AUTHORS FOR JAPAN

Have you been wondering what you can do with the grief and inarticulate horror you feel watching the images of tsunami-hit Japan on the news?

Have you also always dreamed of having a book dedicated to you? Or know your Mum would just love to have a fictional character named after her for Mother’s Day? Or maybe you’re an aspiring writer who’d love a pro to take a critical peek at their work?

You’ll like this, then.

Rallied by the magnificent Keris Stainton, Authors For Japan is a week-long charity auction to funnel booklovers’ funds to the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal.  Bid on one of the hundreds of available items, and you’ll be helping to restore hope to the victims of this awful disaster. In return for your generosity, you’ll get a money-can’t-buy literary prize.

I’m offering a very special item: me. More specifically, my authorial brain and experience, for 6 whole months, as a mentor for an aspiring children’s or YA writer. Whoever wins my auction will get my only-slightly-divided attention on their work-in-progress. I will share with you what I’ve learned from 7 years as a published children’s author, and hopefully swerve you past a few of the speedbumps in that road. (And by ‘you’ I mean YOU – or your best friend,  or your sister, or your nephew, or your Great Aunt Julia who’s had that kid’s book in a drawer for years now but doesn’t know how to make it better.)  Speaking as a girl who can’t bear to touch the keyboard these days without a pep-talk from my writing group, I know how powerful a motivator top-notch feedback and a waiting critical audience can be – and I want to pass on that vital extra push. Know someone who needs that push? Think that someone might be you? Bid here.

And while you’re at it, please please please take a thorough nose through the amazing selection of items up for auction. Get a pro to design your e-book cover, get your mitts on original artwork, snag $2000 worth of web design, grab yourself a signed book. And you know how I mentioned that thing about giving your Mum a character name for Mother’s Day? Well, that would work for birthdays too…

Bidding is open until 8pm GMT Sunday 20th March. Bid big, bid often, and good luck.