Please take action–it will take you just a few minutes to make phone calls/send emails: Tell President Bush and Governor Blanco that Animals Need Their Help

Other ways to help:

Donate to the Humane Society of the US

Donate to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary (on a personal note, I cannot say enough good things about Best Friends. Located in Kanab, UT, they are the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the country–and maybe the world? Allen and I visited them four years ago and were blown away by the compassion they show animals in need).

The Proof of God, by Mike Finley.

Also, please do not forget to order you copy of Bob Arter’s The Gladrag Razzmatazz–there are only a few left and you won’t want to miss out.

A wonderful new friend of mine delighted me today. In the mail I got a card from Cook Children’s Medical Center letting me know that he had made a donation to them in my honor. He tells me that this hospital has been taking in transferees from New Orleans and that no child is turned away (regardless of ability to pay).

I am deeply moved and honored by this wonderful, generous act.

Thank you, Dirk. You are not only an amazingly talented writer, you are a true gentleman!

If you read nothing else today, please do take the time to read the amazing new issue of Smokelong Quaterly, guest edited by the wonderful Joseph Young and featuring the work of such talented writers as: Nance Knauer, Jeff Landon,
Bob Arter, Suzanne Lafetra, Tom Saunders, Antonios Maltezos, Astrid Schott and many others.

What a great issue. Go on and read it!

Cranky will host a reading from its sixth issue on Saturday, October 1 at the Miller Community Center (330 19th Ave E, on Capitol Hill). Issue six includes an interview with the poet Olena Kalytiak Davis, who will be flying down from Anchorage to join us. Visiting from New York is poet Matthew Zapruder (the issue five interview). Local contributors reading include J.W. Marshall and Anna Maria Hong. The evening starts with a reception at 6:30 p.m., followed by the reading at 7:15. Admission is $3 or the price of a Cranky ($8).

Well lookee here! The finalists for the Night Train 50/50 Firebox Fiction Competition have been listed and I’m absolutely delighted to see that I am one of them along with my truly deserving writerly pals, Kathy Fish, Steven Gullion, and Roy Kesey. How cool! Congratulations to all of the finalists.

We follow Ann Ransom, the beguiling, brilliant, and loveable heroine of Elizabeth McKenzie’s novel in stories, Stop That Girl, from her early childhood alone with her mother to her adulthood, where we leave her alone with her son, which for Ann is the perfect way to be:

If our tribe had been driven off the earth, if Will and I were the only ones left, then we’d eventually have to learn the customs of those around us. Of course. We were cooperative, reasonable types. But would there be any reason to rush?

The strength of this book lies in Ann–that we believe in her, hope for her future, and, ultimately, that we fall in love with her. She is not perfect–far from it. Even as a child she acts out and behaves in a way that we might otherwise feel inappropriate, and yet there is something so winning in her manner that you can’t help but feel everything she does is the right thing.

Some readers might find holes in time between stories, but I found that the author handled the transitions deftly and left us with just the information we needed. Not too much, just enough. All in all, a truly enjoyable read.

New at Pindeldyboz–a story by one of my favorite, favorite writers: Monks by Joseph Young.

I command you: read it!

It was a perfect day when we traveled to Acadia. I had never been before, so it was a real treat.

Here is:

Rocks and the ocean at Thunder Hole.

Bar Harbor from the top of Cadillac Mountain.

More lichen on the rocks atop Cadillac Mountain.

Was up in Maine this weekend and took a trip to Acadia National Park.
Here are some snaps of me and my dog at Thunder Hole and then some lichen on a rock atop Cadillac Mountain. More photos to follow.

I’m out of town for the next few days. These flowers are from my garden. They are among the last few lingering as the leaves begin to fall and the nights get longer and chillier.

That’s what I’m talking about–George Bush, David Caruso, and Katrina: Why Now Is Precisely the Time for Finger-Pointing:

And make no mistake, what we saw go down — and not go down — in New Orleans was definitely a crime… a crime that is in many ways still in progress. Sixty percent of the city remains underwater; up to 160,000 homes in the state of Louisiana have been submerged or destroyed; 60 to 90 million tons of solid waste need to be cleaned up; experts warn that it make take “years” to fully restore clean drinking water; and an outbreak of vibrio vulnificus — a cholera-like bacterial disease — has been reported among some Katrina evacuees.

This is clearly going to be a very long recovery process. And the sooner we’ve identified those responsible for the Katrina tragedy, the sooner we can make sure they’re not around to screw up the recovery.

So, yes, now is precisely the time for assessing blame. Let a thousand pointed fingers bloom!

Go, Arianna, go!!