Funds for Japan - author update, and ChristChurch

C.E. Grundler has joined up to the #write4japan drive and is generously donating sales from Last Exit in New Jersey , her fast paced, off beat action adventure  - for the month so far as well as the next week. You can swing  by and pay her a visit at http://cegrundler.wordpress.com or follow her on twitter @cegrundler. You can also pick some really interesting info on all things boating related.

The amazingly talented Naomi Clark, author of Demonised, Night & Chaos and Ungrateful Dead is donating all of the income she receives from both Night & Chaos and Ungrateful Dead between now and Sunday 19th March to World Vision to help with aid in Japan. Follow her on twitter @naomi_jay, and swing on over to her site at http://naomijay.blogspot.com . (A coffee alert on both might be in order, Naomi has a frequently evil sense of humour - just what you need to perk you up.)

There are a bunch of other authors out there trying to raise money, awareness of fund raising, or both. Their generosity is humbling, and gives an old cynic like me hope for the future of the human race.

New Zealand Update
Gordon Ryan, author of the Pug series, is raising funds for his home town of Christchurch via e-book sales. Although the New Zealand quake has been overshadowed in the media by the sheer scale of the Japanese disaster, the survivors in Christchurch also need support. Gordon has a number of books out, from political thrillers to historical fiction, so you can really sink your teeth into his writing. He publishes in e-book and tree-book format, so there really is something for everyone. Visit his website at http://www.gordonryan.com

Raising funds for Japan - calling all other Indie authors

The images from Japan are heartbreaking. For all the problems we might have, the majority of us still have homes, clothing, and access to food, water and medical supplies as needed.
Despite being one of the most resilient nations on the planet, Japan is going to need a lot of help over the next couple of months, if not years. Being cash poor, I can't afford to donate money.
What I can do, though, is donate every sale from WolfSong for the next week (maybe longer if I raise some decent funds) to the Red Cross fund.

So that's every cent of author profit from the sale of the e-book (tree version is still way off, I'm afraid), from every site it's on, once the sites have taken their cut. If you're an author and you'd like to join in, please do. It doesn't matter if it's for a couple of hours, days, or the full week - every little bit will help.
Give me a shout in the comments or the join the twitter feed #write4japan.

I'll post the stats and amount raised here next Sunday - let's get the ball rolling a bit.  I'm keeping the price as is, simply because there are a lot of people in the same financial situation - unable to donate the amounts you want to, but able to fork out between under a dollar (0.99c) or pound (0.71p)  a pop.

The links to all the sites are below:

Amazon.uk - £0.71
Amazon.com - $0.99
Smashwords - $0.99
Diesel  e-book store- $0.99
Sony e-book store - $0.99

Strange Days

The last couple of months seem to have been one disaster after another, either natural or man-made.

Egypt rumbled, Libya is going up in flames, Somalia right behind it. Zimbabwe has been sliding into it's own private hell for a couple of years, thanks to the mad man running the show, but started to escalate again this month. These little horror-shows are man-made, and part of what humans have done to each other since we figured out how to walk upright and, oh look, here's a big rock. Let's see what happens if I hit Og on the head with it..

Then we have Mother Nature, apparently suffering from the worst case of PMS in history.
The quake in New Zealand, wild fires in the USA, snow storms that killed dozens -these are just off the top of my head. Now Japan, wounded and bleeding while the rest of us watch in horror.
Lately, it feels like the planet is scratching itself like an itchy dog, and we are the irritant.
 All we can do, if we are lucky enough not to be in the impact zone, is send aid, sympathy and care to the survivors, thank any god we believe in that we are not the ones suffering - and wonder when our turn will come.

It kind of puts the walking suicide known as Charlie Sheen into perspective - although it doesn't say much about us as a species that we've spent a couple of weeks watching someone self-destruct as entertainment.
 I keep wondering what will happen the day that man finally gets it right and over-doses - are we going to have the hysterical finger-pointing that happened after Michael Jackson and Anna Nicole Smith left this world? Because if any charges are made, the entire damn planet is culpable - we are all just following the story on our t.v screens and twitter feeds, giggling at someone who is playing a pretty public game of Russian roulette.