Life in my former home state

The week wasn't so bad until I saw the Iowa coverage. Holy shit. I've been trying to get in touch with our friends down south of the border to make sure everyone's okay. So far, I've heard from evilroygato and she and her partner are safe and housed, provided their sump pump holds. Our friend Symone has a wet basement but is otherwise unscathed. Still waiting to hear from some others.
Per the University of Iowa website, most of the highways are closed and a lot of downtown is flooded, including the U. campus, which is right on the river.
Meanwhile in nearly completely flooded Cedar Rapids, local innovative and queer friendly arts organization CSPS/Legion Arts is flooded out. They've already started a fund to help Iowa artists impacted by the flooding - check it out and donate at http://www.legionarts.org/.
Des Moines just postponed Pride for a couple of months. It was scheduled for this weekend. :-(
I'll post more fundraising info as I get it. Sending concerned thoughts (and dollars) south...

Crave's a finalist!

Damn. I am just up and down and sideways tonight. Waaaaay too much going on. Just found out that my collection Crave: Tales of Lust, Love and Longing made the erotica finalist list for the Golden Crown Literary Society Awards (list posted here http://www.gclscon.com/2008GCLSAwards-Finalists.html).
I should also mention that So Fey: Queer Faery Fiction edited by Steve Berman and including my story "A Scent of Roses" also made the list for Anthologies. Giant squee all around!


Also heard from City Pages (big local free paper) that they want to do a calendar feature on the Minneapolis publication reading for Haunted Hearths (June 26th, DreamHaven), assuming the reviewer/editor likes it.
All this on top of not being done prepping for this weekend and finishing edits to the novelette and worrying about the flooding. See if I get any sleep tonight...