The Lost Children Charity Anthologies: a little about... MaryAnne Kolton

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

a little about... MaryAnne Kolton

MaryAnne Kolton's story "We Sustain" goes to the heart of human need and compassion, and she has promoted and supported this effort tirelessly on Fictionaut and elsewhere.

What inspired your story?

First off, I was hugely inspired by the kindness and generosity of the project itself. Tom and Fiona are very special people. As to the story, I remembered reading an article about Salma Hayek touring Sierra Leone. Most celebs jet off to an impoverished country with their retinues, swan around a bit, pose for some photographs and head home. Not Salma Hayek. She involved herself in an extremely personal and loving way.

What makes this cause important to you?

Anything to do with children, the elderly, animals, anyone, anything helpless and in need touches my heart instantly. The thought of children without food, shelter and love - the basics most of us take for granted - makes me angry and determined.

Tell us a bit about yourself and where to find more of your writing.

I wrote and submitted for a short time in the late eighties and early nineties. Life and all its complications caused me to to put my work aside. I've been married to the writer, James Lloyd Davis for the past six years and he kept prodding me to write again. Now I'm writing full time and wondering how I lived without an outlet for all that creative energy for so many years. Best of all, most of my work is getting published. Stories or poems have been published or are about to be in the Fall and Winter editions of The Toucan Magazine and in the Winter editions of Wilderness House Literary Review, Anatomy, Lost In Thought, Larks Fiction Magazine and Connotations among others. The one I'm most proud of is, of course, my contribution to the Lost Children Charity Anthology.

You can find me at my blog, Echos & Visions at http://maryannekolton.blogspot.com/ , Fictionaut at http://www.fictionaut.com/ and on Facebook.

2 comments:

Fiona JohnsonOctober 25, 2011 at 7:18 PM
MaryAnne - you are just brilliant and I love your enthusiasm and commitment to the project. Many, many thanks.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousOctober 26, 2011 at 8:52 PM
I loved reading this.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

What's the story behind the project?

Protectors:
The Lost Children Charity Anthology was such a success, that Thomas Pluck decided to collect stories from a variety of authors to benefit PROTECT, a lobby whose victories against child abuse include the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008, the Hero to Hero program, and Alicia's Law. He collected 41 stories from all new authors. Thanks to the inspiration of goodhearted people like Fiona Johnson, and the people of PROTECT who fight the abuse and exploitation of our children every day, the book is a reality, and 100% of proceeds benefit PROTECT.

For the first anthology:
The challenge began on Flash Fiction Friday, when author Fiona Johnson was guest writer for the fiction prompt, and asked us to write about the lost children. She asked photographer Danielle Tunstall for permission to use the arresting photo shown in the right sidebar, and said:

Some children are lost before they have even started living. Some children are a throw-away commodity like a burger box that’s left to blow down the street in the wind and rain.

I offered to donate $5 for each story submitted to PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children, and Fiona would donate $5 to Children 1st, a children's charity in Scotland. Together we raised $300 for each of the charities thanks to the generous and creative writing communities of Flash Fiction Friday, Fictionaut, and the crime fiction community on Twitter.

It was such a success that we thought we could go further. Ron Earl Phillips, Fiona and I chose 30 of the best stories to put in a charity anthology, all proceeds of which will go to PROTECT and Children 1st.

100% of royalties donated to two causes:

OUR DONATION RECORD

PROTECT and The National Association to Protect Children (USA)

The National Association to Protect Children is a national, pro-child, anti-crime membership association founded on the belief that our first and most sacred obligation as parents, citizens, and members of the human species is the protection of children from harm.

PROTECT is a bipartisan pro-child, anti-crime lobby whose sole focus is making the protection of children a top political and policy priority at the national, state and local level.

You can read about PROTECT's Victories here.

100% of the proceeds of Protectors, and 50% of the proceeds of Lost Children: A Charity Anthology, are donated to PROTECT.

This is an independently organized event, not officially sponsored by [NAPC/PROTECT]

Children 1st (UK)

Children 1st has 125 years experience of working with children and families, previously as the Royal Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSSPCC). Today, they support families under stress, protect children from harm and neglect, help them to recover from abuse and promote children's rights and interests. You can read more about their work with children here.

50% of proceeds of the Lost Children Charity Anthology go to Children 1st.

This is an independently organized event, not officially sponsored by Children 1st.