[pfreivald]

That $42 million includes $10M just from Wednesday and Thursday of this week--it's truly exploding across the net, gaining momentum across the US and now in other countries.

I did the challenge and donated in honor of my friend and Horror Writers Association president Rocky Wood, who is now confined to a wheelchair and able to communicate only via iPad because of ALS. As with all who are diagnosed, his long-range prognosis is terrible in the true sense of the word.

I challenged three authors rather more famous than I am; they all agreed to do it--dumped and donated. I've been contacted by friends and fans alike who had no idea what ALS is, who now know.

In addition to the direct monetary gain and the indirect increase in awareness, it is worth noting that Rocky and many people like him take great delight in seeing the support and willingness from so many wonderful people. (Rocky, a Stephen King biographer, got to watch King dedicate his ice water dumping to him.) Anything that can bring comfort to the afflicted is something to consider.

Finally, concerns over fresh water are about transport and supply--any water dumped as part of this challenge will return to the atmosphere and keep doing its watery thang. Even in drought-stricken California, if all thirty-eight million residents were to dump a gallon of ice water on their heads, they'd still use less water than seventy Olympic-sized swimming pools. There are an estimated 43,123 swimming pools just in Los Angeles (as of December 2013), comprising a total of 760 million gallons of water--the full volume of which is gradually replaced throughout the year.... That doesn't count the rest of the state.

This is a win all day long.