anya behind.

Which lead to a frantic search for her carrier (I could remember the first place I put it, but not where it actually was). And then a frantic search for the cat, who I had to yank out from under the bed where she was cowering. All while this alarm is flashing and squawking loudly enough to give me a headache. Then I realized, "Hey, pants! Coat!" All good things when it's about forty degrees outside.

It occurred to me later that I had the forethought to grab three things (clothes notwithstanding) -- my cat, my cell phone, and my car keys. I didn't even *think* to grab my purse.

Fortunately, it wasn't a real fire. Alarms had gone off in multiple buildings, so it took a while for the fire department to get to ours and turn them off. Forty minutes of sitting in my car (some of you may have seen my Tweets on the experience), and I finally got back inside.

Not cool.

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So who's excited to see how A GLIMPSE OF DARKNESS ends? I know I am. It's been such a blast participating and seeing this story come together, and I just can't wait to see how Lara Adrian wraps it all up tomorrow!

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I'll see in New York City this weekend for Halloween! I've made day trips to NYC, but this is my first overnight stay, and I'm ecstatic to get away. I never managed a real vacation this summer, so this (along with June's D.C. trip) kind of make up for that. We aren't making too many plans, because part of the fun is discovering things to do, but we are going to take in a Broadway show, as well as hit Central Park and a recommended restaurant. I'm also going to meet Agent J!

Anyone else have fun plans for Halloween?

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Darkness and Hunger

Chapter five of A GLIMPSE OF DARKNESS, by Stacia Kane, is now posted and open for voting! This is your last chance to vote on the course of the final chapter, which will be written by Lara Adrian. Voting is open until Thursday!

Also, HUNGER, by Jackie Morse Kessler, is officially on sale. It's a YA novel about an anorexic teenage girl who becomes the new Famine, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I've been waiting on this one ever since Jackie read an excerpt last year at Dragon*Con, and I'm eager to dive in. A portion of proceeds is being donated to the National Eating Disorders Association.

Monday, October 04, 2010

It Gets Better

Who let October in? Seriously, who's the blame? I had to turn the heat on last night, and I've begun the process of swapping winter clothes for summer clothes. *sigh*

You guys remember my post about the horror flick THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE? Well, I have to say, the French film MARTYRS? Way worse on the "what kind of fucked up things can one human being do to another?" level. *shudders*

Chapter Three of A GLIMPSE OF DARKESS, by Lucy A. Snyder is now live on Suvudu! Go vote! I'm up next, so this is your chance to tell me what to write about. And the two choices are awesome. I think I'll have a lot of fun, no matter which way it ends up going.

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IT GETS BETTER

Recently in the news, there have been several different stories about teenagers committing suicide. Yes, teenagers. Committing suicide. Why? They were being bullied because they were (or were assumed to be) gay. It's heartbreaking.

Katiebabs, over at Babbling About Books, and More, has an amazing post on the subject. She has made a pledge to donate $500 to The Trevor Project and The Matthew Shepard Foundation, so please help spread the word. Stop by and comment.

Her post also directed me to a movement called It Gets Better. Started by columnist Dan Savage, he has this to say:

I've launched a channel on YouTube—www ­.youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject—to host these videos. My normally camera-shy husband and I already posted one. We both went to Christian schools and we were both bullied—he had it a lot worse than I did—and we are living proof that it gets better. We don't dwell too much on the past. Instead, we talk mostly about all the meaningful things in our lives now—our families, our friends (gay and straight), the places we've gone and things we've experienced—that we would've missed out on if we'd killed ourselves then.


My heart breaks every time I hear about another child killing him or herself because of being bullied. It isn't just gay kids, either. Our children are being bullied for a lot of reasons--their weight, their looks, their religion, their sexual orientation. This should not be happening.

Don't turn your back on bullying. Ignoring is tantamount to participating.

And please spread the word that IT GETS BETTER.