Here’s a quick update, following up from my earlier post about the Australian bushfires.
TLDR Version
I am safe. My work will continue to be impacted. Today is a brief reprieve and I’m hoping to get a little work on a collection done, but the smoke could come back at any time. Any members who don’t end up getting the normal content for the month (including story requests) will be offered a refund if they want it, or otherwise comped a free month.
Detail Version
I am safe. Loved ones are safe. We have not evacuated (although it was touch and go yesterday). There continues to be no imminent danger from actual fires, but the smoke levels yesterday were something like 25 times the “hazardous” level. There was reduced visibility inside our house. Everyone has been buying filter masks in apocalypse-level quantities. There aren’t enough.
Yesterday morning we had decided we should probably leave, and we started to plan out what that would look like – except the entire east coast is affected, most major roads are closed, and there’s simply nowhere to go. So instead we taped up all windows and doors to prevent smoke ingress – and were lucky enough to have a friend who was able to give us a spare air purifier. We spent the day in a single room of the house with the purifier running, and made it through.
Today is significantly improved. We’ve had some rain and it’s washed some smoke out of the sky. I’m therefore able to get to my computer and write this.
However, experts are predicting these bushfires will be burning for *months*. That doesn’t mean I’m personally going to be impacted for that long, but we likely haven’t seen the last of the smoke and I’m expecting further problems getting my regular work done. Evacuation remains a possibility (though still small, and subject to the concerns of “but where to?”).
My day job is closed today as it’s too dangerous to get to the office, let alone deal with the levels of indoor smoke and heat there. They said they hoped to reopen tomorrow but I’m not sure that’s realistic.
I’m doing a little work today on a collection. If I get that done, I’ll pop a couple of stories I wrote last month but haven’t yet published into Early Access and the BDSMLR queue to give you some new content. I’m not feeling super-sexy under all the circumstances so new writing is probably not going to happen today.
At the end of January, if I haven’t managed to meet my usual quota of membership content, I’ll offer members their choice of a refund or a free month. This will apply as follows:
* If I haven’t managed to deliver four collections, at least 20 stories in January Early Access, and an Arth-Keros update of at least four articles, it will apply to all members.
* Otherwise, it will apply to any member with an outstanding unfulfilled story request made before 14 January.
As per my last post, if you want to support me, please buy my e-books, preferably in large numbers in a single purchase.
If you want to support victims and firies, please donate to:
Again noting that NSW RFS is supposed to be fully funded by government and the fact that they’re not is a huge failure of NSW and Commonwealth government – but being angry about that won’t get the fires put out, or get the firies paid, or help the volunteers who are losing access to welfare payments because they’re fighting fires instead of turning up to job interviews.
Thank you all.
– All These Roadworks
6 January 2020
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