In Which the Intrepid Author is Almost Hit by a Tornado

Okay, not exactly.  But I worried for a while.

It was was a wild night here!  The sky turned pale green (a bit paler than this picture, but green nonetheless...this is just the best representation I could find on the web), the clouds overhead were visibly rotating, and we had lightning hit the yard.  I only caught the flash out of the corner of my eye while I was out on the porch watching the storm crank up, but the hiss and snap was unmistakable.  No tornados, incredibly, but this is the sort of thunderstorm that spawns them.  We do get the occasional small tornado here in Southern Maryland...I have no desire to see one, but I really thought I was going to.  The power in the entire county was out for probably a half hour/forty-five minutes, and one of the houses in the neighborhood was hit by lightning.  We had about six fire trucks come wailing in here, firemen crawling all over that house with flashlights...apparently, there were sparks shooting from the eaves or the gutters, and they were worried there was fire inside the walls.  Considering the tarp on the back of that house today, I'd say the lightning put a hole in the back of the house somewhere.  That or they had to open up the wall to make sure nothing was on fire.  Anyway, it was interesting (I'm willing to be the homeowners with the new hole in their wall found it less so).  I have NEVER seen a sky that color before.

Heading for the Finger Lakes tomorrow, so I'll be blogging from there all next week, provided the wi-fi works as well as advertised.  We've never taken a vacation involving a rental cottage and all the mutts before (cue ominous music...dun-dun-DUNNNNN).  Hopefully, the place will still be intact when we leave it.  My mother-in-law is bringing lots of wine, and we'll be celebrating my birthday there on Tuesday.  Yeah, I'm going to be 34.  I think I'm officially in my mid-thirties now. *sob*

Anyway, I'm going to load up my Nook with books to read today, and I have plans to park it on the deck, enjoy the lake, and read.  Okay, and I have to work, too.  Boo.  Hiss.  But there's no rest for the wicked:-)

To close my morning babbling, I do want to say thanks to all the readers who have already read and enjoyed Dark Awakening and are posting their love around the internets.  You all get a big *MWAH!* from me!  Release day is so soon, and it means a LOT that people are already enjoying the book enough to sing its praises publicly.  I love this book.  I really, really do.  And Ty, as has been stated in various places, is really more of an anti-hero in some ways...but his journey was a fascinating one to write, and I love that people seem to "get" him, that they rooted for him.  I've got linkies to the reviews on my facebook page and my twitter feed, and I believe most are linked through Goodreads as well, so if you haven't already, please come friend me here, there, and everywhere:-)

'Kay, I'm off...I have a zillion packing-related things to do today (ugh).  Hope you all have a great weekend!  Please keep your fingers crossed for me that the Newfs don't destroy anything, and I'll keep you posted on my doings up on Cayuga Lake.  And I'm curious, because that storm last night is still very much on my mind...have any of you actually SEEN a tornado?  Because even just seeing the clouds spinning freaked me the hell out.  I just wonder what it's like actually being present for a real funnel cloud.

Happy Friday!