17×22

Heads up that this blog post will contain varying levels of gravity.

Let’s begin with the light stuff. So the memes are in, you can see them in the last page’s comments and in the Tumblr tag. The winning memes are: First Place by buena | Second Place by Kaesy (captaingondor) | Third Place by Ellethiriel. Please email me so I can mail you your prizes! (drawingsworth@gmail.com)

Reader Alisha made this quiz: How well do you know The Silver Eye by Laura Hollingsworth? Test yourself now! (I got 28/30)

There have been rumors of a comment party next week on the 27th. My recently graduated little brother finally got a job! He is to be a Software Engineer for Infrastructure Management at Cryptic Studios. I got to dogsit this adorable puppy.

Idony from Paige Coffer

Santa Rosa teen identified as ‘Rainbow Gathering” murder victim | Man charged with beating Florida woman to death appears in Hardin Co. court | Homicide victim’s foster mother disputes abuse claims | Accused killer pleads not guilty | Services for Amber Robinson Gofundme

So my sister, Amy, is the person Idony is mainly based on. She fostered Amber Robinson for about 2 years and was in the process of adopting her last fall (Amber had backed out last minute). Amber was murdered on the 7th. It was really brutal, and it was 6 days until they were able to identify her, using her dental records. Before she was officially identified, my mom and sister met up and drove 8 hours to Kentucky to be there when the coroners opened.

The county where she died has been super kind and accommodating to my sister and mother. Exactly a week after her death, they held a little memorial service at the house where she was killed. From the articles, I imagined the man who offered his house for Amber and the killer to stay at would be a kindly baby boomer, but he’s a millennial, just a few years older than I am. Please pray for him, he was trying to help and trying to keep them safe. He’s traumatized by what happened and my heart breaks for him.

My mom just returned home, but for now my sister is staying in Kentucky. She doesn’t want to leave Amber’s body there. She wants to go to every one of the killer’s court appearances so he knows that Amber wasn’t alone.

This is hard to articulate, but I’ll try. This tragedy is not an outlier in my sister’s life. They can’t be ranked, but I think that they fall into a category: there is a threshold of suffering and crisis that is beyond comprehension, and for some perspective, I would say that there are at least five other events that she has been through that would fit into the same category. Most have happened since I started The Silver Eye, but I haven’t shared about them. Some are complicated. Most are other peoples’ stories to tell. I’ve said on Tumblr that sometimes I feel like I’m watching the story of Job unfolding.

Thank you for reading, and for your support, and for making all the wonderful memes that helped lighten the week. ♥