'Tis the season

to do something fantastic for yourself by doing a little bit for someone else.

All the authors of Murder New York Style were saddened by the death of Samuel A. Glenn, father of our dedicated publisher, Linda Houle, of L&L Dreamspell.

With Linda’s obvious love of books and reading, the authors decided to make a donation in Mr. Glenn’s name to Reader to Reader.

According to the mission statement, “Reader To Reader, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to bringing books, free of charge, to needy school libraries across the United States.” Organized in 2002, Reader to Reader also supplied more than one million books to libraries in the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. I first heard of the organization when Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine ran a special Katrina relief issue and displayed a full page ad for Reader to Reader. I called David Mazor, the executive director, and he cheerfully explained that the organization accepts and ships all usable donations: books, videos, CDs, anything that a library normally supplies.

David reminded me that cash always makes the perfect donation! With that in mind, if you are in the mood to write a “gee, this makes me feel just great” check, here is the mailing address:

Reader To Reader, Inc. c/o Cadigan Center 38 Woodside Avenue Amherst, MA 01002

Okay, so you want to write a check, but you need some great holiday gifts in return for your outlay. Laura had your answer in a recent blog a few weeks back when she suggested you run right out and purchase a few copies of Carols and Crimes, Gifts and Grifters. This project of Wolfmont Publishing is edited by Tony Burton and all proceeds are going directly to the Toys For Tots program.

Several of our good friends have contributed stories to this very entertaining anthology, including Deborah Elliott-Upton, who blogs every Thursday on Criminal Brief and Chris Grabenstein, who, I can personally attest, allows himself to be accosted by strange women at MWA meetings and becomes fast friends while freely dispensing advice about the struggles of writing.

In case the helping hand you are stretching out is empty, I mentioned in a recent post that you can polish your vocabulary and help feed the hungry at the same tie by playing a very addictive game at the FreeRice website.

As a mother and a grandmother, I have great admiration for a woman named Frankie Mayo. I first saw her on television shortly after her son was deployed to Iraq. She was horrified that we sent so many of our children into a desert war and quartered them in housing without air conditioning. In true mom fashion Frankie decided to do something about it, so she founded Operation AC. She hooked up with a major hardware outlet and overcame the Army’s “sorry, but regular air conditioning units don’t comply with our electrical supply” nonsense. Frankie’s son and daughter-in-law both came home safely in 2004. But as the war drags on, so does Frankie’s resolve. For the last several years, she has been collecting money for fully decorated Christmas trees, complete with lights to be distributed to members of the Armed Forces around the world. I am sure she could use your help.

Just a quick shout out to the people I regularly visit on blogs and message boards: I am presently at my daughter's house in Florida, having a grand old time with two of my grandchildren. I have peeked in on you but have very little time to post or comment.I'll be back home soon and will catch up with you then.

A special note to the Bag Lady: These grandchildren loved the candy that you sent for them from Canada just as much as the New York grandkids did and just as much as grandma loves her CartSmart Bag.

Terrie