Writers helping others

First, I need to share something with you that makes me smile. It's something we haven't seen a lot of in Wisconsin lately, and when we have, it came with freezing cold temperatures and we had a sort-of love/hate relationship with it. Now, though, today, it came with temperatures around 50 degrees. YAY!!!



why, hello, Mr. Sun, we missed you

Although, with the sun and warmth come a few problems. See, this is my house (this is erica, btw):



this is how it looks in spring/summer

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but it's on top of a big hill. With a long, steep, gravel driveway that looked like this after we got 22 inches of snow last December (and then several more inches several times between then and now):



What? you can't see a driveway? If you look closely, you can see my husband's footprints going down the left side of it.

So, go ahead and solve this equation in order to figure out what it looks like right now:

Sun + 50 degrees + leftover snow (including drifts from the plow) + downhill driveway =

You've got it. Mud.

This time of year, mud is my nemesis. Sometimes we can't get even our SUVs or farm trucks up and have to walk, with mud over our boots that threatens to suck in the 4-year-old and come into my house however much we try to leave it outside (I blame the dogs for this) until I have to sweep two times a day just to make it look like we were, in fact, not born in a barn, nor do we currently live in one...

...but none of this compares even remotely to the devestation that has occurred due to last week's 8.9-magnitude earthquake and the resulting tsunami (and current nuclear reactor crisis). It is beyond my ability to even imagine what these people are going through right now - the loss is just too great.

The writing and blogging communities want to help. Please follow these links - you can get some great stuff while helping a great cause. Isn't it great how people who only know each other over the internet can come together to do something this amazing? Please add in the comments any other links you know of to help and we'll add them in throughout the day.

Authors for Japan (led by Keris Stainton) has an awesome auction going on. Hurry - it ends on March 20th and there's a ton of great stuff in there, from books to advertising to character names (how cool is that?) to critiques. And it's international (all money goes to the Red Cross relief efforts)!

Write Hope (led by some of our blogging/Crusader friends, Rachael Harrie, Marieke, Tessa Quin, Amanda Milner, and Luna) will launch soon. Click on the link to find out more and bookmark it so you don't forget and miss out!!

One more, courtesty of our friend Heather (this isn't about Japan, but it is about writers helping other writers. I love this community!!

Have a great (non-muddy, flooding, earthquake-ridden) Thursday!! And good luck when/if you bid on any of the above auctions!