Apparently it's Invisible Illness Week.

Why? Go here if you don't know what that means.

1. The illness I live with is: PTSD and migraines - I have two! The PTSD is more limiting so I'll talk about that for the rest of these questions.
2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: 1998
3. But I had symptoms since: As far back as I can remember.
4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: Really changing the way I deal with my family.
5. Most people assume: I worry people think I'm being selfish or self-indulgent for not "taking a pill and getting over it."
6. The hardest part about mornings are: Seeing everyone around me go to their normal jobs and feeling like I'm not up to it.
7. My favorite medical TV show is: Ugh, I hate medical TV shows with a blinding passion.
8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: My feeling scale, which I created myself based on ideas from the book Hello, Cruel World!
9. The hardest part about nights are: The nights when I'm too scared to go to bed are the worst.
10. Each day I take __ pills & vitamins. : I don't take any pills for my PTSD and I never have. I do take four a day for my migraines.
11. Regarding alternative treatments I: I've tried a lot of things in the past ten years. There's no magic bullet. Acupuncture helps a bit.
12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: Visible. I feel really alone in this sometimes.
13. Regarding working and career: I had to change my job to one that was mostly very flexible about hours. I still can't work anywhere near as much as I would like to.
14. People would be surprised to know: Recovering from trauma is not self-indulgent, it's fucking hard work you don't get paid for.
15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been: People spend decades trying to heal from this sort of thing. There are no short fixes. I've spent ten years and I'm not even close to done.
16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was: I don't really think that way. If I've got to do something, then I find a way. But it did surprise me I was able to get my own business started and in the black.
17. The commercials about my illness: Mostly have to do with veterans. A lot of people, myself included, have trauma from other sources (especially in places like the US where war is not a daily reality for most people).
18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is: Uncomplicated sex with guys. Having intercourse without it having to be a big deal.
19. It was really hard to have to give up: My financial independence.
20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is: Crochet. I started to get a little stir crazy, so I had catskillz teach me.
21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would: Have a lot of sex, maybe go to an event that was really crowded like a concert.
22. My illness has taught me: You can't control your life. Actually it's an awesome lesson, one I really needed. It helped me to stop worrying about a lot of things.
23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is: "You're not leaving the party already?" Trust me, I already feel bad enough when I walk out early.
24. But I love it when people: Respect how much I want to say about things.
25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is: "Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave." - Rainier Maria Rilke
26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: This isn't the end. You're still you.
27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is: People really can't tell. They just assume you're fine.
28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was: trouble4hire rocked my world helping me come up with an action plan for times when I don't feel good.
29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: It's too invisible.
30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel: supported.

Dies the Fire by SM Stirling

Title: Dies the Fire
Author: S. M. Stirling
Series: Emberverse #1, spin-off from the Nantucket series
Genre: Apocalyptic fiction
Reason for Reading: mrpet read and liked it, and the cover appealed to me.
Pages: 573
Copyright Date: 2004
Cover: A man is walking down a road carrying a sword. There are two horses on the road behind him, along with an abandoned bicycle and rubber tire. A city is burning in the background, but he doesn't look. The tagline at the top reads, "What happens when the lights go out...for good?.
First line: "Michael Havel pulled his battered four-by-four into the employees' parking lot, locked up and swung his just-in-case gear out of the back, the strap of the pack over one shoulder and the gun case on the other."
Best part: I was pleasantly surprised that a whole group of surviving protagonists in this book is neopagan. It gave things an interesting flavor and a new perspective.
Worst part: Though it's clear he did a lot of research, I'm not sure Mr. Stirling has actually spent all that much time around pagans. A whole coven and nobody's gay? The midwife and the Wiccan herbalist can't suggest any contraceptive alternatives to the rapidly diminishing supply of condoms and birth control pills? I find both of those rather improbable.
Imaginary Theme Song: "We're Gonna Make It" by BB King and Irma Thomas
Grade: B
Recommended for: Anyone interested in a different take on apocalypi. Pagans who feel underrepresented in sci fi.
Related Reads: Psalm of Herod by Esther Friesner. Crystal Dragon and Crystal Soldier by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. The Giver by Lois Lowry. Here be Dragons by John Ringo (more on that one in a moment).

Where will you be when the world loses power? Electricity has faltered. Gasoline is no longer explosive. Guns don't work anymore. Everything that we have taken for granted for the past hundred years is no longer true. Our modes of transportation and communication are out of commission, and most of us can't even grow our own food. What's next?
This book follows two protagonists as they build groups of followers that will help them survive the ongoing crisis. One, Mike Havel, is just who you'd expect in a book like this - ex-Military guy who knows how to survive in the wilderness and is an all-around badass. The other, Juniper McKenzie, single mom, witch, and folk singer, is what made the book really fascinating for me.

So, above I mentioned Here Be Dragons. That book was similar in some ways - re-enacting sorts become very important, their archaic skills are what help people survive. However, HBD had a lot of creepy gender role stuff, not to mention moralizing about what the author thinks it takes to survive.

I think this is a really good example of the genre. Grade of B.

ETA: This book inspired me to start thinking about emergency preparedness, so I am changing the grade to B+.