Welcome
to another Charity Sunday! Today I am supporting one of my favorite
organizations, Room to Read.
Room to Read helps
to set up
locally-controlled and managed programs to increase access to
education and to encourage reading in poorer countries including
India, Nepal, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Jordan, with a special focus on
learning opportunities for girls.
I
get lots of fund-raising emails from the causes I support (and from
others that want my cash). Room to Read consistently talks about
their successes and progress in those emails – rather than wringing
their hands and trying to tell me how terrible everything is. I truly
appreciate this. The world faces problems that seem insurmountable,
but in fact local efforts by passionate individuals make a
difference. I remember one email that showed up in my box at the
start of the COVID-19 pandemic, talking about a teacher in India who,
when schools were shut down, rode his bike around the village, every
day, delivering books to each of his students. A small gesture,
perhaps – but one that could have a lasting impact on a few,
important lives.
The
pandemic has disrupted education for 9 out of 10 children in the
world, with
children in low income countries the worst affected.
In response, Room to Read has
supported a range of “distance learning” programs that depend not
on the Internet (which is not available in most of their target
areas) but on human connectivity. You can read more about these
programs here:
https://give.roomtoread.org/campaign/covid-19-urgent-appeal/c278379
So,
today I will donate $2 to Room to Read’s COVID urgent appeal,
for each comment I receive.
And
to thank you for joining today’s event, I’ve got another
exclusive excerpt from my new release The
H-Gene.
This MM scifi erotic romance takes place two and
a half
decades from today, in a U.S. that has been devastated and
depopulated by a terrible Plague.
Even before the Plague, however, the country was on a downward trajectory, due to global warming, environmental
degradation, natural
and man-made disasters
and intergroup conflict. Education has declined to the point that
some citizens no longer know how to read. Propaganda nevertheless
survives...
Exclusive
Excerpt
By
the time Dylan and Rafe had finished consulting with Hammer, returned
to the locker room and dressed, dusk was falling. Shadows made the
shattered landscape of the exclusion zone even more forbidding. Rafe
had relaxed somewhat during their technical discussion of streaming
servers, encrypted feeds and specialized codecs, but now, as they
made their way back to the gate, Dylan felt the other man’s unease.
The
fear was contagious. Sweat gathered in Dylan’s armpits. Adrenaline
boosted his pulse. Three days had elapsed since their escape, more
than enough time for the Guardians to have disseminated images and
particulars of the two fugitives. As they trudged along Market, hoods
pulled over their masked faces, Dylan ventured a glance up at one of
the screens. Just the usual programming,Technicolor
fantasies of peace and plenty—glimpses of a world that was long
gone.
He
monitored the broadcast while he and Rafe waited to cross the street
at one of the remaining traffic signals. It was six p.m., what passed
for rush hour these days in Sanfran. A steady stream of miscellaneous
vehicles flowed past.
A
public service announcement popped up, full of chubby babies and
clean-cut, beaming parents, offering free fertility augmentation.
This was followed by an ad for Saturday’s rally, details posted
both in English words and in simple icons that made reading
unnecessary. There were no security advisories, no mug shots of his
face, or Rafe’s.
He
recalled his theory, that the Guardians might be unwilling to
publicly admit his escape. That didn’t necessarily lessen the
danger. A mini-copter droned overhead. He dropped his eyes to the
ground, hiding behind his minimalist disguise, jumpy as a rabbit
expecting the swoop of a hawk.
The
red LED finally switched to green. Rafe strode forward into the
intersection. The movement jolted Dylan out of his nervous fugue. He
hurried after his lover, trying to catch up.
“Halt!”
The flat, mechanical voice was a remembered nightmare. Dylan looked
over his shoulder. A Robbie loomed on the corner they’d just left,
its black carapace flickering in the light from the vidscreen. Its
multi-function gripper extruded the sparking prongs of a tasegun.
“Halt,
citizen 33609861022. Surrender, by order of the Guardians.”
Dylan
sprinted across the street, snatching at Rafe’s sweatshirt.
“Hurry!” He kept his voice down, not wanting to attract the
attention of other pedestrians. They might be more deadly than the
android. “Come on!” The signal had changed again and, for the
moment, the Robbie was trapped on the opposite side.
Rafe
gave a single glance backwards and understood immediately. He loped
up the sidewalk, moving fast, but not running, not yet. Dylan
struggled to keep up with the pace of his longer-legged companion.
Ignoring
the red light, the hulking robot stepped into the road. Vehicles
squealed to a stop. The Robbie marched across the road, each stride
covering twice as much distance as Dylan’s own. People on the
sidewalk shrank away from the ambulatory tank barreling along the
broken pavement. “Halt! Halt!” the Robbie continued to intone,
waving the Taser in their direction, gaining on them by the second.
“Run!”
Rafe yelled back at him, following his own advice. The powerful black
man streaked along Market, then ducked into a side street. Dylan
raced after him, breathing hard as he strained to catch up. The
Robbie was nearly in range. Desperate, Dylan summoned every ounce of
energy and channeled it to his pumping legs.
The
street sloped upward. Rafe had almost reached the top of the hill, a
good twenty yards ahead. Dylan’s calves screamed from the effort.
His chest ached with each labored breath. His hood had slipped off
and his hair clung to his forehead, soaked with sweat. I won’t
go back, he told himself, pushing himself to the limit. I’d
rather die.
***
Remember,
every one of your comments helps to secure an education and improve
the future for young women in low income countries. And please do
visit the other authors who are participating in Charity Sunday
today. (You'll find their links below.) Each one is supporting a cause dear to his or her heart.
