Our thoughts, our prayers, and now our books...

The Playfriends -- along with the rest of the world -- are sending our thoughts and prayers down under as Australia deals with the bushfires that have taken such a horrific toll on people, animals, and property.

Whenever tragedy strikes, we need stories of hope and survival to counteract the loss.

For many, the story was the koala named Sam:

But you know where else you can find stories of hope and survival?

Yep. In books. Me, I'm partial to romance to help escape bad news and find a little rest for my brain when it's about to overload. But any book will do.

So I'm very happy to announce that the *other* RWA -- Romance Writers of Australia -- is organizing a book drive to serve the communities destroyed by fire.


Now, granted, books aren't the first and foremost need right this very second. If you want to help feed and shelter people who have lost their homes, the Australian Red Cross will take your donation online and put your money to work. The Australian RSPCA will also take online donations to help care for the animals who were injured and displaced by the fires.

But we're all readers here, and we know there are plenty of people who could use an escape from the reality of the situation by losing themselves in a book. Plenty of people who want to curl up with their children and just read to them. But with libraries destroyed and purchasing books low on anyone's list of priorities, there's only one good way to get books back into the hands of the people.

And that's a book drive.

So hurrah to the RWA for stepping in. They're collecting new and like-new books -- romance (of course), children's, all genre fiction ... anything, basically. RWA will collect, sort and box up the books, and see that they're delivered to community/neighborhood centers and libraries where they're needed. (Feel free to include a note, or, if you wrote the book, sign it!)

Mail your books to:

RWA Bushfire Book Appeal
c/-89 Rennie St.
Thornbury, VIC 3071
AUSTRALIA


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And here's a Valentine treat for everyone: Harlequin is celebrating its 60th birthday this year, and they're giving away ebooks to celebrate -- 16 ebooks! Just visit www.harlequincelebrates.com and click on the titles you want. They'll download immediately.

Yes, even the Problem Child is blogging about this...

We try to keep politics off the Playground. First of all, we're not a political blog, and SP's undergraduate degree aside, we don't really have anything besides our own personal opinions to go by. And since the five of us don't always see eye-to-eye on politics, there's no way we'd presume to preach anything to anyone else.

That said, being scheduled to blog on what is definitely a political day with historical significance presents me with a quandary. Do I keep all politics away from the Playground and blog about the frantic housecleaning I'm doing (a guest known for her high standards is coming to dinner)? Isn't that a bit like ignoring the giant elephant in the living room? But it would give everyone a break from the wall-to-wall coverage on every TV station in the world, so y'all might like that. Or maybe y'all would think I'm copping out by pretending what's happening in DC doesn't reach to our swing set.

It's a quandary, I tell ya. One I've struggled with all day, and I've started and deleted many possible topics. While what follows is a huge departure from what y'all have probably come to expect from me on this blog, it's something I really want to say.

In fourth grade, I was bussed 45-minutes across town in an attempt to bring a Louisiana school into line with integration requirements. I was the only white child in my class, and one of only a dozen overall in the school. I went to junior and senior high in downtown Birmingham, just a stone's throw from Kelly Ingram Park (where Bull Conner turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators) and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. I was hired by United Negro College Fund during their fundraiser one year, and I taught at a Historically Black College. I know how those experiences make me feel about what's happening in DC today.

I can't imagine what it feels like for my former classmates, the people who marched in Kelly Ingram Park, or my former students.

As a Southerner, I'm used to people thinking I'm a racist as soon as they hear my accent or ask me my hometown. Three weeks ago, as I sat next to my grandmother's grave for her funeral, I sat in the shadow of a huge Klan cross – the family in the plot across from ours were proud members of the Klan, and since the cross was installed in the 40s, it's considered historical and there's nothing we can do about it. But I can honestly say my daughter had no idea what it meant, and that gave me a small smile of satisfaction on an otherwise horrible day.

I'm not naive – I know that racism still exists, but today gives muscle to what was, until now, a phrase that got a lot of lip service: All men are created equal. I might not know your politics, but I'm assuming all of our Playfriends believe in the inherent equality of people – regardless of the color of their skin, the god they worship, or their possession of a Y chromosome.

To me, that's what today means. And that, more than anything, is what gives me hope for the future.

They estimate 3 out of 4 Americans will be watching the inaguration today. Are you one of them? It's a lot of pomp and circumstance, but I'm a sucker for a parade...

PC

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The Playfriends have donated a basket to the Gamble on Love auction to help a homeless teen and her mom get back on thier feet. (There is a lot of other great stuff to bid on as well.) Be sure to check it out!

We are here! Where are you?

Horton Hears a Who! was written by Dr. Seuss in 1954. And if you think the Whos sound familiar, they made an encore appearance in his 1957 book How the Grinch Stole Christmas (though they seem to have grown a bit in three years).


The book is about Horton the Elephant who hears a speck of dust talking to him. The speck is actually a tiny planet that's home to a city called Who-ville. Horton can't actually see the Whos, but he can hear them. They ask Horton to protect them and in doing so, he is ridiculed by other animals for believing in something they can't see or hear.

Horton finally tells the Whos they need to make themselves heard or they'll end up in the stew pot. So they gather all the members of Who-ville to yell "We are here! We are here!" as loudly as they can.

My town won a special pre-release screening of this movie last week. Our mayor, 300 soldiers and a crowd of children and adults, many wearing Horton ears, gathered outside our civic center to yell "We are here! We are here!" for a minute. Sound levels were recorded and in the end, we beat out eleven other cities to win the special screening of the movie.

Neat, huh?

Well, there's something that we at the Playground can't hear. On Thursday, March 13, we had 340 hits on the blog, but only 8 comments. Three of those were from the other Playfriends and Problem Child would have commented had she not been in the wilds of Scotland and away from high-speed internet access.

We know you're out there. This picture shows it. But we can't hear you. Yesterday you came from the US and Canada, the UK, Germany and Austria (not to be confused with Australia, where we also have lurkers), Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovakia, Israel, New Zealand, the Russian Federation, Bulgaria, Serbia & Montenegro and Japan. Heck, you even came to visit on Sunday.




You need to yell "We are here!" so we can be sure you're really there.

Give us a shout in the comments section and two lucky shouters will be selected to win some Easter chocolate. Tell us who you are and how you found us (did we blow in on a breeze like Horton's speck of dust?). Tell us about where you're from. What is its claim to fame? Invite a friend and shout in stereo with them.

Go ahead and shout!