Friday, January 09, 2009

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.



code: < img src="http://www.gemmahalliday.com/gemma-ani-banner.gif">



code:< img src="http://www.gemmahalliday.com/auctionannouncement.gif">

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

15 comments:

Keri Ford said...

You're a wonderful person for doing this Gemma. I've got your banner added to EverybodyNeedsALittleRomance.com and I'm at the moment thinking on something to give away at the auction.

Gemma Halliday said...

Thank so much, Keri!! The outpouring of support has just be incredible. Makes me realized (yet again) what a wonderful community the romance writers and readers are to belong to.

~Gemma

Terri Osburn said...

What a great thing to be a part of. I'll do my best to put the banner on my blog. I'd add it to my Facebook, but I'm afraid I'm a techno-dunce and am not sure I'd know how to do it.

I'll work on coming up with something to give away.

Christie Craig said...

Gemma,

This is fabulous!


CC

Terri Osburn said...

I tried to put the banner on my blog but I'm more techno challenged than I knew. So I'll just put up a link. *sigh*

Estella said...

The romance group is an awesome bunch!

Gemma Halliday said...

Thanks for trying, terrio! A link is perfect! :)

~Gemma

Michelle said...

The outpouring of help and goodwill for Katy & Liz has been nothing short of inspiring! Thanks for all you do!!

Leslie Langtry said...

Gemma! You rock, Girl! Will be sending those books this week!

~ Brandilyn Collins said...

Gemma, thanks so much for what you're doing for Liz and Katy. It's great to see another author getting on board in such a big way. I'll link to here from my Forensics and Faith blog. Blessings to you!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the banner! I have put the announcement up on my site www.ginnyglass.com on the front page and also in "News"!

You are awesome to do this!

Anonymous said...

I just put this on my blog!

Katie Reus said...

Just added it to my blog too :)

Loretta said...

I added your banner and the announcement of the contest on my new blog. I also added the link to Kathy's blog in case anyone was interested in checking it out also.I will be sure to check out Romantic Ink Website when the contest starts and see what wonderful books I can bid on. You and all the wonderful authors partcipating in this contest are always helping those in need.

Anonymous said...

I think you are very sweet to do this thing for Keri and her Mom. A lot of homeless people are not so lucky to get friends like you to help them out, and with Keri only being 16 she isn't old enough to get a full time job to support herself and her Mom. From what the Mother looked like in the picture the She looked disabled, so she couldn't work either maybe. I really hope this works out for them big time. I wish I had something to donate or extra money in my budget to bid on something but all I can do at this time is give my prayers. Good luck to you all, and May God Bless.