As many of you know, the southern part of the United States was ripped apart by devastating tornadoes last week. What you may not know is that two of Novel Novice’s staff members, Stephanie (clumzbella) and Taylor (Miss Librarian 2010) live in Alabama, where the damage was the worst and many people lost their lives.
Thankfully, neither of us was in the path of the storm, but we feel the need to help our neighbors. Below you’ll find some writing- and reading-related resources for those who wish to help out.
- Help Write Now has set up an online auction (similar to last year’s Do the Write Thing for Nashville when it flooded). They are calling for books, swag, critiques, etc. from the writing community.
Have an extra copy of your book? Sign it and donate it to the auction. Have a little time on your hands? Offer to critique a certain number of manuscript pages. For more ideas, check out the listings on Do the Right Thing for Nashville. Then, bid, bid, bid! Novel Novice will also be contributing a swag pack to this effort!
- Southern Fried Weirdness is accepting short story (up to 5,000 words) and poetry submissions for an e-anthology to be published with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the American Red Cross. The anthology will be available through Kindle, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble. Editor T.J. McIntyre says he prefers “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.”
For submission guidelines and details, see the blog. McIntyre hopes to get it published in the next two weeks, and when it is, we’ll let you know!
- According to LibraryJournal.com, the following libraries suffered heavy damage or were completely destroyed: Pell City Library; The Carl Elliott Regional Library System in Jasper; The Killen Public Library; The Ragland Public Library; The Cordova Public Library; and the Pratt City Branch of the Birmingham Public Library. To help the libraries, send an e-mail to Rebecca Mitchell, state librarian, at rmitchell@apls.state.al.us.
Novel Novice 
Thank you for mentioning our auction!