Natural Disasters

A Never-Ending Tide – The First Update of 2024

Max Misc, Weekly Updates , , , , , ,

Posted via mobile.

I’ll level with you, readers: everything still feels almost unreal.

Just this morning, I woke to a reminder that one year ago, I’d written the newest entry in a regular collection of “New Year” posts, or posts about what I was looking forward to and working toward in the coming year.

Today, I don’t have one of those. And last year’s was unexpectedly derailed as is, so looking back drives right into a disaster that I’m still personally enmeshed in.

The short of it, if you’re just now stopping by, is that a few days before Thanksgiving a titanic landslide completely annihilated my parent’s property and took the life of my dad. Everything on site was destroyed. You can read more about what I’ve said up until now here, as this post is going to deliver updates for what came after that point and where things are planned to go from here. Both for my immediate efforts and in this coming year.

Obviously this post is going to be a little different than normal, but I hope you all understand. I’m still dealing with the grief, as well as still physically facing the reality of what happened every single day. I know I’m not at 100%, but there’s not much I can do about that right now except keep pushing forward. But as you, readers, have been left without updates for almost a month, and I definitely don’t like leaving the site quiet for that long, today marks a semi-return to things “as normal.”

As to what that means, and what I’ve been up to, and all that other news, mixed with a little bit of raw emotion, hit the jump.

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The Landslide

Max Weekly Updates , , ,

Posted via Mobile. Legal stuff at bottom.

The first message arrived an hour before midnight.

I was still awake, finishing up some gaming and thinking about getting to bed, when a friend of my family sent me a text. It said that they’d heard that there had been a landslide “out the road,” by my parent’s place, and asking if they were okay.

At first I wasn’t too worried. My parent’s place was built sturdy, and in a spot that was supposed to be fairly insulated from many of rural Alaska’s hazards. But I called home anyway.

Busy signal. So I tried my dad’s cell.

Straight to voicemail.

Again, this wasn’t worrying. Not yet. Cell coverage in Alaska is spotty at best, as many of you readers know, and it wasn’t uncommon for him to have no signal unless he was in a specific spot on my parent’s property. So I tried the house again.

Another busy signal. I hoped that it meant that one of them was on the phone, talking to someone else about the slide, but at the same time, I knew from experience growing up there that the phone could just as well be out, which often resulted in the same response when called.

But by now I was seeing posts on Facebook. There had been a big slide, people were saying. People were asking if everyone was okay.

I was now getting worried. Facebook said my parents were online, but neither of them were responding to messages. I called a friend’s parents who lived nearby, asking if they could take a look, only to be told that they would in the morning, but the current storm was so bad they didn’t dare leave the house.

At this point, I was beginning to worry, a deep fear gnawing at my insides and sucking everything into a hole. I thanked them and returned to scouring what sources of information I could. By now several of my siblings were also aware of what was going on, and we were all reaching out to anyone we could think of, looking for information.

Things only got worse.

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A Slightly Newer Update

Max Misc , , , ,

Posting from my phone.

Okay, here’s the update. As noted in the last post, my family has suffered a grave emergency. If you’ve seen the news concerning my hometown, and the name at the top of my website, the connection is obvious.

You can–and I totally recommend it, by the way–listen to my mother’s account of things here as she spoke with our local radio station. It’s pretty incredible.

The outpouring of love, support, aid, prayers, fasts, and kind words from our home community has been incredible. I cannot stress how quickly everyone banded together to support us, and how much help that support has been. I am so thankful for this wonderful community and the aid they’ve provided to my family.

Speaking of aid, I know some of you have reached out asking how you can help. My family is far from the only one impacted by the scope of this disaster, and this hit my hometown like a hammer.

If you’d like to offer support, there are two primary means of doing so, which I will link below.

The Wrangell Alaska 11-mile Emergency Relief Fund. This is to directly send financial aid to the affected families.

The other option is calling the local First Bank Branch, which you can find the number for here or by Googling “Alaska First Bank Wrangell.” There, you can donate via card to either the victim fund or the Search and Rescue fund. The latter helps those who have donated their time, their efforts, and are even now still risking their well-being looking for the missing.

As far as me and my family, we are together.

As this is an update, I’ll just confirm that currently there is no work being done on Axtara – Magic and Mayhem. I do encourage the Alpha Readers to finish up their Alpha Read of Axtara, because I will at a point be able to get back to it. She won’t be releasing by Christmas, but she’s still going to make an appearance before long.

There will be a second Alpha, by the way. The latter chapters are pretty good, but I do want some additional eyes to have especially looked over the first third of the book.

I will return to work. Writing is my career. I love it and I look forward to the many wonderful stories that are yet to come.

But right now, my family needs me. I hope you all understand.

Thank you.

Family Emergency (Updated)

Max Misc ,

ANOTHER UPDATE: I am in Alaska with family until further notice. Please understand that while I wish to get back to work on “Extra – Magic and Mayhem” as soon as possible, the current situation is not conducive to that. But the Alpha 1 was nearly complete, so …

Thank you for your understanding at this time, and your prayers. I’ll try to get some classic Being a Better Writer posts up to hold the fort.

Original post resumes below:

Sorry guys, I had to redact this post. I honestly did not think my site would be found by newshounds that quickly, and just wanted you readers to be aware of what was going on.

So I’ve deleted the original post. Work on Axtara will resume when the current calamity is over.

UPDATE: Here’s the official press release.

Being a Better Writer: Writing About Disasters

Max Being a Better Writer , , , ,

Hello again writers! Welcome back to another Monday installment of Being a Better Writer. Which, from the title, is a bit of an odd one, I’ll admit. Sands, I don’t even remember how this one ended up on the topic list, outside of the bare memory that it was very much inspired by a discussion I saw in online spaces.

So yeah, let’s just dive right in. I don’t have much in the way of news to discuss save a reminder that starting this Saturday, July 1st, is the US Independence Day Sale for the entire UNSEC Space Trilogy, in honor of Colony being the first title of mine to pass the review milestone of 100+. Also because one of the series’ characters, Carlos Rodriguez, had a deep respect for the tale of the US Revolution, and that makes this holiday perfect timing. As to why Rodriguez has that respect, who he is to the story, or what he does …. Well, you’ll have to read it to find out. You can whet your appetite for the series by checking out a free, multi-chapter preview of Colony at this link (literally: clicking that link is going to open a new tab and bring up the prologue and the first three-plus chapters for free), and then you can grab the book itself for 99 cents starting this Saturday, July 1st as part of the sale.

The rest of the trilogy will also be on a solid discount as well, so be sure to grab Jungle and Starforge. Colony is only the beginning!

Or, you know, just get Colony, read it, thirst for the other two, and buy them full price later. My wallet certainly isn’t going to begrudge you that decision.

Anyway, don’t forget about that sale, but for now, let it take a backseat in your mind, because I want to talk about writing disaster in fiction. So hit that jump, and let’s get right down to it.

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