I wanted to do something to benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and, after I made a donation on my own, I thought it might be nice to see if I could raise a bit more with your help. So I’ve donated some stuff and created three different eBay Giving Works listings with 100% of the final price going to the Red Cross so they can do some good in that region.

To sweeten the deal, the bidding on every listing starts at lower than the actual retail price so, if you aren’t feeling altruistic, I’m hoping I can at least lure you in if you are feeling thrifty. But, in all seriousness, I really appreciate your bids and I tried to make the listings good stuff. These auctions end early Monday March 21st so please don’t forget to place your bids.

Here’s what I’ve got for you:

• A copy of my She-Ra price guide.
• Signed copies of both my novella, The Author, and my play, The Love of Three Oranges. (As you may recall, Three Oranges was recently purchased by Playscripts, Inc so this is the soon to be collectible original version that I’m offering.)
• Two primo Whine Seller advertising spots for less than the price of a single one. You’ll get 50,000 Banner Impressions in the header (which is, of course, the most prominent spot on the whole site) as well as the banner on the bottom of the site which will run until you hit 250 clicks. The Whine Seller deals with publishing as well as e-commerce so you could advertise your book, freelance, business, blog, podcast, Twitter account… whatever and also get to help me to raise some money.

Click either on any of the links above to bid on these listings. I really appreciate your bids and I hope we can raise a little extra for Japan together!

I have a lot of thoughts I want to blog about but not a huge amount of time so here are some quickies to hold you over. Here they are in gloriously illogical order.

• Really enjoying the Discworld series. Only on book 3 but I may have read them too fast as I totally dreamed about being a wizard last night. Also, I know people say they are the series that J K Rowling ripped off for Harry Potter but, so far, I don’t see any ripping off. That said, I am only 3 books in. I love them, they are hilarious. Comparing them to Douglas Adams isn’t fair because Terry Pratchett is a WAY better storytelling. I love Adams, he is hilarious, but his stories don’t really, you know, make sense. Pratchett is funny AND tells a good story. The first book took some time to get into but from that point on, they are awesome. I love The Luggage. I want to marry him and have little baby handbags.
• I am so loving all this new Muppet content. Please do not stop the glorious tide!
• My husband and I made all our food reservations for our upcoming Disney trip and I am embarrassingly excited about the food. I keep thinking about it at odd hours. 
• I am so glad that Facebook, Twitter et al didn’t exist when I was a teenage. I was able to make a perfectly good fool of myself in public when public wasn’t, you know, the whole planet Earth. 
• Husband and I totally downloaded ABBA: Number Ones last night upon learning they will be the band for the alumni ball at our college this year and listened obsessively. Husband is very excited. He wants to grow, and I quote, “a really bad mustache.”
• I’m trying to make a concerted effort to not say the phrase “I’m stressed.” I apparently say this way too often, according to those close to me. I’m hoping that if I don’t say it, I will, in turn, not actually be stressed. Stay tuned for if this works.
• Would a weekend in Kentucky be fun? The My Little Pony Convention is there this year, not sure if I want to go. Convince me.
• Facebook has made me very territorial about my friends and family. Whenever someone comments on something posted by a close friend or family remember and I don’t know who they are I feel all, “And who the hell are you???!!!” It’s like, they are my people, back off random person. If you were all that close with them, I’d have heard of you by now!
• If they release a color Kindle, I should totally do a Kindle version of The She-Ra Collector’s Inventory. Maybe I should do it now anyway in advance of the inevitable release. Hmmm.

A reader of The She-Ra Collector’s Inventory emailed me today for some help. Here is her email:

Hi I was wondering if you could give me some info to help me authenticate a Spinnerella doll I have bought from ebay. I want to make sure it is the genuine article as I have paid a lot of money for it. . . It is a loose doll with a reproduction outfit. The paint on it all looks very similar to the one in your book but I have noticed it has two holes in the back of the torso. Is it meant to have these? Or could this be another doll that has been painted to look like Spinnerella. I know that Flutterina has a similar torso mold. Or does the torso just have the holes as it has been made from the same mold as Flutterina and this is where the wings would attach. Is the spinning base meant to attach to the holes? I notice in the picture it looks as if it has some round nodules on the base. Can I send you some pics of the doll so you can have a look?

I told her to send along the pictures and I will post them when I get them. Unfortunately, I can’t be of a huge help here because I don’t actually have a loose Spinnerella (the one pictured in the book was taken by another collector) so I can’t check mine. From the description, it sounds like a repro but that is just a gut feeling and not based on looking at the figure.

Do any She-Ra collectors with a loose Spinnerella figure handy want to help out? Photos of the back of your legit Spinnerella, hints about telling a fake from a real one, whatever info you can share on this topic would be much appreciated.