Feeling Helpless About Tsunami Victims? Here's an Easy Way Writers Can Make a Difference

I can't look away. When I see one of the tsunami videos and I watch houses and cars sucked away, all I can imagine is the people trapped inside. One image that stays with me is a white mini-van, nose tipped down as it's pulled into the swirling waters of a river, its rear wiper waving ineffectually.

The rear wiper won't operate unless someone is in the car.

 Here on the other side of the world, life seems unnaturally normal. It feels unfair, when in Japan, whole towns have been washed away, and the anticipation of any kind of normal is years, even decades away.

Thanks to fellow blogger, Stacy S. Jensen, I've discovered a site specifically for writers to donate to disaster victims. It's called Writers for the Red Cross. When you donate through the site, writers receive a variety of goodies, like books and tote bags.

On the site, writers can bid on auctions for critiques, phone consults with authors and agents, and even marketing tools. Each week brings a new batch of bidding items. At the top of the page, you'll find links to view all the donated items from each week. There are three weeks worth of donated items left.

Things like:

-a critique or book basket from agent Jennifer Laughran (more about her here)

-a professional blog design

-for self-publishing authors, an interior design and layout of your book, or a book cover design

-manuscript, query letter, and proposal critiques by published authors, agents, and editors

-phone consultations with publicity and marketing professionals

If you'd rather not participate in an auction, for every $25 you donate, you can pick a free book from a huge list, both fiction and nonfiction. Or, if there are some books you've planned to buy anyway, click on the Bookstore Link to go to your favorite online store, and 5% of your purchase price will go to the Red Cross.

Head over to the Writers for the Red Cross right now.

What could be better? Helping others and more books?