A Reader in Need

If there is one thing that any writer loves, it’s her readers. Without readers, we’d be nothing.

Last summer I did a series of library talks, and during one of these I had the pleasure of meeting a super sweet, sixteen-year-old reader named Katy. She said she and her mother, Elizabeth, had read all my books and were huge fans. I liked her immediately. :) Katy is an aspiring author and illustrator, and even brought me the cutest laminated drawing of Maddie, the main character in my High Heels books! Isn’t she adorable?



Since then, I’ve seen a few more of Katy’s drawings, and she is incredibly talented! I’m seriously jealous, nothing I’ve ever drawn is half as cool as her stuff. Here’s a poster she did for a contest at the local library (She won!):



And here’s a drawing she did last week when she and her mom were forced to sleep in their car:



Yep, you read that right – Katy and her mom are homeless. They were evicted from their apartment just before Christmas and have been living in hotel rooms (when they’ve been lucky) or their car (when they’ve not been so lucky) since then. Katy has been blogging about life on the streets, and you can read all about how this incredibly sweet mother and daughter ended up in this situation here: http://destinationanywherebuthere.blogspot.com/
As Katy states on her blog, "Homelessness has many faces. And sometimes it happens to have a computer." Both Katy and her mother seem to have very positive outlooks, but it’s clear they’re in some real trouble.

Which is where we come in. I’m putting together an auction to help get Katy and her mom back on their feet. So far we’ve gotten donations of agent critiques, editor pitches, website design, tarot readings, artwork, jewelry, handmade quilts, and tons and tons of autographed books. A huge thank you to everyone who has donated so far!! And if any of you would like to donate something, it would be amazingly appreciated. We’ve set up a special email address to take donations at: ri.auction@gmail.com

The auction will run January 19-26th and will be hosted on the Romantic Inks website at www.romanticinks.com, so please come by and bid once we’re up and running!

If you’d like to help spread the word about the auction, feel free to paste the banner or announcement below onto your website, myspace, or blog.



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A huge thanks to everyone for your help, and I will keep you updated on how Katy and her mom are doing!


~Trigger Happy Halliday