Today is the day…9-9-09.

“In order to hear their voices, we must first raise ours.”

The National Autism Association has started an amazing campaign to ask How Much Longer for Autism? NAA makes it easy to question President Obama, the NIH, the CDC, the AAP, the ACIP, the DoE and simply question America via email.

Take a moment to check it out! I spent a whopping 20 minutes and feel like I have accomplished a great deal today on behalf of my son and the other 1 in 100 kids and families affected by Autism; thank you NAA!

Ethan’s school nurse called last week to let me know that he had been in to see her when he started coughing in PE and kept coughing after. He loves our school nurse and has often had very engaging conversations about health topics with her in the past.

So, when he arrived, he told her–in between coughs–that he thought he was getting “Lord-of-a-Cairus!”

Knowing Ethan, and intuitively the kind of woman who is good with kids, she probably replied, “Really, why do you think so?”

He shared that he was coughing a lot and his voice was scratchy. I’m quite certain that without missing a beat, she told him that it very well could be Laryngitis, so he should probably drink extra water and take it easy. After a couple of cups of water and a hug, she sent him on his way. I appreciated her call later in the afternoon to update me about the situation.

Lord-of-a-Cairus=Laryngitis. Only a wonderfully intuitive school nurse who loves kids would’ve known that!

Since then, Ethan’s Lord-of-a-Cairus has turned into a full-fledged cold with a runny nose and icky cough. Poor guy.

A dear friend and colleague, Chuck Sambuchino, has a lot to celebrate lately with two books [he edited] now available through Writer’s Digest. I am the proud owner of one with the other on its way to me in the mail!

Check them out, my friends:

2010 Guide to Literary Agents  Like most Writer’s Digest Guides, this book is full of useful updated listings but more importantly–in my opinion–has tons of great articles. And, don’t miss Chuck’s Guide to Literary Agents Blog for excellent industry news and advice year-round.

Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript  I’m all about having this for the updated information and insider tips! Like I said, my copy is in the mail… 

Thanks, Chuck, for your dedication to details and your amazing advice for writers everywhere.