Putting up the Christmas Lites

Looking for some festive reading as the holiday season approaches? Like the warm and fuzzy feeling you get making a donation to charity as well as getting something for yourself? Then I might have something for you. I've been chatting to Jenn from Goodreads.com group Creative Reviews about Christmas Lites, released this week in paperback and e-book. The book has been put together by members of the group and is a collection of short stories.


TC: I recently received an email from an author friend bringing  "Christmas Lites" to my attention. Having been absent from the Goodreads Creative Reviews group for a while I had to confess it had slipped under my radar, so she forwarded me the information about this brilliant charity project. First off, could you tell tell us a bit about what's in the book?


Jenn: I think the better question is, " What isn't in this book?" Lol. Christmas Lites really showcases all the various personalities and likes of all that were involved in this book. 
Santa has a ninja elf, a little boy has been trying to capture him for years, a Gingerbread man on a mission and let's not forget the zombies, werewolves and vampires! But there's also touching stories like Whimper the family dog, A Christmas story and How I found my soulmate. 
In all there are 27 stories. The one thing they all have in common is that they are PG -13. ;)

TC: So how on earth did you manage to get 27 writers together to pull this off and how did the whole idea come about? It sounds like quite a mission!

Jenn: It was quite the Christmas Miracle in October. :) To bring all the writers together, we put up a thread asking anyone and everyone if they wanted to participate to let us know. That got a huge turn out! I also did a blog post and contacted some of my friends whose writing I love and they really came through for us! 

How it all came about, as near as I can recall, Amy Eye had wanted to do something special for the holidays with Creative Reviews. C.S. Splitter chimed in and stated he could write some short stories for a book and show his "softer side". Before we even knew what was happening, we pounced on that idea and ran with it. Many people have helped and donated a lot of time to this wonderful cause but that is how it was born.

TC: It sounds like you must have had plenty of stories to put in then. Have you been able to put the whole book together, edit and publish it using members of the Creative Reviews group? 

Jenn: Yes, thank GOD! Several people were involved in making this book a reality and put a lot of hard work into. Without trying to sound like I'm plugging people, I'd like to acknowledge the hard work of those behind the scenes:

Amy Eye and Vered Eshani were the main editors of the book. 
Tricia Kristufek, Cassie McCown and Alan Zendell were the AWESOME proof readers 
The amazing Dafeenah at www.indiedesignz.com did the gorgeous cover. 
Regina Wamba at www.maeidesign.com designed the Christmas tree glyph. 
C.S. Splitter was gracious enough to do the ebook formatting for Smashwords and finally Eric Shoemaker designed the killer poster. 

Cambria Hebert was very instrumental in helping get this book published and was also responsible for setting it up for Operation Ebook. That is so those that fight for our country can get this book for free. 

Whew! That actually made me a little tired typing all that. 

TC: So all profits are going to charity, can you tell me a bit about the charity that the group has chosen to support?

Jenn: Every single penny that is made on the purchases of this book is going towards the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. (aka NCADV.org) We decided as a group to do it that way as a way of giving something to those in need at what can be the hardest time of the year. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence is an AMAZING organization for those that have found themselves in dire situations with nowhere to turn. 

I could go on forever about all the many things that they do but I'll just highlight the major ones to give you an idea and not to bore anyone. They help with education, finding jobs and placing families in homes that have been victims of domestic violence. They also have a program where they provide free plastic surgery to those that have survived extremely dangerous situations. NCADV is also trying to bring awareness to the rising numbers of those affected by domestic violence and are constantly trying to change laws to protect the victims. 
They are truly a wonderful organization and we are very proud to be able to help them out however we can. 

TC: Congratulations to everyone involved on pulling it off! For anyone who hasn't heard of Operation Ebook please tell us a little bit about it. 

Jenn: Operation Ebook is something authors can do to give back to those who fight for this country. More often than not, our troops are overlooked all the time. The pay isn't that great and they are risking their lives on a daily basis so that we can have our freedom. It's a great cause. What Cambria did was get a list of all those deployed and interested in getting free reads. Cambria then sends out a bulk email to everyone on the list, providing them with a free book via coupon. 

TC: Jenn, this is a great collaboration that I hope will make a lot of money for NCADV & bring some festive cheer to members of the armed forces serving abroad. Thank you for your time.

At present you can buy your copy as follows:

https://www.createspace.com/3727894  the print version direct from Createspace with a higher sum going to charity than through other purchases

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Lites-Cr... the print version from Amazon

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/104...Currently, the only place to buy it in Ebook format is via smashwords which will let you select the file that is compatible for your ereader. 

It should be even more widely available (eg via Amazon.co.uk) soon

And now for something completely different...

I don't often blog about non-book related things, but the idea of micro-volunteering has been rattling around in my brain for a few days now so I thought I'd share. It's a concept I only came across at the weekend, courtesy of charity The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds on their blog. They are trying to encourage supporters who don't have the time to give up whole days, or the cash to make donations, to do small things that don't take much effort but when multiplied can make a real difference. The post that has inspired me is right here. Great idea, right?

So, looking at their list I'm off to a flying start. For years we collected stamps which got passed on to a friend who passed them on somewhere else, where they eventually made money for a charity. This ingrained the habit of ripping stamps off of envelopes so I have a small stack in a drawer, and now I know what to do with them! I'm already pretty good at the climate change things, and do as much recycling as I practically can. However, how many of us have a stash of old mobile phones, showcasing the development from house brick to teeny tiny smartphone with it's all singing all dancing features? I'm guilty as charged, and have been meaning to finally have a clear out. Now I'm feeling motivated and know I can support one of my fave charities at the same time it may actually happen.

Looking a bit further into it online there are masses of ideas for pajama participation, on sites like this; things like using certain search engines that donate to charity, or clicking on site that will give to charity using money raised from advertising, to different ways of helping save the planet. I'm definitely going to look into more things that can be done easily from home, and hope one or two others might look into the idea and decide to join.

And my next good deed? At the moment I'm selling raffle tickets for the National Deaf Children's Society. They're not a well known charity like some I could mention but they do wonderful work, experienced by my family firsthand. So far friends and family are being remarkably generous, so hopefully we'll help contribute a decent amount to the total.

I'd love to hear from anyone else who is already in the know, especially if you can give me some great ideas!

Cash, not Cards

Every year my Christmas card list grows longer and longer, and it now involves boxes and boxes of cards, hours to write them and military style planning to ensure we don't miss anyone who'd be offended because someone else did get one. That's why I love Cash for Cards and am going back to the idea this Christmas.

A couple of years ago a colleague introduced the concept at work, the idea being that instead of sending cards you pass on the message in another way (online, or if everyone is in one place by providing somewhere everyone can write festive messages) and you donate the money you would have spent on cards and postage to charity instead. Last year we would have done the same but had so many Baby's 1st Christmas cards we felt we had to send them.

It's a great idea, saves time, fits with the environmental Reduce, Reuse, Recycle thing and is more in the spirit of Christmas, to me anyway. This year we'll be donating to the National Deaf Children's Society - http://www.ndcs.org.uk/ They aren't well known but do a fantastic job and provide amazing support to families with deaf children.

Now I'm going to use all that time I've saved to do something fun with Monkey, and will use this as an opportunity to start saying Merry Christmas and Happy 2011 everyone!