A Couple of things...

I read at Suzanne McLeod's blog about a new website that is concentrating on donations of writerly things for auction; proceeds will go to Japan for relief efforts.

Genre for Japan

click to find out more info, I am horrible at explaining things

remember also, that everytime there is a disaster of some kind, scam artists pop up out of the wordwork - so make sure if you're donating to check out who and where you are donating to.

On a lighter note,

No one AT All has entered my giveaway for a brand-spankin' new hardback copy of A Song For My Mother.

(why is it spanking new? is this some old carry over from the brandnew babies and their first spanking of their life when born? must be.)

If you're not interested in a non-urban fantasy book, I totally understand, but you can also use it as a gift...

All you have to do to enter is whine a bit about some mis-understanding that you and your mom have had that is hopefully over with now.

Who doesn't want to vent a little?

if not you and your mom, how about you and your daughter?

grand-daughter??!

lol

Suzanne McLeod's Celebratory Giveaways continue - Ending March 24th is a giveaway that has been changed to include a copy of Hounded by Kevin Hearne which looks very interesting indeed. HowEVER...

The one I'm interested in is The Giveaway Beginning March 25th.

Ahhhh- That one is for a copy of the third Corinne Solomon novel by Ann Aguirre - Shady Lady. Sigh....

And every week after that includes these amazing books:

Magic On The Hunt - Devon Monk

Dead Reckoning - Charlaine Harris

The Cold Kiss of Death - Suzanne McLeod (for U.S. Release!)

Tangled Threads - Jennifer Estep

Magic Slays - Ilona Andrews

five out of six of these are among my favorite authors...

I have mentioned before that I do have quite a large number of favorite writers....

hey, I like what I like

I live on the west coast, in California...earthquake country.

We had a small tornado last week...

Kansas probably would have called it a dervish.

The newscasters in the Bay Area called it a Tornado, or rather a

TORNADO

this is California, in the middle of a small city

Therefore, we had absolutely

NO Warning

It lasted about a block, but it was strong enough to destroy a long storage building and an iron gate, bent it like a U.

Good thing it was on a work-furlogh day, because the time it happened, there would have been school children walking home from school and

NO Warning.

Within a half hour, though, there was a funnel cloud warning put into effect on the Bay.

They got some warning.

That was the beginning of a weekend of stormy, windy weather. A tree fell on a car, the power at my house went out for a few hours. I was alone at the time with both my grandchildren, and after hearing and seeing about the disaster in Japan, my brain got all weird and I packed bags with diapers for my grandson, clothes for the three of us, my camera, all of my medicines, wipes, shoes, a book and toys for them....

then I got real, and figured that nothing that horrible would happen in our area.

We are 30 miles from the ocean (and over a few hills), and while the wind was blowing fiercely, the worst that would have happened would be that tall tree falling into our house...of course, that tree was sending branches into the neighbor's yard....

Just about the time when I decided that I should look for the dog's leashes...after trying to read by candle light and failing...The power went back on.

I felt better.

While I know logically that we were pretty safe....

We had NO Warning about that small micro tornado on Friday.

Well, that's it for now. My heart goes out to the people in Japan

I can't sleep very well because I'm also worrying about radiation...

even though everybody in power says we're okay

When have they ever told the complete truth?

Also...

NO Warning for a simple tornado...

of course, who would expect a tornado in a small city in California?

Oh, yes, It's windy and stormy again RIGHT NOW.