The giveaway winners are Jon, for THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING, and Mari, for A THREAD OF SKY. I’ll contact you shortly for mailing addresses. Thanks to everyone who entered, and congrats to Jon and Mari!

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I’ve been in a romance mood lately. Maybe because when I was back in Houston a couple weeks ago, I reread a bunch of my favorite Nora Roberts books. Maybe because I’m in the middle of some intense action/fight scenes in my own manuscript, so I’m looking for a contrast. Or maybe because my Hollywood boyfriend Michael Fassbender has a new movie out today, and he looks/sounds positively scrumptious in it!

(I’m trying to convince my real life boyfriend to go see the movie with me. He says it depends on the Rotten Tomatoes score.)

Whatever the reason, I’ve been looking for some good, tingle-inducing love stories to read. I picked up PERFECT CHEMISTRY by Simone Elkeles a couple days ago, since Amazon had it on sale as part of their “Sunshine Deals” for Kindle. I’ve also got a Lurlene McDaniel book that I won in a giveaway, and though the cover looks like a super-cheesy adult Romance title, it’s actually about a teenage girl with a brain tumor. (Who falls in love with a fellow patient, so it still fits the bill.)

Do y’all have any other recommendations for a good love story? Something sweeping and powerful. Something that should be made into a movie starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling. Something that will make me hit Andy on the shoulder and say, “Why can’t you be more like {insert name of the hero here}?”

I don’t recall when exactly, whether it was before or after we arrived in the Galapagos, but I remember asking Andy how weird he thought it would be if something major happened while we were on vacation. Like Americans who were abroad during September 11th. How disconnected and helpless they must have felt. How clueless we would be without phone or email.

After a quick discussion, I’m sure neither of us gave it much thought — until the early morning hours of our fifth day. Andy woke me up saying, “There’s been a massive earthquake in Japan, and now we’re under a tsunami warning.”

The National Park Service forbid anyone from going ashore and evacuated everyone already on land to higher grounds. Our entire day of activities was canceled, and we moved out to deep, open waters to wait out The Wave. For hours we were glued to the ship’s staticky TV, trying to translate reports from Japanese to Spanish to English. But understanding didn’t require words. The images were devastating, and getting worse every minute. Eventually we changed the station, left the room, tried to think about something else.

Since then, Japan has been hit with two more earthquakes, not to mention all the aftershocks, flooding, nuclear troubles, and more. Thousands are dead; thousands more homeless, penniless, starving. The only thing more amazing than the destruction they have suffered is the outpouring of support they have received.

In December, with the help of readers and friends who spread the word, TWENTY-SOMEWHERE and “The Eraser” raised over $100 worth of proceeds for the It Gets Better Foundation. Now in April, I’m donating all proceeds to the Red Cross relief efforts for Japan. Hopefully we can raise as much if not more.

(Note: The stories have nothing to do with Japan, but as of right now they’re the only revenue stream I’ve got.)

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My absolute favorite thing about the online writing community is their generosity. Whether helping to critique a query letter, or just reaching out to offer support during a difficult time, I’ve been astounded by how caring everyone is. So I’d also like to recognize a few other fundraising efforts for Japan, all of which have root in the writing community.

Current (as of this posting):

• Pirene’s Fountain is planning to sponsor an anthology of poems, flash fiction, essays, etc. about what is going on in Japan. Interested submitters can make a statement, show love and support, speak about Japan’s importance to the world, its culture, loss, recovery, whatever they wish. Paste in body of email to pirenepublisher (at) gmail.com, along with an idea for a title and brief bio. Deadline: November 1, 2011. Any/all proceeds will go toward relief efforts.
• KidLit4Japan is a children’s and YA literature auction to benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. This is the final week!!
• The 2:46 Quakebook project started with a tweet. Now it’s a rich collection of essays, artwork and photographs submitted by indivdiuals around the world, including people who endured the disaster and journalists who covered it. Sales from their cover poster alone have reached over $15,000. The book is available on Amazon.
• Added 4/19: Author Barbara G. Tarn is giving 100% of her earnings on Barb & Masayo’s Stories to the Japanese illustrator she collaborated with.
• Added 4/19: Stories for Sendai is accepting submissions for their anthology to benefit Japan. They are looking for works that show the strength of the human spirit. Deadline is May 15th.

Closed (as of this posting):

• YA powerhouse Maureen Johnson put together an amazing raffle of signed books and other prizes, and in less than a day she raised over $6000 for Shelterboxes for Japan.
• Authors for Japan auctioned close to 200 items and raised around $20,000.
• Ditto Genre for Japan.
• Writers for the Red Cross surpassed the $30,000 mark, and included several of my fellow Writer Unboxed contributors.

Les wrote a lovely post on Japan and listed some more relief efforts there. So did Amanda. I’m sure there are many more writers and bloggers who want to help — and please, if you know of any or are doing so yourself, let me know! I would be happy to add to the list.

My humble contribution pales in comparison to some of these efforts, but I believe that every bit counts. I’m sure the people of Japan do, as well.

Hey, look who came home with me!

Please ignore the crazy back-from-vacation hair, and be thankful that you can’t see the even crazier recovering-from-heat-rash skin.

Our week in the Galapagos was most certainly an adventure, and I’ll tell you all about it in the next couple blog posts. About 1500 pictures and videos are currently transferring from my camera to my laptop, and I can’t wait to show you some. You know, after I catch up on all the laundry and ice cold beverages and puppy cuddles.

The short version is: we had an amazing time. (We swam with mother-effing penguins, y’all!) Yes, the tsunami affected us, but not too badly. (My heart absolutely breaks for Japan.) My Spanish is serviceable, but rusty like whoa. Andy and I learned that we are not built for extreme heat and humidity. And sometimes coming home is as wonderful as leaving, without taking anything away from the incredible experiences we enjoyed.

Better known as… the Galapagos Islands! (I.e., where Darwin developed his theory of evolution.) And barring any crazy/awful mishaps, that’s where Andy and I are right now.

This vacation has been a dream of Andy’s for a long time. We planned this way before I decided to write full-time, so while it’s a little weird to go on such an amazing trip just 1 month after “starting my new job”… ah well! That’s life, I’m just rolling with it.

(We try to take 1 international and 1 domestic vacation every year anyway. Just the two of us. For mental health and broader horizons, you know? Oh, and for plain old fun. That’s reason enough in my book.)

If you’re curious, this is a video of the ship we’ll be living on for a week, along with some highlights of the excusions.

Neither of us are particularly strong swimmers, but we’re both looking forward to the snorkeling. Supposedly sea lions will just come right up to you, and the little ones might even nibble your toes!

Andy’s greatest wish is to see a real live sea turtle, and an Orca if possible. My greatest wish is to bring back a blue-footed booby. Think I can sneak one past the TSA? I mean, there’s no liquid involved…

• The humidity makes it very difficult to stay smelling fresh.
• 7-lane freeways rule.
• Real traffic sucks.
• “Y’all” is not a weird thing to say.
• All those songs I loved in high school? Yeah, they’re still awesome. (I swear, one of the radio stations here is stuck in a time warp.)

I’m back home for my friend Mary’s wedding, and I’ve had the good fortune to get to see a few other friends as well. (Ding and Aisha I was expecting, but Julia was a pleasant surprise!) Not to mention time with my family. The front end of the trip has been busy — the good kind! — but after the marital festivities tomorrow, things should calm down. I’m looking forward to writing, watching the Oscars, and more yoga with my mom.

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Unrelated: This is super mushy, but it’s also well-written, and almost exactly how I feel after 5 years with Andy.