a little bit about... James Lloyd Davis

James Lloyd Davis gave us a powerful tale from the Vietnam War, that could be any war, entitled "Butterfly Fingers."

What inspired your story?
Butterfly Fingers is a story about orphans in a war zone, about the soldiers who are probably the cause of their condition, but who become, as "occupiers," a source for both sustenance and survival as well as one of the few witnesses to their existence, their plight. Any veteran will recognize the concept of the 'fingers' ... both greedy and needy, the taps on your arms, the reaching, the touching, the pinching even, the gestures ... all of them are a cry for help even when offered in jest, with laughter ... laughter being a human emotional response to desperation. The reaching? It's a response to hunger. It's even a cry for love in a loveless place. Little fingers. Graceful, delicate fingers.

What makes this cause important to you?
War creates widows and orphans. It creates veterans and cripples and head cases. We don't often hear about the orphans, though, and my story attempts to give you a reminder about the fact that they are children. Little things. Innocent. Christ, they're everywhere, die by the trainload daily, from starvation, disease, neglect, and it feels like nobody really gives a damn! Sorry, it makes me angry as well as sad.

Tell us a bit about yourself and where to find more of your writing.
I'm just getting back to writing after a life-long detour where I was doing an awful lot of other things. You can read about me, my history, even read some of my work at the following web sites:
http://jameslloyddavis.com/ and http://www.fictionaut.com/users/james-lloyd-davis

A little about PROTECT

50% of the proceeds of the sales of this e-book will be donated to PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children. The funds are taxable because PROTECT lobbies Congress to strengthen laws that protect children from predators. One of the founders is author and lawyer Andrew Vachss.

The National Association to Protect Children is a national, pro-child, anti-crime membership association. We are 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.

Find them at:

www.protect.org

a little about... Children 1st!

50% of the proceeds will benefit Children 1st, a charity in Scotland that helps children and vulnerable families.

In their own words:

The proceeds of this e-book will help CHILDREN 1^st build a brighter future for Scotland’s vulnerable children and families.

At CHILDREN 1^ST we listen, we support and we take action by delivering services in homes and communities across Scotland. We work to safeguard children and young people, to support them within their families and to help them to recover from abuse, neglect and violence. We speak out for children’s rights and we campaign to change attitudes.

http://www.children1st.org.uk

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.

a little about... J.F. Juzwik

Joyce F. Juzwik contributed her hard-hitting story "On and On..." to the challenge and it appears in the anthology to be released on Nov. 1st 2011:

What inspired your story?

I grew up around some kids who basically had to raise themselves and sometimes they ended up okay. More often than not however, they ended up in jail, on drugs, or dead. Way back when, no one talked about a lot of things. What went on behind closed doors had to stay there. That way of thinking was then, and still is, so very wrong. We need to be open and bring to light the wrongs being done to our children.

What makes this cause important to you?

Children should never be abandoned, never feel fear, never go hungry, never be abused; yet, this happens every day. Organizations like these help to make the laws stronger to protect our children, they work with families and caregivers, and help those children who have experienced life's horrors.

A little bit about me:

I am a proud mother and grandmother. I am a retired Clinical Research Associate and write full-time. I have had a crime fiction novel (King's Bishop Takes King's Rook's Pawn) and a six-part children's fantasy series (Choices) published by DiskUsPublishing (http://diskuspublishing.com/jfjuzwik.html). My crime fiction/noir stories have appeared in A Twist of Noir, Powder Burn Flash, Pulp Metal Magazine, Pure Slush, and Shotgun Honey. My current project is the first novel in a planned PI series. I participate as often as I can in the flash challenges at Flash Fiction Friday, and I blog about writing crime fiction and horror at jfjuzwik.blogspot.com.

a little about... Gill Hoffs

Gill Hoffs contributed her story "The Premature Ending of Annie MacLeod" to the challenge:

What inspired your story?

I grew up in a small fishing village on the Scottish coast, with tales of lost travellers, witchcraft and shipwrecks. It's hard not to be inspired by a place as rugged and beautiful as that. Exploring further north where there are whole villages of ruins from the Clearances and blackened cooking pots hidden beneath the bracken, I thought about the children lost throughout history, the many names and anonymous babies detailed on surviving gravestones, and the importance of education especially to those in geographically and/or culturally isolated places. The challenge brought all of this fizzing to a head. 'Annie' and 'MacLeod' are names from my husband's side of the family, and when the story 'clicked', I could see her in my mind's eye, and the piece wrote itself from there.


What makes this cause important to you?

Before I had my son, I spent my working life with children who had a diverse range of needs, including ADHD, ASD, and emotional/behavioural problems. Despite their issues, they could be joyous and funny - and I have enormous respect for them. So many children, throughout the world, slip through the systems and struggle with themselves and society. Childhood is confusing enough with a loving, supportive family and good health. It's important to do what you can to help every child find their way through the mixed messages and rules to a happy, healthy adulthood. Charities such as the ones supported by this challenge do just that.


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

All I want to do is write. I've won three competitions and been placed in two others, have work included in six anthologies [including this one], online, and in several magazines and journals. For links, please visit my site http://gillhoffs.wordpress.com/ . I'm 32, I live in the North of England, and when I was about 15 I tried to make candles out of plastic explosive - I thought it was a lump of candle wax. Thank goodness we had a soldier over for tea!

a little about... David Ackley

David contributed the story "In the Woods," which previously appeared in LitSnack.


What inspired your story?
Thanks for the opportunity to write further about the story's genesis:

"In the Woods," is taken from an actual incident, much as described in the story. Nothing really happened as nothing actually happens in the story, which is entirely founded on observation, and assumption with no way of knowing whether what is assumed--that is that a child is about to be assaulted--is true or not. Yet both characters feel that it is so, and can not--or fail to--act on the assumption. The story means to ask questions which lead to difficult places, both for the characters, and, I hope, for the reader, having to do with the nature of evil, how it manifests itself, and what we are supposed to do about it.

What makes this cause important to you?
The cause is important because abuse of children is truly evil. And ubiquitous. Nearly every one I know suffered some kind of molestation or abuse as a child. I'd like to try to contribute to the protection of children from this pandemic in hopes of at least easing the threat against those who come after us.

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

I've been fortunate to be able to live the better part of my adult life with my family( my wife, Ann, and our daughter, Reid, and son, Dake) in our home in a beautiful little mountain town in northern New Hampshire. I came here orginally to teach Writing and Literature in an alternative college which folded after eight years. I had an MFA in fiction from UNC-G and though it sounds odd to say so, that and my writing background has served me pretty well through various subsequent jobs/careers in the social services and education, including starting and growing an offcampus center for the University Of Maine System in western Maine, which I ran for 17 years. Now I write fiction and poetry and teach creative writing part-time for a local community college. Recent work has appeared in Prick of the Spindle,THIS, A-Minor and Litsnack. And, because I'm fairly lazy about sending pieces out, many things I've written lounge about at Fictionaut.com One piece was nominated for the Story South Million Writers Awards and another has been recently nominated for The Best of The Net. Given that earning a living has taken up a lot of my time heretofore, having the time to write is all I care about, and as Ray Carver said, "the rest is gravy, sheer gravy."

a little about... Nancy A. Hansen

Welcome Nancy A. Hansen, who wrote the story "It's All About Mindset," for the collection:

Q: What inspired your story?

A: There are a lot of reasons children are lost to us. Physical abuse. Poverty. Neglect. Lack of medical care, proper nutrition, or education. Mental illness and /or emotional trauma. Substance abuse. I think we could all come up with a list, and oftentimes there is more than one factor involved. Children are vulnerable, because they are physically smaller and dependent on others.

Sometimes those with the power over another life don’t wield it well and wisely, or for the right reasons; and children bear the brunt of the consequences. Often, a youngster will fight back against that, even in a passive aggressive manner by simply tuning out. Looking for a way to escape my everyday life is how and why I got into reading, which eventually lead me to writing.

Looking at the picture prompt, I was thinking of all that stuff, and wanted to write something quick, concise, and hard-hitting, because in 700 words, you don’t have time to beat around the bush. First person seemed to work best for the mental detachment state of the child and allows the reader to sort of vicariously experience the situation. I kept it vague, so that even after the fact, you’re really not quite sure what happened. Often, that’s how it is when the mind cannot accept the reality of what we refer to as the ‘civilized world’, which isn’t supposed to be a savage and unforgiving place, but many times is simply just another jungle.

I wrote that piece by dredging up a lot of memories of anger, confusion, and heaps of heartache. But for a better set of circumstances, any of us could have turned out like the unnamed boy in my story.

Q: What makes this cause important to you?

A: Growing up, I was a constant victim of bullying by my peers, as well as the bearing the brunt of some rather severe corporal punishment by frustrated adults around me who were struggling with financial matters and other longstanding issues and took that out on me. It affected me to the point where even as a straight A student who had a passion to learn, I became uninspired and began to skip school and dropped out several times. If not for my deep love of books and literature—my favorite escape route from the things I could not change—who knows where I would have wound up? Eventually it all worked itself out; I finished high school, got a job, got married, settled down, had kids, yada yada…

 And then it all came crashing back. My oldest son has a neurological disorder called Asperger’s Syndrome that makes it very hard for him to understand those non-verbal cues and social mores we all depend on to interact with one another in the everyday world. School was always a trial for him, and what he was going through brought back a lot of ugly memories. He has experienced much of the same sort of taunting and harassment that I did—not only by peers, but also adults who should have known better. I saw many other kids like us out there too, who had no champion to speak out for them. So I learned to talk and write about the bullying, not only on my son’s behalf but for those who had no voice, knowing full well someday, it might make a huge difference in one small life. And I never sugarcoated anything, because life doesn’t do that for the kid that feels she or he has nowhere to turn. This was years before the horror in Columbine Colorado, and some of the other hazing and bullying tragedies we’ve heard about in the media. Back then I felt like a little voice crying in the wilderness.

So while neither my son nor I turned out violent, I remembered how there are days when you felt you would do just about anything to make that hurting stop. There are times when you know you are a fraction of a second from snapping and doing something outrageously wrong, and yet it seems as if the world could care less if you lived or died. We all react to that sort of habitual stress in different ways. They are often not positive or socially acceptable reactions, and the outcome can be grievous for more than just the victim.

In case you’re wondering what my personal stigma was; well, I have always been obese. That is something a certain number of people seem to believe it is perfectly acceptable to ridicule and torment someone about. All possible puns aside, being fat is something with a biological root that quickly becomes very noticeable. A large person’s awkwardness and tough time fitting in, along with the reactions of others, can blossom into a overblown emotional issue. Years of negative comments and daily torment literally shaped my life, to the point where I still can’t eat in public without thinking about my weight and the reactions of others around me. So if I was destined to be something other than a writer; perhaps the singer I always longed to be, a researcher who finds a cure for AIDS or cancer, or a diplomat working for world peace, those opportunities got left by the wayside. I was too scared to be seen and ridiculed once more. How many other kids, I wonder, won’t get to realize their full potential because they never had a fighting chance to concentrate on what positive things they could be doing with their lives? How many will we lose because we don’t see the quiet desperation in a pair of eyes that have known too much pain and suffering and a mouth that cannot speak the truth?

That’s why I wrote the piece, and why the cause is so dear to me. Words matter; they can move you to aspire to greater things, or steamroll down your hopes and dreams.

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

Well having spent the last 29 years of my life primarily as a wife and mother (AKA homemaker), I now devote the majority of my time to writing, when I’m not reading, hunting through thrift shops and flea markets for bargains, or working in the garden. I have a lot of varied interests in arts and crafts as well as music, I love creative crochet, and I am sort of an amateur naturalist. I have a huge fascination with religion, mythology, the occult, and early man up into the medieval era and a bit beyond, which I suppose has a lot to do with the epic/heroic tales I enjoy reading and writing. I’m now a published author working with a small New Pulp fiction company called Pro Se Press out of Batesville Arkansas http://www.prosepulp.com/ whose motto has always been “putting the monthly back into pulp”. These good folks have run several of my short stories in magazines available on the company site above. You will find most of my work in our Fantasy & Fear issues, though I also edited two issues of Peculiar Adventures. Pro Se also published my first book, FORTUNE’S PAWN in August of 2011, which you can find on CreateSpace https://www.createspace.com/3674176, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble online, as well as a few other spots like Alibris, allbookstores.com, and Bol.It. My most recent story is in Pro Se Presents #2, the debut of my Silver Pentacle series, ‘To Kindle A Fire’ which is a mash up of fantasy, horror, superheroes, wars between deities, little bits of steampunk and walk-ons by historical characters reborn, and whatever else strikes my fancy in a post-apocalyptic setting. I have a lot more stories and books coming out down the road, many I can’t divulge right now, but keep an eye on the Pro Se site above or our company blog: http://www.pulpmachine.blogspot.com/. You can always friend me on Facebook or on Google+ and see what I am up to now. Since I write under my own name, and wear a silly hand-crocheted hat in every picture, you’ll know who I am right off. ;)

a little about... Benoit Lelievre

Ben contributed his story "Under the Gaze of Saturn" which appears in the anthology coming on 11/1:

What inspired your story?

I spent a good deal of my childhood being scared of everything. Whenever I ran in trouble and went to an adult in charge for help, things often got worse. Everybody had an opinion on the situation, but nobody ever wanted to act because this was kids stuff, it wasn't judged serious. I wanted to translate that on a story. A beautiful yet empty speach and its horrible consequences in a child's mind.


What makes this cause important to you?

Everybody deserve a fair chance at life. A chance to be happy, to love, to trust, to have a balanced life. When you take advantage of a child, you deny that person a fair start. Most likely, you will destroy a person's potential and haunt the rest of his life. It's unforgivable. I'm happy to to make this small contribution.

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

I have been writing seriously for about eighteen months now. I have only one story out in Shotgun Honey, but I have many coming up before the end of the year. Aside from The Lost Children, I will publish in Beat To A Pulp: Hardboiled and in Luca Veste's Off The Record and I have learned not long ago that my first Lowell Sweeney story has been picked up by a magazine. Hopefully it will be published before the end of 2011 too. If you liked my story and my style, you can follow my pop culture tribulations on a daily basis on my web site Dead End Follies

a little about... Seamus Bellamy

Seamus wrote the excellent crime tale Larry for the anthology and has one of the coolest Twitter avatars in existence.

What inspired your story?
I don't remember much of my own childhood, so getting into the headspace to write a tale told through the eyes of a child has always proved difficult for me. That said, I've known a lot of individuals on both sides of the law that came from broken homes, abusive parents and worse. That, I can write about.


What makes this cause important to you?
For our society to become something we can be proud of, it falls on each one of us to do what we can to protect our fellows. Who could be more worthy of protection than a child? The very least I can do to this end is turn my pen towards making some cash to help keep kids safe.


A little bit about myself
After attending university, I spent over a decade working in private industrial security and intelligence. Close to two years ago, I packed it in, to peruse my passion: writing. These days you can find my work in the pages of Maximum PC, PC Gamer, Mac|Life and TabTimes (launching this fall). I've also penned two books: Joomla for Dummies (second edition), as well as the second edition of Drupal for Dummies, which was co-written with Lynn Beighley. When my tech writing schedule allows for it, I plunk away at my first novel. I reckon it'll be ready when it's ready. You can catch up to me through my website www.seamusbellamy.com

a little about... Erin Zulkoski

Erin Zulkoski wrote the story "Bloomingdale" which closes the collection.

What inspired your story?


The inspiration for Bloomingdale came from observing my neighbor's youngest son playing in his sand box. The rest came in a somewhat embarrassing way--I was watching the old Val Kilmer movie "Top Secret," during the part when his character is telling about the time he got lost in a department store. I just combined the two and out came Bloomingdale.


What makes this cause important to you?
The Lost Children cause is important because children are so vulnerable and trusting and often tragically the victims of terrible crimes. I don't have children of my own, but my heart breaks for the parents of children who are abducted. No parent should have to deal with that kind of situation, so once I heard that for each story written a donation would be made to two charities devoted to protecting kids, it was a no-brainer for me to write a piece. Anything I can do to help with such a noble cause is worth it.


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

I live in Lincoln, Nebraska: home of the Cornhuskers and am probably the only person in the state who isn't a raging fanatic about them. My day job has me working in Electrophysiology, a specialized practice of cardiology, and my night job, I write. Ive always loved writing and until the past year, just sort of tinkered around on my personal blog, http://polishsnausage.wordpress.com. A good friend of mine encouraged me to write more and invited me to join Fictionaut, and so glad he did. Since then, I've taken my casual hobby up a notch and have been featured in Pure Slush, Negative Suck and The Flash Fiction Offensive. I also started an all female blog with six other women and we can be found at http://HeartOnSleeve.wordpress.com. That's about it. Oh, I also have a weird obsession with Batman.

a little about... Luca Veste

This is the first in a series of posts about the contributors to our collection. Luca's story "Waiting" appears in The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology.

What inspired your story?

It comes from a personal event, extrapolated to an inordinate amount. I've been that child waiting at a window for a parent, and it stays with you forever. It's possibly the most personal thing I'll ever write, but on seeing the incredible image that was used as a prompt, this story just wouldn't budge from my mind.


What makes this cause important to you?

Anything to help children and I'm there. As a father, the most important thing in my life is my children, so anything I can do to help children who possibly don't have that same support as my own children, I'll help any way I can.


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

I'm a Husband and Father of two daughters. I'm a mature student studying Criminology and Psychology. I review books on my Guilty Conscience ( http://guiltyconscienceblog.blogspot.com ) site, and turned my hand to writing a few months ago. I released a collection of short stories in October, titled 'Liverpool 5', published by Trestle Press. I've had stories at Thrillers, Killers 'n' Chillers and the forthcoming Paul D. Brazill Anthology 'Brit Grit 2'.