Labels

absolute awesomeness addiction Adversity An Uncommon Whore angels animal rescue animal welfare Anne Kane anxiety aquamarine author corner bad angels bad weather Barbara Elsborg BDSM bdsm romance belinda mcbride BelindaPalooza Belindapendence Belle Starr beverages bisexual bisexual romance Black Planet Blacque/Bleu blog hop Broken Cancer CAPA changeling press characters cherise sinclair China chronic pain Coming Out contests cooking courage craft creativity culinary competion custom art cyber punk Dark Haven deadlines Deeply blog demons depression dog shows dogs Doms of Dark Haven Dos Lunas Dragon's Blood drawings druids election embarrassment EPIC Winner erotic romance erotica expressive writing faith family fantasy fear femme domme fiction Film fire firefighters France free reads full moon futuristic genre hopping ghosts goldenwolfen grand prize greco-roman culture halloween happiness haunted mansions head/desk health heroines hide my head in shame Hong Kong human trafficking Iditarod Inspirational jessica freely Jessica Freely jianne carlo Kate Roman KC Burn Lance Mackey las vegas Last Call Europe lena austin lex valentine LGBT lifestyle linda suzane Lisabet Sarai little Dragon Little Dragon Little Foxes loose Id lost pets love scenes lucky in red lynn lorenz m/m m/m romance Madly martial arts martini mary winter meditation menage romance menege mental illness My Birthday mythology NaNoWriMo New Concepts Publishing new release New Year's Giveaway News nutrition overcoming pack politics paranormal paranormal romance Paris Passion in Print passionate plume pearls personal pet peeves PETA PL Nunn positivity procrastination Rainbow book awards real life release dates Review Risk romance save the quiet kitty science fiction Sele selena illyria shape shifters Sheri Lewis Wohl shunga siberian husky sidhe sierra cartwright slavery smoke snow snowfire: chrysalis space opera speculative fiction St John and St Thomas stupid mistakes succubus survival Suzanne Rock Tara Lain terrorism The Next Big Thing The Romance Reviews Tiger Eyes time off TMI Tony Leung travel Truckee Wolves Truly urban fantasy valentine's day vampires vampiropolis weight weight loss well being werewolves When I Fall wicca wildlife witches wolves World building world events writer's block writer's health writers block writing writing habits yacht

Saturday, November 29, 2008

How to Save a Life Without Really Trying


This morning, I was on the telephone, making an appointment to take my niece to visit her social worker. Once we’d settled on a date, I had to change the time, remembering that was my regular day to donate platelets through Apheresis.
To my surprise, she didn’t know anything about donating blood, and was even more mystified that I would take several hours out of my day every two weeks to undergo Apheresis, the procedure that separates platelets from blood.

I began to donate blood a few years back, going in to the blood center maybe two or three times a year. And then one day, I overheard one of the nurses mention that some of the cancer patients at local hospitals were literally dying because they couldn’t get enough platelet donors. I asked about the procedure, was tested for my platelet count, and to my surprise, discovered that I was an ideal donor. In fact, with my high platelet count, I am able to do triple donations twice a month. That means six very ill patients receive life-saving platelets from me every month!

What does this have to do with writing? Well, I spend about ninety minutes in a recliner while the Apheresis procedure takes place, and my mind wanders. Once, I was thinking of a new idea for a story; the setting was clear, the story would take place in post-earthquake San Francisco. I had the title: Dragon’s Blood. But the plot just wouldn’t gel.

I looked around the room at all of the donors and thought of a future where a mysterious disease had taken hold of the human population. A future where donated blood became a rare and precious commodity. This disease became a major plot point in the Black Planet series, and will continue to re-emerge in future books in that series. In my current release, Tiger Eyes, the heroine is afflicted with the disease called Dragon’s Blood, and is rapidly dying. Grace fights valiantly to stay alive in this story; she’s an amazingly strong character.

Over the course of my life, I’ve seen many lives saved by the donations of others. My friend Mo received bone marrow transplants which extended her life during her battle with cancer. My brother received whole blood following a devastating injury. My co-worker Melissa made the stunning and selfless decision to donate her kidney to a friend, and literally saved that woman’s life.

You too can save lives; simply call your local blood center to see if you are eligible to donate. It takes a little time, and next to no effort. To learn more about Platelet Apheresis, visit the American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/services/biomed/0,1082,0_554_,00.html
Black Planet: Tiger Eyes is now available at Changeling Press: