<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Official launch date of this extraordinary project is March 4^th, but you can pre-order your copy NOW!!!</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://www.100storiesforhaiti.org/about/">http://www.100storiesforhaiti.org/</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>I put this up on the forums and I make no apolgoy for repeating the call here.</p> <p>Once upon a time there was an earthquake in Haiti. On the other side of the world, in Denmark, a writer named Greg McQueen saw the devastation and decided he would do something about it. He put a call out for writers from all corners of the globe asking for 100 short stories to put into an anthology. The result was 100 Stories for Haiti, a book that came from conception to publication in a matter of two months and all proceeds go to the Red Cross to help the people of Haiti.<br /><br />Last night Greg saw more pictures of devastation, this time from Pakistan and now he&rsquo;s put out another call. He wants 50 stories and he wants it published in a month. You may think he&rsquo;s crazy, but I&rsquo;ve seen him do this before.<br /><br />So come on all you writers. Now&rsquo;s your chance to do something for nothing &hellip; but it&rsquo;s not for nothing. Flex your typing fingers and get writing and let&rsquo;s see 50 stories for Pakistan working to ease the suffering of people less fortunate than ourselves.<br /><br />Here&rsquo;s the form.<br /><br /><br />50 Stories For Pakistan<br /><br />Max 500 words<br /><br />Any subject, any genre but no death, violence or destruction.<br /><br />Paste your story into the body of an email.<br /><br />He also needs your name, address and contact number. You can add a short bio if you wish, but the contact details are vital.<br /><br />Send your email to: storiesforpakistan@gmail.com<br /><br />Want to hear Greg spelling it out.&nbsp; Then go here: <a href="http://audioboo.fm/boos/176966-stories-for-pakistan-let-s-go">http://audioboo.fm/boos/176966-stories-for-pakistan-let-s-go</a></p>

<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p>Good morning Writelink and the world. It's 6:15 here in snowy Oldham and the temperature hovers somewhere round ankle level. It so cold that my plans for setting fire to the garden shed have been abandoned. The flame from the blowlamp froze as I lit it.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I'm waffling again. This post has nothing to do with garden sheds, blowlamps or the weather.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>It's all about <strong><span style="font-size: small;">Writelinkers</span></strong> the Christmas magazine that was written by you, the members <em>(well most of it anyway)</em> and cobbled together by us, Maureen Vincent-Northam, Trevor Belshaw and yours truly, with a blessing and seasonal message from Sue.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>It's where we've been hiding for the last 3-4 weeks.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Writelinkers</span></strong> comes at a special price. Free <em>(including VAT)</em>. The news will be disseminated <em>(they can't touch you for it)</em> in the December 1st newsletter, which reaches a far wider membership than we do on site, so this is advance notification.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>Writelinkers</strong></span> is packed with the same nonsense as any other magazine at this time of year: poetry, short stories, non-fiction, interviews with the big stars like Flatcap, Tracy and Marit, and a few plugs for books <em>(come on we did this for nothing, you know.)</em> Two special pages are dedicated to charity anthologies, Greg McQueen's <span style="font-size: small;"><strong>50 Stories for Pakistan</strong></span> and Marit Meredith's <span style="font-size: small;"><strong><span>Shamblelurkling</span></strong></span> in aid of autistic children.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>There are<em> (alleged)</em> jokes, humorous verse, pictures kicking about here and there, and even a cartoon.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>We opted for a change this year, and used Issuu to put the magazine out. You can read it online, or download the pdf version. But spread the word. Writelink survives only because of the membership and we constantly need to increase that membership.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>On behalf of the editors, I'd like to say a big thank you to all those who submitted work for the magazine. We couldn't use everything, so if your submission didn't appear, please don't be disappointed.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>You can read or download your copy at <a href="http://issuu.com/davidwrobinson/docs/writelinkers">http://issuu.com/davidwrobinson/docs/writelinkers</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Go there. Get it. Enjoy.</p>

<p>Yes folks, we're chasing up the charity angle again, this time to aid the victims of floods in Queensland Australia.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>All right, so Oz is a developed country and better able to cope with disasters than Haiti or Pakistan, but that offers little comfort to the human sufferers caught in the rising tides around the Brisbane area.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>A group of us, Maureen Vincent-Northam, Trevor Belshaw, and Australian writers/editor/publisher named Jodi Cleghorn are putting together a volume to aid the victim. Greg McQueen, the maestro behind 100 Stories for Haiti and 50 Stories for Pakistan will be chucking his two pennorth in, too.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I have no further details right now, but I've a conference call arranged with Mo, Trevor and Jodi later this afternoon/evening after which I should be able to give you more specs, including requirements and submission details.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;What we need right now is for you to sharpen your pencils or fingertips and dream up something we may be able to use. Light hearted, not doom laden is the key and we believe the target length will be 1,000 words.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>All authors will be credited (of course) and I'll thank you in advance because I know you Writelinkers; you always come up with the goods.</p>

<p>There was a lengthy natter last night between three locations in the UK (Hereford, Nottingham and Manchester) Brisbane in Australia and Aarhus in Denmark which demonstrates how far modern communications have come. When I was a kid, you were lucky if you get through to your school to chuck a sickie, now we're chatting all over the world without batting an eyelid.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Astonishing how much progress we've made, innit?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Not so when it comes to battling the forces of nature.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>While I was chatting away last night, I watched the BBC news and the scenes from Queensland were frightening. Cars carried off by a wall of water, houses demolished, businesses wiped out, and much human suffering.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The people of Queensland need help.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>You all know me. I'm the least charitable guy in the world. When the chuggers (charity muggers) wave the collecting tin under my nose, I either tell them to clear off or I nick the tin and then tell them to clear off.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>But I don't want your money. I want a bit of your time and a piece of your work. And it's not even me that wants it. It's <span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>100 stories for Queensland.</strong></span> Something between 500-1000 words, something upbeat, even light-hearted, any theme, any genre.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>We need it by <span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Friday January 28th.</strong></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>There are no guarantees of acceptance and even if your work is accepted, you won't get paid a bean. But you will get a thank you and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you helped.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The submission guidelines are short and sweet and they can be found on the submission page at:</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://100storiesforqueensland.submishmash.com/Submit">http://100storiesforqueensland.submishmash.com/Submit</a></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Go on. You know you want to.</p>

<p>Floodwaters have begun to subside in Queensland and the clean up operation is under way in Brisbane and the surrounding areas, where 18 people are known to have died, many more are missing, and 30,000 properties in Brisbane alone have been swamped.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>My Aussie geography is not good, so I had to do a little research. I knew that the town of Towoomba had been swamped by this flood and figured it was a mile or two inland. In face its SEVENTY miles from Brisbane: 125 kilometres. And according to the Beeb the whole of that 70 suffered in the floods. To put that into a perspective us Brits can probably understand, if the floods hit Whitehall in London , they would reach as far as Daventry and beyond, in Northamptonshire. It's greater than the distance from Leeds to Nottingham, or roughly the same as the distance between Bristol and Exeter.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>So why am I telling you all this? I don't want your money, I don't want your sympathy, ad I'm sure the good people of Queensland don't want your sympathy, either.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>But they could use your help.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>We're still in need of stories for Queensland. We need 100 of them. We've already had over 100 submissions, but not every tale gets through the first test of the readers, so we need those submissions coming in.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The project is headed by a resident of Brisbane, Jodi Cleghorn, a publisher who can see the devastation first hand. Jodi is backed by the three Writelinkers who brought you your Christmas magazine; Maureen Vincent-Northam, Trevor Belshaw and myself, and we're backed by a team of experienced writers/readers/editors, which includes our own Marit Meredith.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>There are submission guidelines on the both the website and the submissions sites, but briefly, we need uplifting tales that are between 500-1,000 words. No poetry please, and we prefer unpublished work, but if you have a piece that has appeared on your blog, or in Writelink's Arena, I'm sure we'll consider it.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>You can submit at <a href="http://100storiesforqueensland.submishmash.com/Submit">http://100storiesforqueensland.submishmash.com/Submit</a> where the guidelines are spelled out in more detail, and you can view the press release on the website at <a href="http://100storiesforqueensland.org/">http://100storiesforqueensland.org/</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>There's also a Facebook page where you may find some familiar faces at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php#%21/pages/100-Stories-for-Queensland/159460610768434">http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/100-Stories-for-Queensland/159460610768434</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>You know you can do it.</p>

<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--></p> <p>Yes, I know I'm harping on about this, but here's an intriguing set of photographs that demonstrates the devastation wreaked by floods in Brisbane.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>If you hover your mouse over the right hand side of the picture, then drag from right to left, you get an interesting before and after view showing the extent of the damage.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/qld-floods/beforeafter.htm">http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics/qld-floods/beforeafter.htm</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>We are still in need of your stories, and Jeanette, I've asked for clarification on the Brazil angle. Should have an answer later today.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>We have had some complaints/suggestions that Australia is so much richer than Brazil, so why are we helping the Aussies? According to the IMF, however, that is not the situation. In 2010, Brazil ranked as the 8th richest nation in the world, (based on GDP) and Australia were ranked 14th.</p>

<p>Congratulations Jean and Laurie on making the final anthology, and to anyone else whose story made it through.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Because I know you and others who submitted, I kept my distance from your work, so you made it on merit. To those of you who submitted and didn't make the final cut, don't be too disappointed. There was nothing wrong with your work but the competition was fierce and all tales went through a rigorous, two-stage selection procedure.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>As I write, we're in the process of editing the 100 stories and formatting them so they can be sent off to the typesetters for final publication preparation.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>It's been hard work and behalf of the management team, I'd like to say a big thank you to those who submitted work. We're sorry we can't get into indvidual feedback, but I can say that all the tales from this site were up to our usual, excellent standards. We just didn't have room for them all.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I'll post again when we're in pre-launch.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Again, many thanks to you all.</p>