Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Earthquake and Writing

Right after I woke up on Monday morning we had an earthquake in L.A.  It wasn't the worst I've ever felt.  That was the Northridge quake in 1994.  But it still shook me up, literally and figuratively.

Once I got up and dressed, things were pretty much back to normal, if you don't count all the news reports and Facebook and other accounts of what happened.  And things around my house aren't exactly normal anyway since the city is currently repaving our narrow street--long overdue, but still hard to deal with.  Both of our cars fit in the garage, but a lot of neighbors had to find parking spaces on other streets. And I still have to figure out whether I can get out of the garage and use the street if I have someplace to go.

I of course had to use the earthquake in some writing. I also blog on Killer Characters, on the 18th of the month--yesterday--so I made sure that the protagonist of my Pet Rescue Mysteries, Lauren Vancouver, blogged about how the earthquake affected the wonderful pet shelter she runs, HotRescues, in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley.  Of course everything there worked out fine.

I did leave the house for a little while and was glad I could get back and pull my car into the garage on my return.  Then I sat down at the computer and began acting as if this was a regular day--answering emails, writing blogs, and, of course, writing.  Because it was, in fact, a regular day--even if it started off a bit too exciting!

How about you--have you been jolted awake recently by quakes or weather or anything else?

2 comments:

Betty Hechtman said...

Linda, I was right there with you being jolted awake. Not my favorite kind of alarm clock.

It sounds like your street repaving is making things inconvenient. But the end result will probably be worth it.

Linda O. Johnston said...

I agree with you, Betty! And, yes, our street has needed to be repaved for a long time, so as difficult as it is living with it for the moment I'm glad it's finally being done.