For those of you who are concerned that too little attention is being paid to other disasters (e.g. flooding in Mumbai and Bangladesh), I recommend www.directrelief.org You can direct your contribution or simply say “where needed most.” They are one of the highest rated by Charity Navigator, Forbes, and others.

Nothing funny or witty today. Just a bit about how you might help the people of Houston and beyond. Think about some of the smaller charities like the Houston Food Bank and Texas Diaper Bank. They have very few administrative expenses, so more of your gift goes to the people in need. Also, check out http://www.charitynavigator.org  They evaluate charities for effectiveness, honesty, etc.

I am happy to report that a 5 year-old of my acquaintance recently asked me if I would read her a chapter of my current WIP, a MG novel. She then made me read another 5,000 words. I have decided that her appreciation of my work means she is either brilliant, or it’s not quite sophisticated enough for a middle grade audience. I’m quite convinced it’s the former.

Got another one published, this time in the Washington Post. Maybe instead of novels I should be working on The Collected Letters to the Editor of Carol Nissenson and how you can write witty insightful non-fiction that will bring you no fame or fortune whatsoever.

As a writer, one of the questions I sometimes ask myself is, “Should my 99-year-old mother die, how many days later could I go back to writing without seeming callous and unloving?”

Corollary: I hope my mom lives long enough for my first novel to be published. I won’t mind taking a week off, then.**

 

*Probably

**She’s doing just fine, thank you. We plan to put her in our will.

You know the fates are telling you that you need a break, when a little kid at the far end of your coffee/writing spot starts playing “Ode to Joy” on a tonette**…repeatedly.

 

*Don’t get too excited. I’m talking “ten-minute” variety.

**Spellcheck clearly didn’t go to elementary school in the ’50s. It keeps trying to change this to “rosette.”

I got my third “I love your writing, but I don’t know how to market this” rejection on a novel today. I suppose I’ll have to shelve that one until I write an amazing best seller or three. Then anything I write will be marketable.*

*Well, maybe not the middle grade novel if the best seller is chick lit with passionate, though not explicit, love scenes.