The Lost Children Charity Anthologies: The Lost Boys of Sudan

Monday, October 31, 2011

The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology now available

Available for $2.99 in e-book form, for:

iPad in the Apple iBookstore
Amazon Kindle (read it on your computer with Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader, or on your phone with the Amazon Kindle App)
Nook at Barnes & Noble

Kobo, Sony e-reader and download as PDF, epub, mobi or Viewable Online at Smashwords

$9.99 for trade paperback at Amazon and Createspace.

30 powerful stories from around the world to benefit two children's charities: PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children (www.protect.org) and Children 1st Scotland (www.children1st.org.uk).

Stories by David Ackley, Kevin Aldrich, David Barber, Lynn Beighley, Seamus Bellamy, Paul D. Brazill, Sif Dal, James Lloyd Davis, Roberto C. Garcia, Susan Gibb, Nancy A. Hansen, K.V. Hardy, Gill Hoffs, Fiona "McDroll" Johnson, J.F. Juzwik, MaryAnne Kolton, Benoit Lelievre, Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw, Vinod Narayan, Paula Pahnke, Ron Earl Phillips, Thomas Pluck, Sam Rasnake, JP Reese, Chad Rohrbacher, Susan Tepper, Luca Veste, Michael Webb, Nicolette Wong and Erin Zulkoski.

It began as a flash fiction challenge when Fiona Johnson and Thomas Pluck donated $5 to PROTECT and £5 to Children 1st for every story at Ron Earl Phillips' Flash Fiction Friday and Fictionaut. Now we have collected the 30 best stories to benefit these two charities.

Join us and make a difference while you read 30 great stories genres by writers from the U.S.A., Poland, Hong Kong, Portugal, India, Scotland, England, Canada, and one told by a Lost Boy of the Sudan to his teacher.

If you don't have an e-reader: you can download the Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac app, the Nook for PC App, Nook for Mac App or view it online at Smashwords, or download it as an Adobe PDF file. You can also read epubs on the Adobe Digital Editions reader for PC and Mac.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

a little about... JP Reese

JP Reese wrote "The Lost Boy" for the anthology, sharing the tale of a Sudanese boy who survived the genocide there.

What inspired your story?

My story is a bit different in that the main character isn't a "character" at all. He was a student in my summer American Literature class who became one of my heroes after he told the story of his childhood in Sudan to me and to the rest of my class. I am a slow creative writer and knew I'd never have anything fictional or poetic in time to help, but after I heard of the generous offer Fiona and Tom were making in regard to the stories we produced, I knew I had to participate in some small way. David's true story of loss and redemption is my offering.

What makes this cause important to you?

There are so many problems in the world, almost to the point where one is overwhelmed when trying to decide how or where to help or even finding a way to do so. Clearly, any charity that affects the lives of children not only has an immediate impact on particular children, but also has a long term positive impact on society. Tom and Fiona are the heroes of this book. They pointed us in the right direction, and we simply followed.

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

I have been writing in some capacity for most of my life, but only began to write seriously again, after a six year hiatus, within the last two years. I have had poetry, fiction, flash, and creative nonfiction published both in print and online. I have an MFA in poetry and teach English at a small college in Texas. I am an associate poetry editor for Connotation Press: An Online Artifact www.connotationpress.com and THIS Literary Magazine www.thiszine.org. My work is compiled at Entropy: A Measure of Uncertainty jpreese.tumblr.com.

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.