It's a Blast!

Forgive me for I have not posted of late.  And by 'late' I mean for about 3 months, so I'm sorry. There - I've said it.

And yes, I'm back here today with a figurative cap in hand to ask for forgiveness.  Because after all, if you can't ask for forgiveness at Christmas-time then when can you? (I feel like I'm badly quoting something from Love, Actually but I can't be bothered to check.)  And before you mention, YES, I DO come bearing gifts but also YES they do come at a price - appalling attempt at making small print amusing.

I'll stop rambling shall I?

You will recall.... and I absolutely insist you will so here's the link:
http://strictlywriting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/self-promotion-guide-to-how-not-to-do-it.html ...that I posted about something I had become involved with called 'Stories for Homes' which was a project conceived by the fabulous Debi Alper and her equally fabulous friend, Sally Swingewood.  And although I have no real proof that these ladies are in any way officially 'fabulous' as they are two of those most elusive of creatures - 'Facebook friends' - I can undeniably state that I have come to realise their proper fabulousness first-hand, once removed (that'd be Facebook again).

Debi and Sally had an idea, spurred on by their own personal experiences, of raising awareness and money for the Homeless charity, Shelter by compiling a book of short stories by published and emerging writers.  

Announcements were made, stories of up to 3,000 words were submitted and the girls set to work sifting through the well over 250 submissions they received, and writers who needed to edit their stories a tad were paired up to (is this called Beta-reading?) help each other with the polishing up of their story.

In three months - 3 months - they had not only come up with the idea, they also had 65 stories, proofreaders, editors, cover designers (*ahem*), e-book formatters and even a promotional video put out for the anthology.

BOOK LAUNCH:
 Friday 13 Dec 6pm at the Bookseller Crow on the Hill, London SE19 3AF.
 ALL WELCOME!

The book went live on Amazon to rave reviews.  It soared up the charts during its first week and has continued to sell well with ALL money going directly to the charity Shelter.

In fact it's done so well, the paperback was published last week.  It's a thing of beauty, it's polished, professional and it's even gone DOWN in price since it's birth last week.  It's now a very lovely £12.44 (reduced from £14.99) which is an amazing price considering there are nearly 600 pages of solid gold stories.  I still haven't finished reading them and each one delivers a different emotion.

The paperback is available from Createspace here: https://www.createspace.com/4489757, from Amazon here and here are the story/discussions and threads for Facebook and Twitter.

I know you can adopt llamas and penguins as gifts, or pay for an elderly chap you've never met to have his Christmas lunch brought to him by elves and reindeer, and they're all very commendable.   But whilst you're considering which one of these you'd like buy this Christmas, don't forget that the purchase of 'Stories for Homes' (mine took only 3 days from Amazon order to letterbox) means you are supporting and donating ALL proceeds to the homeless charity Shelter, you're getting a great read into the bargain AND you're making a fellow writer smile.

It's not often you can give so many gifts with one present.

After all 'tis the season :)