Haiti

Unbelievable. There is nothing more to add.

If you wish to aid in the relief efforts, please visit msnbc or other news stations for a list of agencies. Be careful of scams, for people are still people in the midst of catacylsmic destruction, seeking to make a buck.

On the msnbc sight, they provide this easy way to give...

For those interesting in helping immediately, simply text "HAITI" to "90999" and a donation of $10 will be given automatically to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts, charged to your cell phone bill.

Here's the link to the sight: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34835478/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

Pray.

Haiti Earthquake and Terror

When I awoke this morning, I did not fully understand the sheer magnitude of the quake and the scope of its widespread distruction.



All I can do is pray for them. Well, maybe I can do a bit more.


Here's a one stop list courtesy of CNN, providing a variety of relief agencies and ways to volunteer:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/

If you find any organizations offering solutions on how we can help, please pass them along and I will post them.

Little else seems to matter today.

Happy New Year, Guilds and Associations!

Let me start by saying....

Happy Birthday Jordan!

My niece turned 8 years old today. Yeah! Has it truly been 8 years? Well that is what both the calendar and Jordan tell me, so it must be so. Happy Birthday!!!

Yes, I have finally returned. The past several weeks have been insane, and then lump in the holidays and well there it is! Although challenging, these have proven to be some of the best weeks of my life.

After 20 years, I have my OWN apartment. I still feel as if I'm on vacation and that this new reality will pop, disappearing from my life. But it is real. Surreal.

I have finished another major edit of La Rose, and now I am working on the line by line edit. Once completed, I think that we will be ready to go and see the Wizard. I came up with a pretty decent query, but it needs quite a bit of work. Then there is always the daunting task of writing the synopsis. Yikes! But it is well. I will only complete marginal work on the other novels until I complete and polish this one.

Focus....

I have also given a few copies to friends to read. So far, so good. However, some have shared that it is can be a bit violent at times.

I have joined two writers groups. One is the Chicago Writers Association The other is theInternational Women's Writers Guild . I have already enjoyed an outing with Chicago Writers at Sheffield's last Thursday, January 7th for their event Deck the Hall: A Party to Benefit the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, honoring acclaimed authors Bayo Ojikutu, 47th Street Black; Marcus Sakey, The Blade Itself and Don De Grazia, American Skin. It was great. Each author read from their favorite classic, and then did a second reading from their own work. I got to mix and mingle a little bit, but the free beer distracted me. Everyone had a great time.


Well, back to work. I hope that everything is well with all of you. ;-)