Stories for Pakistan - Submit Yours Now

That amazing man, Greg McQueen, who, when the rest of us were sitting and watching, horrified, at pictures of the earthquake in Haiti, got up out of his chair and actually did something, raising £4000 for the Red Cross with 100 Stories for Haiti, is at it again. In his own words:

Once again I find myself unable to keep ignoring the need to do something. This time it is Pakistan … The United Nations estimates that twenty million people have lost their homes as a result of the flooding that started last July. Add to this the thousands who have already lost their lives, and the thousands who will lose their lives because of famine and disease … And well, it is once again time to do something!

100 Stories for Haiti has raised about £4000 for the Red Cross Haiti Earthquake Appeal. I am honoured and proud of the effort put in by writers and readers in supporting the project … So, let’s do it again!

Stories for Pakistan.

Let’s put together a book of 50 stories, each no more than 500 words in length. Any subject or genre is acceptable, however, no stories with any violence, death, or mass destruction.
Let me repeat that and add some extra rules just to be clear … Blimey! Anyone would think I’d done this before!

• 500 WORDS MAXIMUM.
• ANY SUBJECT OR GENRE.
• NO STORIES WITH ANY VIOLENCE, DEATH, OR DESTRUCTION.
• NO MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS.
• NO EMAIL ATTACHMENTS!

Please cut & paste your story into the body of an email, include your name, postal address, email address, and (if you have one) website. Include a short bio if you have one. Short, as in, one or two paragraphs.

ANY SUBMISSIONS FAILING TO FOLLOW THESE SIMPLE RULES WILL BE INSTANTLY REJECTED.

Please send your stories to storiesforpakistan@gmail.com
Stories for Pakistan will go out as an ebook and paperback published by Big Bad Media. We will also look to producing an audiobook version, as well as a version packaged as an iPhone app.
Proceeds will go to the Red Cross Pakistan Floods Appeal.

I am just about to send something in, why don't you do that too? Thank you, Greg, for once again rousing us to action!

Audiobook of 100 Stories for Haiti, and I have a revelation

Wonderful news! The fabulous fundraising 100 Stories for Haiti is now available as an audiobook, with 20 selected stories, including Mugs. Another way to support the Red Cross' work in Haiti - and be highly entertained at the same time. Get it on Audible.co.uk, Audible.com or iTunes. I can't wait to listen to it.

In other news, I had a revelation last night. I was having a quiet night by myself, contemplating my writer-in-residence position, which I am very much enjoying, but which right now lacks any sort of structure or set project. And suddenly something presented itself as a solution... so now I think I can say I am working on a new book! I am not going to go into details right now, because I am a little nervous that if I talk about it in public it may dissolve or sound ridiculous. But I am pretty excited because it's not just more short stories, it is something that is a new intellectual challenge for me, and something I think  - I hope - is fairly innovative. Anyway, I might reveal more in due course, but I feel relieved to have found myself a framework within which to carry out this residency and some kind of end product to work towards.Phew!

Let's hope I don't wake up tomorrow thinking it's all a terrible mistake.This is all new to me, this first flush of excitement - I've never experienced this before, I had no idea when I was writing the stories in The White Road that they might be a collection. I've never consciously worked on anything book-length from the start.

It seems to be similar to something I read over on Nik Perring's blog the other day. He interviews the wonderful Nicola Morgan, author of 90 - yes, ninety! - books, whose latest Wasted, is published on Monday. This is how she describes it when an idea comes to her:

First comes the idea for a new novel. Fabulous! (Literally, one might say). It hits me on the tongue like sherbet. If I’m in a supermarket, I will stop mid-aisle. Walking the dog, I’m likely to ignore the worst canine behaviour. At this point, I’m thinking, “Yesss! Why didn’t I think of this before?” Next, I fluctuate between excitement and a more prosaic, “Hmm, but such-and-such might be a problem later.” But over the following days, as the characters grow in my head, excitement mounts and doubts fade. I am about to start to write.

A lovely way to describe it, excitement mixed with doubt. Nicola then says it's

"damned terrifying because it’s the start of a long and unknown journey. When I sat down to write the first page of Sleepwalking, my third novel, I actually said aloud, “Oh God, here we go,” taking a huge breath to summon the strength. Many blank pages stretch ahead, and they won’t fill themselves." 

Yes. Exactly. Not, I want to stress, that I am working on a novel. No, definitely not. But I can imagine it being book-length, and possibly rather undefinable. Almost definitely completely uncommercial! But that actually makes it easier to contemplate. The thought that no-one will ever publish it, that I am doing it for me, makes it far easier to jump off this cliff. I hope!

Two highly worthwhile writing-related endeavours - deadline 25th Jan!

I am in awe of people who don't just talk but DO. Greg McQueen and Frank Hinton are two of these people. Greg McQueen is rousing writers to help the people of Haiti through "100 Stories for Haiti":

... a collection of short stories sold to raise money for relief efforts in disaster-striken Haiti. All proceeds go to the Red Cross.

The deadline for submitting your short story is tomorrow, Jan 25th. What Greg wants:

• Do not exceed 1,000 words.
• No stories containing graphic violence, death or destruction.
• We want stories with a lot of HEART, a dash of COMPASSION, and unmeasurable amounts of HOPE. Stories that anyone can read. Stories that leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. Stories that make you smile at strangers. Stories that … Okay, you get the idea.

 Read the full guidelines and send something to this fantastic project. 
Frank, editor of the excellent Metazen, gathered pieces of writing for his Metazen Charity Christmas Book and asked for donations which went to the Sun­rise Children’s Vil­lage Orphan­age in Siam Reap, Cam­bo­dia. As he said:

Authors can be so selfish. We sit and we write, pour things onto paper hop­ing to evoke, mull around in our minds and manip­u­late the lives of non-existent people. I would like to manip­u­late the life of a real per­son, in a pos­i­tive way.

And this he most certainly did. You can still donate - and read the Charity Christmas Book, which contains my story, Come Back Tomorrow, here.


Thank goodness for people like Frank and Greg. Thank you, Frank and Greg, for giving us the opportunity to do something.