Life Goes On

Saturday, 6 August 2011 15:50
dr_phil_physics: (tornado)
Congratulations Are In Order

Delayed from May by the devastating tornado of April 27th, the University of Alabama held its graduation today. Though the campus itself was spared major damage, the city was not. They closed the university, cancelled classes and finals, but begged the families to stay away, because the streets were either impassible or needed.

To their credit, the students volunteered to assist. Cynics might argue that they had nothing else to do, but that doesn't explain the speed and the organizing -- they volunteered to serve when they were needed and didn't have to wait around to be asked.

So congratulations to the 'Bama Class of 2011 -- your graduation is more than just the sum of grades and credit hours. And you shall never forget it... or be forgotten.

It's Only Been Three Months

You can still get copies of Southern Fried Weirdness: Reconstruction or check out other ways to help Alabama relief efforts.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (tornado)
Now Available

T.J. McIntyre announces today that his Alabama tornado relief anthology, Southern Fried Weirdness: Reconstruction is now available for sale at Smashwords in multiple formats (buy one, access all). Coming soon to Amazon and Barnes and Noble (hopefully by early next week). UPDATE 5-16-2011 Mon: Now available on Amazon.com.
In the wake of the destructive tornadoes which ripped through Alabama on April 27th, 2011, Southern Fried Weirdness Press is proud to present the charity anthology, Southern Fried Weirdness: Reconstruction. This collection of poetry and short fiction features 46 pieces from 40 different contributing authors. It spans multiple genres and presents an eclectic mix of voices. All profits will be donated to The American Red Cross to aid disaster relief efforts.

My own short story "Giant Cicadas and Other Odd Indignities", first published on the Southern Fried Weirdness Online website, is included. "Giant Cicadas..." was born in the humid heat of East Lansing MI during Week 4 of the 2004 Clarion workshop. Listening to the cicadas that summer, I remembered the racket caused by cicadas in Greensboro NC during the mid-70s and seeing the eerie split open body shells with clear eye lenses of the newly molted cicadas. Alas, that first version did not fair well in that crucible of Clarion, the Crit Circle, crashing and burning as a humorous tall tale. I think I've got it right this time, though. (grin) It is symbolic that our Week 4 instructor, Andy Duncan, was on the campus of the University of Alabama on 27 April 2011, hunkered down in the basement with some of the Honors Writing students as the tornado swept through nearby.

This is also my first Reprint "Sale".



In Addition...

Southern Fried Weirdness: Reconstruction is selling for only $2.99 on Smashwords. And while most of that is going to the American Red Cross... well, let me let T.J. tell you more:
More Ways to Help
Thank you again for purchasing this anthology! As you know, the proceeds for this anthology will go towards The American Red Cross, an extremely deserving organization that tends to be among the quickest to respond to any natural disaster worldwide. For those interested, below are some links to several organizations and relief funds worth supporting:

The American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org

The Salvation Army: http://www.salvationarmyusa.org

Feeding America: http://feedingamerica.org

Governor's Emergency Relief Fund:
http://www.servealabama.gov/2010/default.aspx

Hands On Birmingham: http://www.handsonbirmingham.org/

Greater Birmingham Humane Society:
http://www.gbhs.org/site/PageServer?pagename=gbhs_home

The United Way of West Alabama: http://www.uwwa.org/

The University of Alabama Acts of Kindness Fund:
https://www.ua.edu/advancement/giving/donate/?division=2&account=349


Thanks!

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (red-planet-fix-spaceship)
Now I've Gone And Done It

On Wednesday 27 April 2011, a string of severe storms blew through much of the South. Massive tornadoes struck Alabama and Georgia in particular, with significant loss of life and great damage. Tuscaloosa AL really got hammered. I know several SF/F writers with Alabama connections, and saw messages on Facebook pleading for people to take cover as a mile-wide tornado crossed I-20. My 2004 Clarion instructor Andy Duncan was on the University of Alabama campus and "was huddled with my students in the basement of Nott Hall when the twister plowed through Tuscaloosa this afternoon, a couple of blocks south. We all rode it out OK. I'm at my friends' house in Northport now. I walked out of the Krispy Kreme at 2:30 p.m., carrying two dozen doughnuts to take to my students, little knowing that store would be obliterated three hours later."

T.J. McIntyre posted a plea for giving help at noon on Friday. Ever the troublemaker, I mentioned the success of the 100 Stories for Haiti anthology, where in just weeks had over 400 submissions, and it'd gone from e-publishing to both print and e-print. In just a few months some £4000 had been raised for the British Red Cross -- and the anthology is still out and raising money.

Six hours later, T.J. posted that he was reviving Southern Fried Weirdness for a fundraising e-anthology -- guidelines included at this link and here below:
I have decided to resurrect Southern Fried Weirdness as a temporary one-time ebook anthology to raise funds for The American Red Cross to support tornado relief efforts here in my home state of Alabama. I ask you to respond quickly should you want to be involved. I would like to have this formatted and ready to go next weekend in order to raise funds as soon as possible. My plan is to upload this to Amazon for Kindle, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble hopefully within the next two weeks.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
  • Stories up to 5,000 words.

  • Poetry of any length.

  • Reprints preferred. Reprints of works previously featured in the various previous incarnations of Southern Fried Weirdness have preferential treatment.

  • Format submissions however you want. I’ll reformat the text before going to print anyway.

  • Genres: Any. I’d prefer stories with Southern settings with gothic, weird, or surreal elements, but it doesn’t really matter to me as long as the work is of good quality.

  • Please take the time to edit before submitting. Due to time constraints, I will not have the same time for the degree of copyediting I would otherwise perform.

  • No payment for works, unfortunately, as 100% of the proceeds will be going directly to charity.

  • If you would like to submit, please send your stories/poems to southernfriedweirdness_at_gmail.com no later than Friday, May 6, 2011.

  • Legal stuff in lieu of a more formal contract: By submitting, you assert that all works are your own, non-derivative, that you own all the rights necessary for me to print your work, and take full responsibility for the content of your text. I am asking for nonexclusive electronic rights to print your work.

Please spread the word.

Thank you!

T.J. McIntyre
Editor, Southern Fried Weirdness

Join Us

By 1:37am this morning I'd submitted. And I'll buy the finished product. And now I'm passing on the word.

Other than money, there's not a lot I can do right now, especially hip deep in final grading. But the Southern Fried Weirdness e-anthology for Alabama relief is the sort of thing that adds visibility -- I can still point people to 100 Stories for Haiti a year later.

Thanks, y'all.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (100-Stories-For-Haiti)
One Year Ago...

... a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, destroying not only homes and lives, but a great deal of the infrastructure and government offices in the capital, thereby making rescues and recoveries all the more difficult. Much has been written about Haiti, the relief efforts -- I even heard the other day that the earthquake hit where the geologists weren't expecting it. Haiti was not a rich country before the event, and even the most optimistic predictions figure it will be at least another six months to get the most basic reconstructions in place.

While there is some frustration about where charitable contributions have been going and how fast, I think it fair to say that Haiti needs funds and resources and that there won't be just one NGO or charity which is going to go in and "save the day".

My Own Small Part

Shortly after the earthquake I ran across a submissions call for a charity anthology to support Haiti. Originally going to be an e-book, 100 Stories for Haiti, is available in multiple formats -- print, electronic, audio.

Naturally I'm invested in this, with my 2004 Clarion 800-word challenge story from Week 5 "Three Drink Minimum" making the cut.



Here's a nice piece on the British Red Cross blog about how quickly 100 Stories for Haiti was put together.

And a piece from the creative force behind the project, Greg McQueen, about six months later.

In September 2010, Greg was at it again, this time for Pakistan. By this time, some £4000 had been raised by the Haiti project, and 100 Stories for Haiti continues to sell and raise funds to this day.

Besides the book, I found that they also have T-shirts, bookbags and a coffee mug available via CafePress in the U.K. and U.S.. Just ordered a bookbag -- I'm always needing bags to haul papers to/from class. And a little advertising? It never hurts. (grin)

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (100-Stories-For-Haiti)
It's Out!

Being under the weather during Spring Break, I missed that March 4th was the release date for the paperback of 100 Stories for Haiti. Over 400 writers submitted stories, and my SF short short story "Three Drink Minimum" was one of the 100 stories selected for the anthology. The authors come from the U.K., U.S., Australia, Ireland, Canada, Austria, Botswana, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands -- amusingly the stories are arranged alphabetically by title, so I'm located on pp. 247-249 of the paperback. All proceeds are going to the British Red Cross' efforts in Haiti, one of many organizations which are still working there.

I'd ordered three copies back in February -- and today the P.O. Box had a key to one of the package lockers. Inside were three tightly wrapped packages held together with rubber bands. Cool! NOTE: I understand if you order 5 or more copies you may get a break on the P&P shipping charges, as it gets shipped directly from the publisher.



You can find more information, including ordering the paperback from the U.K. or the eBook, at 100 Stories for Haiti. I'll probably get a copy of the eBook for my Sony eReader -- if you order the eBook, you set the price.

The world may be going on and there are even other disasters to worry about such as the Chilean earthquake. But the work in Haiti is not over and a lot of people did a lot of effort to get this from zero to book in just six weeks.

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (100-Stories-For-Haiti)
Thursday 4 March 2010

This is the date when the print version of 100 Stories For Haiti comes out from Bridge House Publishing in the U.K. The eBook version's release date isn't out yet. All proceeds will go to the British Red Cross efforts for Haiti. My story "Three Drink Minimum" is one of the 100 stories. The price is £11.99 + P&P (£2.30 for UK, £5.50 for Ireland and Europe, £10 for rest of the world), which for U.S. shipment came to £21.99 or US$34.78 conversion by PayPal.
Pre-orders for the paperback edition OPEN NOW!

100 Stories for Haiti is a unique collection of stories bound together by paper and glue and massive amounts of hope. This is no ordinary book. One morning a writer woke up and decided, "I must do something." Hundreds of talented authors worldwide sent him their stories and the result is an anthology that anyone can enjoy.

Proceeds go to helping the victims of the Haiti earthquake. So open this book and pick a page. There's nowhere to start and nowhere to finish. If you find one story, one page, one line entertaining: buy it.



Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (writing-winslet-2)
100 Stories For Haiti

Just got word that my 2004 Clarion 800-word challenge story from Week 5, "Three Drink Minimum", was selected to be included in "100 Stories For Haiti" fundraiser.

About

100 Stories for Haiti is a collection of short stories donated by writers EVERYWHERE.

Nick Harkaway, author of the best-selling novel The Gone Away World, wrote a story for the book and penned the introduction. And over 400 authors, journalists, and publishing professionals have helped with putting this book together in record time, so we can get money to where it matters, fast.

*ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE RED CROSS*

100 Stories for Haiti is coming out as an ebook on Smashwords.com, and as a paperback through Unbound Press. Both editions will be available online, February/March, 2010.

Amazing when the Internet community comes together in a hurry. I heard about this from a couple of sources, including John Scalzi, on the day submissions were due. But the organizers also said anyone hearing about it late from Scalzi could get an extra couple of days, though I didn't need it. Raising money for Haiti relief from international authors via a suddenly cobbled up all volunteer organization in the U.K. So 2010...

Will advise y'all when it is available. But if you're desperate to read a short Dr. Phil story, you could always hop over to my website and read "Three Oreo Minimum".

Dr. Phil
dr_phil_physics: (ucf-logo)
Shawn Powers' House Burned Out

A friend of mine via online, the UCF, also an editor at Linux Journal and a legendary battler on the Atari 2600 in modern times, Shawn Powers, has posted that he's lost his house -- burned out. The family is okay, but they lost their animals.


From Shawn's phone about an hour ago...

Some of the people at Linux Journal set up a fund raising site to help the Powers on ChipIn -- in just a few hours they've raised nearly a thousand dollars. While money cannot replace that which is lost, on a cold winter's day in northern Michigan, knowing that those who care are helping out if they can is a blessing in itself.

Life goes on, with the good and the bad. Sometimes life can seem to get lost, or at least wanders aimlessly bewildered in the wake of massive bad news such as the earthquake in Haiti. But I know that when life smacks you in the face and you're having to deal with an immediate crisis, it doesn't seem so distant or minor. Shawn -- we're thinking of you and your family.

Thought some of the rest of you out there would like to know.

Dr. Phil

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