April 12, 2013

• The Runelord

   

  There has been something going on this week that quite took my breath away when it first showed up in my facebook feed. I've been holding back and watching as the days have unfolded, afraid to watch, and in a minute I'll tell you why.

   

  David Farland is one of the authors who follows me on twitter and I have him in my author list at https://twitter.com/PinkyGuerrero/authors-illustrators/members. I have been thinking for a couple of months that I'd like to get his Million Dollar Outlines since I'm in the middle of preparing my own material, hopefully to publish later this year unless I flop on my face or something. I have bantered lightly a couple of times with him on his twitter, retweeted a few things because he says cool stuff, etc. I automatically list authors who follow me, but I crossed over and also followed David Farland on his facebook awhile back because I like him.

   

  So I was stunned when this scrolled through my facebook feed on my droid very early Thursday morning during one of my fairly common insomnia stints. This will click to the post.

  

   

  We have some experience in my family with head injury, so I held my breath over the next couple days' updates about surgery to remove Ben's skullcap for the swelling and stuff, along with multiple other injuries, but when this picture came through I lost it.

  

   

  I knew when that picture was posted on Sunday that Ben had squeaked past the most critical part and had been stabilized enough to dare hold onto some hope, but I also knew it was with the question- for what future?

   

  On Tuesday David announced A Book Bomb for Ben, where everyone with any kind of social media account passes along info on where to buy David's Books to help with the medical bills that are obviously going to overwhelm their family, which was very encouraging, and I started to breathe a little again. They also created a facebook page called Ben Wolverton Recovery as a central information page for people with questions. On that page is a link to Ben's Recovery Fund for people who would like to help in another way than buying a book. On Wednesday there was a t-shirt fund announced, along with other fundraising events.

  

   

  Today there is a link to a really nice article.

  Army of Friends Rally Around Best-Selling Author David Farland

   

   

  Now I'll tell you why I had flashbacks and trouble dealing with this, because I certainly didn't jump on board commenting my support. I've been on the other side, and since I don't have the social skills to deal with the public very well in situations like that, I just couldn't. Here is my niece after she was hit by a car just before Christmas 2011, and it's one of the nicer pictures. I didn't see her the first 24 hours, and didn't take pix of her bandaged up, you can't see the staples in the back of her head. Her whole head was swelled up like a melon, and they did brain scans several times a day at first, and she went through several surgeries on a leg she nearly lost.

   

  

   

   

  I know from her experience that even a slight amount of brain trauma has far reaching consequences, and that the network of family and friends is affected for a very long time after the injury, sometimes the rest of their lives. I also know the stress and strain that comes with hanging around hospitals for endless hours and days, the follow up surgeries and checkups months afterward, the physical and emotional therapy that comes with brain trauma, etc. She still has no memory of the accident.

   

  So because of that, I can imagine a little bit of what it's like for Ben's family. Ben has a VERY long road ahead of him if he makes it out of the hospital, as does David Farland and all their loved ones. This is something they'll be dealing with long after the book bomb is over, long after things go back to 'normal' on facebook. Updates disappear so quickly in social media, I wanted to make something that helps me find it more easily if I want to go back to it and follow Ben's recovery process, and I'm sharing that in case other people would like that, too. This is the latest picture of Ben from Wednesday.

   

  

   

   

  If you are a fan of David Farland's books and would like to send him a message, you can leave comments at the above links, and if you would like to help personally you can also go through the above links to buy his books and donate directly to the recovery fund. Learn more about David Farland at Dave Wolverton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and find him on facebook by clicking the picture below.

   

  

   

  • 5:10 pm
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