How many words in a picture?

I had a blog that I wanted to post Friday, but I got caught up in too much work.  It's below the tornado pictures that had me so busy upon my return from Myrtle Beach and Wiscon.  I think they're good enough reason why I have not been online very much.

You see, an F-3 tornado hit my hometown… the neighborhood where I grew up.

My brother standing on one of the streets hit hard by the tornado.

Mangled street signs.

A New View: Now we can see the Wilbraham hills where we once only saw trees and houses.

 

Looking down my street.

This is my back yard after three days of cleaning. In front, the dog's area is destroyed. Behind, neighbor's trees are still toppled.  Fortunately, Mom's house only had a few thousand $ worth of damage as opposed to having to be demolished.

My brother, Travis (in yellow), Scott (in a navy Worldcon shirt, Travis' friend and Travis' friend's Dad help take apart the uprooted tree that filled the backyard.  Buried 3 feet in the ground is a limb from this tree.

Mom's little shrine, and the tiny plants around it: Untouched by the storm.

 

On Wednesday, we had several tornadoes touch down around Massachusetts.  Now, MA is a small state, and I'm a pretty social gal, so there are few places where I don't know people.  Thing is, I was dead tired from Wiscon, so I slept in and didn't know what was going on for most of the day.

Here's what's so cool about living in the future:

My friend Renée, who lives in Connecticut, sent me a text asking if my mother was ok because she had seen on the news that a tornado touched down in Springfield (where my Mom lives.)

I called my mom and couldn't get ahold of her for a good 40 minutes, so I called my brother, Travis, who lives in New York City and asked if he got ahold of Mom.

Travis called his best friend, who lives four houses down from Mom, to go check on her.

Mom's landline came back, and I got ahold of her just as Travis' friend was calling him to assure him that Mom was ok.

After hearing how things were in my neighborhood (trees blown over & uprooted, a kitchen window cracked, garage windows broken, but nothing "major" per Mom), I sent a text to several of my other friends in the 413 area code.  One only had texting ability, so she got back to me quickly.  Another sent me a text a few hours later, and several others I saw on Facebook.

In the meantime, Phoebe, who lives out in Ayer, gave me a call because a tornado had touched down in Worcester, and Phoebe told me that Morven was bundled in the cellar with her laptop and kitty.

Morven had sent out emails to her friends and the various discussion lists we shared.  From there, I heard from several other people that they were doing ok.

So, in a matter of hours, I knew the people I loved were safe and mostly sound - even as the storms still raged around my house. 

A few months ago, my friend, Aimee Weinstein, who lives in Tokyo, was able to assure her friends and family of her safety per Facebook updates, even though phone calls and cellular signals were jammed after horrible earthquake.

While I still see - and will probably still find - things to complain about regarding technology and culture in current society, there's an awful lot to be thankful for.

xx

Let me end on a positive note.  On Sunday, Calico and I rode with our friends from Hillview Stables and Whip-O-Will Stables in the Ride for the Ribbon, raising money to help women fight breast cancer.  It was wonderful!  Thank you to everyone who supported us!

The Prancing for Pink Team: Beverly Darling on Elmo, Me on Calico, Kim Fontaine on Mac, and Amanda on Sugar.

Kim took a pic of me and Amanda starting the ride :)

'Cos who doesn't love Pink Ribbon Bums?

Remembering who I'm riding for. Love you, Mom!

What's going on THIS Manic Month

I managed to send updates to the Broad Universe web maven.  Just… not my own.

So, hopefully, most of you will catch this. :)

Conventions & Appearances

End of the Month: I'm at Conbust! 

I just got my schedule, and there will be a Writing & Tarot course on Friday, along with a Broad Universe RFR and a faerie panel and a children's fairy tales panel and… more stuff that's in my 169-email inbox.  I'll post the full schedule soon!

In the mean time, save the dates for Conbust:  March 25-27.

Also, because I'm working on it, I'll be running a party, a Rapid Fire Reading, and an info + sorta-kinda book sale table at Wiscon over Memorial Day Weekend.  And, likely, paneling my heart out. :) 

Kelpie Updates

March is also my deadline for having Kelpie done for beta readers.  The next scene is one I am just dying to write, but I've got a few more obligations to do before I can reward myself with speculative fiction noveling. 

I DID finish the scenes for each of my respective writing groups, though.  :)  I have to say, thanks to my fabulous writing groups, MAKING Kelpie beta-reader-ready will be much easier.

I <3 you guys & gals!

Work

I'm starting a new set of mini-reviews for Worcester Magazine.  This time: Pizza joints.

I really need to add the Wii workouts back into my schedule… in addition to making use of the indoor ring where I'm now boarding Calico.  And my asthma inhaler.  [adjusts geek glasses]

Also, I have another trade food article to do.  This one is on merchandising fresh herbs in supermarkets.  :)  It sounds like fun… onto phone calls tomorrow!

And More Work

I'm still working on Big Editing Project with the NDS.  :)

Short Story Calling

I found a potential market for E-Hell.  I just need to add about 1200 more words.  Adding words… last time I did that for a market, I sold my piece.  It was "Mirror of Hearts" to Fantasy Gazetteer. 

Wish me luck!

Because I'm nice, here's that Open Call.

Also, UnCONventional, the anthology I'm editing with Kate Kaynak for Spencer Hill Press is looking for submissions through June 1st.  It's March now… so keep on sending!

Help Appreciated

I still have that other story toying in my mind for another anthology.  Someone get me a TARDIS?  I'd even go for one sans David Tennant, as he'd just be a distraction from everything I gotta do!

That said, if you're a member of Broad Universe and reading this.  I just posted for an assistant Readings & Events Coordinator.  In fact, the few of us who do a whole lot of work for the organization are getting a bit threadbare, so, if you check out our volunteer page, you would be our angels - and help other women get the publication and publicity they deserve!

Horsey News of Awesomeness

In case you missed my announcement (and somewhat snarky opinion of a certain Facebook game), I am Riding for the Ribbon with Calico! 

My goal is to raise $300 for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure ® Foundation by riding my horse for some 9+ miles over Felton Field in Barre, MA.

Want to help?  Here's my donation webpage!

Winning Food!

The Husband-of-Awesome won the local Chili Throwdown at our favorite Deli.  :)  I came in 2nd Place, tying with a Caribbean chili.  Voters were in a somewhat tropical mood, I guess… no surprise with the winter we've had!

Some quick corrections, my Hawaiian chili meat was all pork based, not beef.  Guess what my Foodie Friday post is going to be?  ;)  Hope you like it Hot!

More Webby Stuff

After this week, I'm thinking of leaving LiveJournal for good.  Besides the aggravating ads, I get daily spam in the archive comments.  Oh, and the formatting continues to be a *itch.

If any of you have any objections or reasons for me to stay, speak now… on LJ.  If all I've got is spam this week, I'm done.  I think there's a way to just broadcast and allow no comments… if you have advice on that, too, feel free to tell me.

I also do have a WordPress account.  The more I hear about it, the more I really want to use it.  In my "copious amounts of time," I will try to set that up to match my colors and such once more. 

If you hear screams of frustrated Internet anguish from Central, MA… yeah, that's me.

In the mean time, if you don't hear anything from me, the pile of papers on my desk has collapsed and I may be suffocating.  Send help.

Feminine Friday

It sounds awful, but cutesy awareness campaigns aggravate me - and I'm probably about to tick off some people with this post.

But breast cancer and its consequences means a lot to me - my mother is a breast cancer survivor, and we can actually make a difference with real campaigns.

A friend of mine sent this to my Facebook inbox:

We are playing a game. Someone proposed that we GIRLS do something special on to help with Breast Cancer Awareness. Last year it was about writing the color of the bra that your were wearing in your status and it left men wondering for days why the girls had random colors as their status. This year it has to do with your relationship status. You will state where you are, by... posting one of the codes below. Remember - don't reply to this message just type your 1 word response in your status box on your profile. Then cut and paste this whole message into a new message and send it along to your female friends....
Blueberry: I'm single
Pineapple its complicated
Raspberry: I'm a touch and go woman
Apple: Engaged
Cherry: In a relationship
Banana: I'm married
Avocado: I'm the "other one"
Strawberry: Cant find the right one
Lemon: Wish i was single
Grape: wants to get married.
The bra game reached TV, lets get this one to do the same, and show everyone how powerful women are

First, I'm going to ignore the obvious monogamous-marriage-centered theme here.  I may rail on that in a different post in the future, but not now.

Next, yeah, the bra game* made it to national TV, but really, did most people who saw the status updates actually GET what they were?  What, really, did it do to increase breast cancer awareness?  Oh, and - forgive the lack of a link - but there was an article about how any breast cancer survivor who had had a double mastectomy would be left out.  Kind of a problem.  (Thus, the following, "Where do I keep my purse game?"**)

Currently, and especially in October, there are pink ribbons anywhere there is stuff to be sold.  I can't go out in a week without seeing at least one bumper sticker or magnet on a car with a pink ribbon or some saying, like my absolute favorite, "Save the ta-tas."  (<=That was sarcasm. I'll leave my rant on stupid, silly names for women's body parts later.)

So, if people are not aware that breast cancer exists and is a problem, they are living under a rock. 

However, they may not know that 1 in 6 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with Breast Cancer.  (Or they may; look at the statistic - you probably know at least one woman with it.)

They may also not know that health care spending cuts are making it harder for women to get mammograms.  In fact, some insurance policies don't even cover these tests if you're under 40 - or even at all!  We won't even go into school districts whose health classes refuse to teach girls how to do a self examination… or areas of the U.S. where health care professionals don't teach girls self-exams because, y'know, that's touching themselves and evil.  (Friends up on more conservative practices in the U.S., do feel free to leave more specific and accurate links.  Besides the above 1/6 and later "up to 75%" stats from the MA Komen site, most of this is from my memory and my own ongoing interest and research.)

So, rather than cryptic "vaguebooking," I'm doing something I know will make a difference - and that I love.

I'm riding Calico with my friend Kim from Hillview Stables in the Susan G. Komen for the Cure ® Ride for the Ribbon, run by the Massachusetts affiliate of the Komen foundation.  I have set a goal of $300 that I will raise - and per the MA affiliate site, up to 75% of that will go directly to MA women: education, mammograms, research.

If you want to be part of that, here's the link to my page:

http://komenmass.kintera.org/novelfriend

Even a donation of $5 will make a difference.

I've got a few hundred friends on Facebook, more than half women.  And I challenge you to help me make my goal.  If you want to post a fruit, great, but put your money where your keyboard is.  Post your fruit and donate the equivalent of two cups of coffee to make a difference to a woman who needs a mammogram, who was never taught how to check herself, who doesn’t know her options. 

If half my Facebook friends donated just a dollar, I'd almost have my goal met today!  (Thank you, Amy, for being my first donor with your generous donation!!)

And my blog followers?  Just a dollar?  Even better, $5?

Can you do it?

Or is typing a fruit the best you can do for women suffering from breast cancer?

* The Bra Game had women posting the color of the bra they were wearing that day and nothing more.

** The Purse Game had women posting where they keep their purse, which of course, also left a vague sexual sense due to the cryptic nature:  "In the dining room."  "On the kitchen table."