Today is Earth Day, the day we should be thinking about our planet and what we do as individuals and as a collective to preserve it.

I haven’t always been the type of consumer to recycle or think about what I can do personally to preserve and protect our planet’s natural resources. But I do now. Global warming is a fact that we can’t ignore, and we have to do whatever we can to minimize its effects.

You may think one person can’t make a difference, but even small things can have a large impact. Here’s a few:

1) Wash your laundry in cold water. I was one of those people who thought all whites and sheets and towels just had to be washed in hot water to kill germs and make them clean. Um no. I use cold water for all my laundry now, and just use a nonchlorine bleaching product in the wash. My whites are white as can be and my towels smell fresh.

2) Use recyclable bags at the grocery store. You can buy them cheaply and you won’t have guilt over stuffing a landfill with plastic and paper. And hey, if you’ve been to a ton of romance conferences like I have, you have a billion canvas bags. They’re great for groceries. :giggle:

3) Keep your vehicle maintained. If you have to drive, proper maintenance such as replacing air filters, regular changing of the oil, doing tune ups and maintaining accurate tire pressure improves the fuel economy of your vehicle and and saves your environment. No, really, it does.

4) Recycle, recycle, recycle. It’s simple to find out where your local recycling center is, and then buy a couple big plastic trash cans and start saving your cans and plastic bottles and paper. You’d be amazed what is a renewable resource. The less we toss in the landfill, the better for our planet.

And finally, ebooks! There are so many books available as ebooks now, including mainstream books. So why not invest in a great ebook reader, and think about going paperless? Think about all those awesome trees you’re preserving?

All of my books are available as ebooks via either my publishers like Samhain Publishing and Ellora’s Cave, or via sites like Amazon Kindle or Fictionwise , Sony or Books On Board. Even Random House which publishes my Demon Hunter series has my books available as ebooks. There’s no excuse not to go paperless. Do it for your environment.

And Happy Earth Day! Go plant a tree today.

I came down with this chest cold that turned into wicked bronchitis. Went to the doc yesterday and he loaded me down with antibiotics and rockin awesome cough medicine to help me sleep at night. Yay for drugs! :giggle:

The short of this is I haven’t been able to get to the post office, so massive apologies to prize winners I owe prizes to. I’ll get there, hopefully next week. Prizes are coming, promise! Bear with me while I get over this crud and try to make deadline on a book at the same time.

Hope y’all are enjoying your weekend!