Red Cross Appeal and Authors for the Philippines

With enviable coordination,  writer Keris Stainton has organised a fundraising auction to raise money for the Red Cross Typhoon Haiyan Appeal. She did a similar thing for the Japanese tsunami relief fund in 2011. I have donated a signed copy of The State of Me, and am delighted to see there is a starting bid of £20. If you can, please join in the donations, there are many wonderful writing/book-related items to bid on.  

The State of Me is lot no. 288.  Please scroll down to see and bid.

Questions about browsing lots and bidding answered here.

Thank you.

Update: the auction has raised £55, 124.73!

Tinsel and Heated Rollers

This is the micro story I contributed to Caroline's fundraising ebook in late spring, 100 RPM. Every story had to be one hundred words or fewer:

Tinsel and Heated Rollers
They were going to Alex and Linda’s for Christmas dinner. Donna liked going to their house. It was bigger than hers and they always had coloured tinsel. Thinking about the tinsel made Donna less sad. It stopped her thinking about her mum crying last night. Her mum said 'Silent Night' always gave her hope. Her mum didn’t like coloured tinsel. She thought it was common. Alex and Linda had given her mum heated rollers for Christmas. When you plugged them in, you could smell them heating up and a red dot on the top turned black when they were ready.

Scott liked it.

And time for The Snowman, the glorious Irn Bru advert, just so gallus. These Scottish landmarks really touch you if you know them.

100 RPM - stories inspired by music

100 RPM, a gorgeously designed ebook anthology, is released today, the project of Caroline Smailes,  whose enthusiasm is irrepressible and inspiring.

All money raised goes to One in Four charity, which supports victims of sexual violence.

And an  introduction by Nik Kershaw!

Caroline has explained all on her blog.

There are a hundred stories and every story is one hundred words or less and has been inspired by music on You Tube. The playlist is here.

My own story was inspired by Scottish band Glasvegas' version of 'Silent Night'.

I hope you enjoy the book and pass on the word! I'm off to download my copy.

I'm finding I like microfiction more and more, the possibilities as a writer and the little energy required as a reader. Perfect!

* Review of my story here.

** And thanks to Glasvegas for RTing the anthology.

Authors for Japan Auction

Writer Keris Stainton is arranging an auction to raise funds for the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal. You can bid for signed copies of many authors' books and services. I've offered a signed copy of The State of Me, (#91). Bidding will start on March 15th at 8am and end on Sunday 20th. Please check out the auction tomorrow, lots of wonderful books on offer! Looking at media reports on the tsunami and earthquake, it is almost impossible to absorb the scale of catastrophe.

Free Shipping on Stories for Pakistan

Blurb Books are doing free shipping until 10 December (Friday) so an ideal time to order 50 Stories for Pakistan as a wee stocking filler. We raised £439 for the Red Cross in the first month!

50 Stories as ebook

The fabulous fundraising anthology 50 Stories for Pakistan is now available as an ebook from Smashwords.com. (I wish I could say the same for The State of Me, but it is still not up on Amazon or The Book Depository, though my understanding is the revised ebook was submitted weeks ago. I am told the delay is with the retailer end of things. I had hoped it would be up by Christmas so that all those young modern people out there could read me on their new Kindles, but I fear now this may not happen.)

*Just seen that 50 Stories has made £439 for Red Cross in its first month. This is wonderful news!

Book of the Week!

From Blurberati blog: 50 stories for Pakistan is Book of the Week on Blurb.com

Ya beauty! as we used to say at school when something good happened.

50 Stories for Pakistan

Very happy my short story 'The Bangle Man' will be among the soon-to-be published 50 Stories for Pakistan, a fundraising anthology for victims of the floods. The collection will be published by Greg McQueen's Big Bad Media and all proceeds will go the Red Cross Pakistan Funds Appeal. Is so long since I've written anything new and this is flash fiction - just 500 words - a perfect length from energy p.o.v but you can still say a lot. I'm delighted to be part of such a great project. I could barely watch the most recent Channel 4 report on this catastrophe. One baby - a wee scrap, almost nothing more than his huge brown eyes - suffering from severe malnutrition and the worst strain of malaria. I had to look away.

Pakistan Floods

It's hard to believe such suffering is going on and the international response has been so sluggish.

Oxfam here.

Other links here.