Lori is a fellow ASJA member and single mom battling ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and chronic Lyme disease. She faces the loss of her home to foreclosure within days because she’s too sick to work. She has medical bills totaling more than $50,000, which may ultimately reach $120,000.

She has a seven-year-old son, and prior to the devastating neurological disease that has left her paralyzed and on a breathing machine, wrote over 3,000 published articles. She is 44, and determined to fight this disease with all her strength.

A fundraising drive is on to help her save her house. If everyone donated $25 to help her, it could get done. Click here to learn more. Or send a check to:

Lori Hall Steele
223 W. 7th Street
Traverse City, MI 49684

This is one of those deals where if everyone who could, donated a little, it would become a lot.

I will post the link if Westways puts it up on their website, but if you live in Southern California and you belong to AAA, you’ve received it. My feature on Southern California literary events and festivals is in its pages.

The last Sunday of this month, I hope to see you at the West Hollywood Book Fair. At around 2:00 in the afternoon, I’ll be moderating a panel with literary agents BJ Robbins, Elise Capron and Jenoyne Adams. Please say hi if you come by.

My friend Dennis Palumbo posted this on his blog:

NEW POLITICAL DIAGNOSIS ANNOUNCED!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As a veteran therapist, I’m using this forum to announce the establishment of a new clinical diagnosis: IFP Disorder (Irrational Fear of Palin Disorder).

Since the McCain campaign picked Sarah Palin as their V-P candidate, poll numbers have swung ominously in their favor. The gun-totin’, Bible-thumping, anti-choice, book-burning “hockey mom” is America’s newest sweetheart.

But that’s not the point: what really has amazed me in the past week is the change that has come over my therapy patients. Without fail, they seem oddly uninterested in dealing with their usual issues—relationship conflicts, family concerns, career crises, substance abuse, etc. All they want to talk about is their Fear of Sarah Palin.

Click here to read more.

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If you’ve kept up with reports about Palin, then you know she’s tried to get books banned.

She scares me.

So buy a button that says “I read banned books.” Toni Morrison and Mark Twain are among the most challenged authors. Yup.

Here’s a link for the button. Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Ergh!

Read it here.

I hate being manipulated, but this is what he’s done–or at least what he’s trying to do. McCain chooses a woman running mate and now all the Hillary backers are going to go his way? Puh-lease. That so denigrates women’s intelligence. But hey, Palin’s a macho gal, right? A gal who hunts moose and has a mouth on her has to be a good choice for good ole boys. That denigrates everyone’s intelligence.

And McCain and Palin just met, something like not more than two weeks before? Bizarre.

I liked Obama prior to his speech the other night, but now I love him. He’s sincere, brilliant, and has heart. If you haven’t heard it, please, do so now. Here’s a link. Or read it here. But what you don’t get with the printed version is the sincerity of the man. Obama is awesome. And he writes his own speeches: Imagine!

I didn’t dislike McCain before; I just wasn’t going to vote for him. But now he seems like a major idiot, someone who’s seriously losing his marbles. And should he lose his life while in office, Palin would be president? That’s truly scary. Even my brilliant Republican friends, whom I love, can’t think this is a good idea. Can they?

Ergh. My friend Marrie says truth is stranger than fiction and she is so right. It’s scarier than fiction, too.