So. Phew. This one started as a small gesture and, thanks to the generosity of the genre fiction community, has blossomed into something really quite wonderful.

I was horrified by the news coming out of America that migrant children arriving at the US border are being separated from their families and detained in crowded, filthy, inhumane conditions. It’s difficult to know how to help in these kinds of situations, especially when you live in another country. I discovered, through research and helpful Twitter folk, that nonprofit organisation RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services) are doing amazing work providing free or low-cost legal support to the families interned in these camps.

So, I decided to try to do something about it. And that something is this:

The Great Charity Book Raffle

What are the prizes?

Thanks to the generosity of the genre fiction community, I am able to offer TWO lucky winners one of two prize packages:

Prize #1:

– “Naming the Bones” and “Sing your Sadness Deep” by Laura Mauro (signed)

– “Trying to Be So Quiet and Other Hauntings” by James Everington (signed)

– “A Tiding of Magpies” and “Seven Deadly Swords” by Peter Sutton (signed)

– “The Unheimlich Manouevre” by Tracy Fahey (signed)

– “The Crabian Heart” by Erik Hofstatter (signed)

– “This Twisted Earth” collection ed. Dion Winton-Polak

– “Strange is the Night” and “I Wish I Was Like You” by S.P. Miskowski (signed)

Prize #2:

– “This House of Wounds” by Georgina Bruce (signed)

– “The Greenwood Faun” by Nina Antonia

– “Suffer Little Children” by Penny Jones (signed)

– “A Distasteful Horror Story” by Johnny Mains (signed)

– “The Devil’s Highway” and “Singing Back The Dark” by Simon Bestwick (signed)

– The full ‘Monsters’ collection from Fox Spirit Books (“European Monsters“, “Asian Monsters“, “African Monsters“, “Pacific Monsters“, “American Monsters Part 1“)

How do I enter?

1) donate at least $5 to @RAICESTEXAS (http://www.raicestexas.org/donate/ ) by Wednesday 10th July

2) Send me proof of your donation – Twitter DM or @, Facebook message, email, blog comment – any route is fine!

3) I will enter your name into the raffle

4) I will pick two winners at random

5) Winners will be informed via Twitter DM or email shortly after entries close

Any other rules?

– one donation = one entry

– must be comfortable providing me with a postal address to send the books to (I will happily post worldwide!)

– must provide proof of donation (minimum $5) to be eligible

Can I donate more books?

Thank you for your generosity! For now, I will politely decline any offers of further books – that’s not because I’m not grateful (god knows I am incredibly grateful!) but purely so that I can keep track of all the book donations I’ve received, and ensure they all go to the right place. (If this raffle takes off, though, watch this space, as I may well run others in future, and your donation would be SUPER APPRECIATED).

I can’t donate, how else can I help?

Spread the word! Retweet, post it on your blog or your Facebook wall, tell your friends. The more donations, the better! And if you’re not in a position to donate (I totally get it, and there’s no shame in that) spreading the word so that people who may be in a position to do so is incredibly helpful and valuable.

Why aren’t you helping [insert cause here] instead?

This was kind of a spur of the moment decision based on my own frustration at being unable to help people in need. If this raffle takes off, I may well run other raffles for other causes. So, please donate!

 

Thank you for your time and attention. I am not a big name writer; I do not command legions of fans and my powers are extremely limited. So I am immensely grateful to all my peers and colleagues who have lent their hand to this campaign, and I very much hope we can affect some small change in the world, and make life a little easier for migrant families who have already endured terrible hardships. I hope we can raise some money to provide legal aid to families torn apart at the border. To those children, scared and alone in filthy conditions. This should not be happening to children anywhere in the world, let alone the US. Let’s try to help them.