(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

[slushlily.livejournal.com]

I'm usually a lurker, so, uh, hi, but in case cassie_lee reads these comments, I felt compelled to write. Anyway, been there done that about two years ago with a window-unit air conditioner, and god, it SUCKS, so with every cell in my body, I wish all the best wishes in the entire world to you and your flatmates. It's hard and the reality doesn't set in immediately, but things get better eventually.

On a more general note, about three feet from where our fire started, everything but two objects burned completely. A Virgin Mary medallion thingy survived and didn't even get sooty, as did my grandfather's laminated prayer card from his memorial service. I'm not actually religious, but it was really spooky.

[cassie-lee.livejournal.com]

Wow, freaky about the medallion. We had a few weird things survive that probably shouldn't have, but nothing religious cos I don't think we owned anything, lol.

Thanks for the well wishes, it's all appreciated :)

[firesprite1105.livejournal.com]

That is really spooky. I'm not religious, but that would have freaked me out.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Whoa, that's creepy and awesome! Well, not awesome that your house burned down, obviously. But the preserved medallion thing.