The Great Equalizer

I wanted to share with you all a little about my life now.
It has changed—a lot.
On August 13^th, as most of you who are friends with me on social media know, our house flooded in the so-called ‘Great Flood of 2016’. If you had asked me the day before if I thought that within twenty-four hours my house would be 53 inches under water, I would’ve laughed you all the way back home.
But then it happened.
We got out of the house when it was barely up to our knees and fled to my grandmother’s house for safety. We stayed there for five days, not knowing anything. We didn’t know if the water we had seen was the highest it had gotten or if the water had reached the roof.
Not knowing is the worst.
I call it the Great Equalizer because after the flood, there were no classes of people other than, flooded or not flooded. There were Mercedes and BMWs in line for the free meals right along with everyone else. Women with Coach purses were at their local Baptist churches picking out clothing right alongside women who had made garage-sale shopping into an artform.
The water of a flood doesn't care who you are, it just fills the empty spaces and takes over.
Rich or poor, the water takes it all.

So now, everything in my life is away from home. My kids’ homeschooling is done at the library. Showers and laundry is done at my mom’s house. If I want decent internet access—back to the library.

But we are grateful. We had flood insurance (even if they are taking their sweet time sending us a check). We lost everything material except about four plastic bins of things that were in the very tops of closets or on the highest shelves.
It was just material things. I have my husband and my kids.
Still, this post-flood life stinks.
Here’s the thing about post-flood life that you might not be aware of. My brain is mush since that day. I have a thousand things on my mind at once and I’m lucky if one or two of them get done in a day. Some days I find myself just reliving that Friday and Saturday wondering if I should’ve stayed up all night getting everything I could into the attic—onto higher shelves. Maybe if I stacked heavier things onto tables and cabinets and shelves, we wouldn’t have come in to find our refrigerator in the living room or my bookshelves on the floor.
If I had just only…a million times a day.
Until then, bear with me. I’m trying my best. I promise.
Now, the news on Beholden.
Yes, I said I would release it two days ago. I have broken that promise and I will tell you why.
It wasn’t ready, pure and simple. I don’t know if it is what I have gone through or what but I didn’t love the way it ended anymore. I didn’t love it at all. And so when I went to push that publish button on Monday afternoon, I just couldn’t do it.
That being said, it will be out sometime next week. I have already re-written most of the ending and it is so much better—so much better.
And I love this new ending. Which is the point.
Because I don’t want to give you, reader, anything less than what I absolutely love.
I hope you can forgive me.
Hip Whip will follow Beholden, hopefully sometime in October.
And God willing, we will have our house back before Thanksgiving.
Pray for Louisiana. 85% of the people around me flooded and most of them had no insurance.
I am so grateful for my readers and author friends who have stuck by me through this. Thank you doesn’t quite cover it.
Walking on bare concrete. Praying for sheet rock. Crossing my fingers for my office back soon,

Lila