(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

Holy wow, you guys.

cassie_lee dropped me a comment yesterday to inform me that her house burned down but, and this is why she told me, her copy of Nameless survived.

I was focusing more on "Your HOUSE BURNED DOWN?" but she seems to be taking it with as good a humour as one can muster about these things. Everyone got out okay, and she has family nearby who are helping them out. She shared the news video with me, which is horrific and so sad, and then this morning sent me photos. (Having trouble direct-linking to that -- search "house fire" and choose the second story that comes up.)

This is her after having pulled Nameless from the wreckage.

This is Nameless, with a bit of fire blistering on the spine but otherwise whole.

My book is magic. I mean, I know theoretically what happens: books that are tightly packed together don't burn because there's no air between the pages to feed the fire. It's still stunning to see.

Not to make her house burning down ALL ABOUT ME or anything, but I had a very odd reaction to it, aside from the concern for her. My book is a story but it's out there spawning more stories, like people taking it on airplanes and meeting other people who've read it, and people reading it on breaks from their jobs or reading it to each other, and more than one person has written to tell me about their own experiences with suicide and how I treated it in the book. But this really whacked me between the eyes with a sense of "so this is part of what being published is": this person is standing in the wreckage of their home and holding up my book for me to see, because something I made survived a fire and she's happy about it.

That's amazing. I'm blown away.

Traditional publishing is a huge empire and that's grand and I'm glad it's there, but I think this is a powerful argument for access to self-publishing and someone to offer the tools for talented writers to use it. I made this, which I couldn't have done without a press like lulu.com, and it's got a life of its own now.

cassie_lee, if you need anything, you let us know. You want a new copy of Nameless, drop me a line, it's on the house. I'm going to print out those photos and put them on my wall.

Comments

[shadowedkit.livejournal.com]

Yea our one was lucky to be during the day- we will all upstairs chatting and it happened at the back of the house. A neighbour ran into the house to call us thankfully as the only way out was down the internal staircase. 10 minutes later, the fire had reached the staircase. *facepalm* Glad you guys are okay!

I don't blame you, furniture and stuff is easily replaced, but books.. they *can* be replaced, but tend to have more.. of an emotional attachment to them..

[cassie-lee.livejournal.com]

We just walked out cos it was too smoky. And then five mins later the house is burning and we're told we're lucky to be alive. It was very surreal.

Yeah, one of the guys helping us clear our said "you can get new books, it's ok" and I was all like "but that was my Chronicles of Narnia I bought in Oxford, and that was my Harry Potter I bought when I lived in England, and that was the awesome Lord of the Rings set I found that matched my Hobbit book, and that was the book my mum used to read to me at night!"
To which he replied, "oh, well maybe not then."

[shadowedkit.livejournal.com]

Thats what it felt like when we saw the smoke and fire reach the staircase and come down the front of the house. We were still in a relaxed mood from watching movies, chatting and ah hi fire-oh crap, my uni assignment is still in the place! Took me a few days for the potential of it to hit.

*winces* I understand. Hope you *can* fix a few of the books, atleast ones with the most meaning. Goodluck with clearing out the place.