With all the terrible things that have happened throughout the world over the past few days, it can be easy to forget that there is good in the world, too. While I know it doesn’t change what happened, or fix things for those who are suffering right now, I want to tell you about a little of that goodness.
Last week I reached out to you–to the world of social media. I didn’t know what to expect, but you all blew me away between the sharing of my post, the offers to send books, and the monetary donations. I haven’t received the books yet, so I can’t show you a picture of that, but here’s a peek at the GoFundMe page:
People are good and kind and generous. They reach out to strangers. They offer help in the ways they can. People I didn’t even know donated money. People I’ve never met are shipping off books.
Thank you! Thank you so much for being you. For being generous humans who spread good in the world. Thank you! I can’t express how touched I’ve been at your support.
For any who would still like to participate, we will be collecting books and donations over the next couple of months. For more information, please visit the original post that explains it all.
Now, one more thing. My 11-yo wanted to write in support of the cause, and I promised I would post it for him:
Dear readers,Hello.
To you readers, I ask you this, how would you feel if you had almost no books to read? I would feel devastated, it would make me less curious, although that
might not sound bad to you, take some time to imagine what that amounts to: . .
. now that you have thought about it, I hope you realize the full gravity of
helping those children on Kiribati.Imagine
how thankful they’ll feel to have such a great gift to enjoy and share. I hope
you know to expect nothing but an unseen and unheard thank you along with the
knowledge that you helped someone besides yourself.I
sincerely hope now that you will help those children.Signed,11-yo. J.
Before I leave you, I want to give a heard and seen THANK YOU for your help.
Thank you for all the questions! I appreciate your patience with my brief episode of Tabula Rasa-itis. So here we go:
Justine Dell asked: What is your biggest fear? And don’t say something lame like spiders or something.
It’s a good thing you clarified, because I TOTALLY would have put spiders. 🙂 But beyond those, I would have to say my biggest fear is split in two:
Joanne asked: If you didn’t write, what would you do creatively?
Hmmm . . . this is a hard question because there are so many ways to answer it. I actually love music and play the piano and (dabble in the guitar), but I don’t have the discipline to practice enough to become good. So while I’d do it for fun, I don’t think it could ever fill in for writing.
And I’ve always wished I had any talent in illustration, but alas, ’tis not my lot. BUT, if we’re talking about an imaginery world here where all things are possible, then this would be it. I’d be an artist for sure! Oil paintings and maybe water colors. 🙂
Stina Lindenblatt, after acusing Justine of cheating, asked: What is the thing you like best about writing fiction?
Honestly, it’s getting lost in another world. I’ve always been a daydreamer (and I was master of doing it without getting caught in school), so I suppose it was a natural shift to write fiction. But who doesn’t want to escape their reality at some point for a more exciting place where you are important or even essential to the well-being of the world? The possibilities are endless! It’s why I’ll be writing for the rest of forever even if I never do get published.
Jackee took the liberty of asking two questions (such presumption!): What would be your ideal writing life?
I’m a little torn about this question because my ideal writing life would probably exclude all of my current life. But see, then it wouldn’t be ideal anymore. So trying to strike a balance . . .
Question #2: When did you first know you wanted to write? (But not necessarily get published).
I think the first hint that I enjoyed it was in High School. I sent an outline for a Disney-ified version of The Pied Piper to The Walt Disney Co. 😀
Oh, yes I did. I knew nothing about query letters or anything, and I didn’t even want to get paid. I just wanted my idea to be the next Disney animated feature-film. I still have the response they sent stating that The Walt Disney Co. does not read outside ideas. My un-read letter was included in the package. Really, I’m quite proud of my first rejection. 🙂
So I have this personal rule about long blogs . . . I try to avoid them. And this is getting long, so I will have to respond to these in batches. No worries, if you asked a question, I’ll link back to your blog (if I have your link) and respond. I promise.