Introducing Write Dreams, a writers' charity auction coming soon, and Luna!

Today I'm interviewing Luna, one of my CPs and friends. She's going to tell you all about Write Dreams, a writers' charity auction that's following on in the footsteps of Write Hope. The auction begins on January 16, so make sure you check it out and follow along - there's heaps of cool stuff to bid on.

Take it away Luna.

We’ve been talking a lot lately about Write Dreams, would you care to tell us what it is and what it aims to do?

Write Dreams is a kidlit auction we (Marieke, Amanda & me) have set up to raise money for Donna’s Dream House in order to help them with restoration costs following an arson attack on the 23rd December 2011.

In the middle of the night, arsonists broke into the office building and adjacent health centre. They stole essential computer equipment and damaged the suite, before setting fire to the furniture. When the fire was discovered, it was almost too late. The building was so badly damaged that it may have to be rebuilt completely, with total damages estimated in excess of £80,000/$125,000. More importantly, the fire destroyed photographs and mementoes of Donna - and hope.

What is the cause behind Write Dreams?

Donna Curtis died New Year’s Day in 1996, she was only 20. Having spent her last four years fighting cancer Donna saw the suffering of many terminally ill children and vowed her legacy would help them live a little more happily in the time they had left.

Donna’s Dream House is a holiday home for children and teenagers with life-threatening or terminal illnesses. The Dream House is run completely by volunteers and encourages the imagination. It’s how any child would imagine the perfect holiday to be. It’s full of light and laughter, fun and - most importantly - life. Since its start, Donna's Dream House has hosted and helped almost 380 families. 300 of those children have now sadly passed away, but the families who are left behind will always cherish the memories from Donna’s Dream House.

Why is this so important to you and Amanda and Marieke?

I’ve been sitting here for 20mins trying to decide how best to answer this… my mum died of lung-cancer when I was 11. She was ill for months and spent her last Christmas in a hospice. My father tried to explain this to me but I just thought she’d get better. The last time I saw her I was too occupied with playing with my nephew that I barely said hello. She died on the 2nd January and I didn’t tell her I loved her when I went home the day before.

Just over a year and a half later my father was in hospital to have his foot amputated. And I hadn’t learned, too excited about going into town I was only there for a short while. (To be fair to my younger self, it was supposed to be routine surgery.) When I came home from school the next day the doctor was on the phone to explain he had died during the night.

If I tried, I could maybe scrape together 10 memories of my mother, sadly even less of my father. I can’t even fill a photo album with what I have… while it’s not the same as watching your own child suffer from a life-threatening illness, making memories, having something to hold on, is why this is SO important.

My Mum & me.
I don’t remember this but it’s worth more to me
than my entire book collection. 
(And that’s saying something!) 

Donna’s Dream House offers that dream holiday to children who may very well never get the chance to have one otherwise. It understands and supports the families of these children – it gives them a chance to build memories. Memories that will be vital to those left behind, because no matter what they say, time doesn’t heal that kind of loss. You learn to deal with it and remembering the people you love happy helps more than you can imagine.

Marieke spent a large part of her childhood in hospitals with doctors not always convinced she’d come out again. Making memories then and continuing to do so is the same lesson I learned.

Memories can be little things. One of my favourite memories is playing hide-and-seek with Marieke and two other friends in Covent Garden. If was cold, very confusing to the people around us (this was two years ago) BUT so much fun.

Amanda has the mom’s view in this, the fear of your child having a terminal illness, the feeling of helplessness. Donna’s Dream House can’t cure the illness but it can help support children and parents.

So what’s the plan with the auction? When will it start and what can people who want to help do?

We have a (still) growing list of awesome donations from writers, publishers, etc.

Starting on Monday the 16th January we will be opening the auction, posting several items per day. Among other things, we have a full signed set of Tabitha Suzuma's books, all of Alyson Noël's Immortals series with some awesome swag, Waterstone's Children's Book Award-winning Artichoke Hearts, ARCs, critiques, and many more.

The event will last two weeks.

Where can we find Write Dreams and follow along?

The auction will be held here: Write Dreams and is starting on Monday the 16th January. You can also find us on Twitter where we will be posting info about specific auctions as well as general updates, etc…

Any other comments you want to make about Write Dreams or Donna’s Dream House?

Just that it’s a really worthy cause and the donations are awesome, so you need to check it out!

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Thanks so much to Luna for taking the time to appear on Rach Writes... Make sure you all head on over to Write Dreams and follow along, then turn up on January 16 to bid on their awesome items.

Interview with Luna (Project Fraeya)

Today I'm interviewing Luna from Project Fraeya, a Crusader and a lovely lady who I'm glad to call a friend (except when she calls me nasty names that are completely undeserved! :P). I thought I'd ask her some questions so you can all get to know her better. And keep an eye out for the artwork in this post, she drew it all herself!!!

1. Tell us who you are (let's make this challenging, I'll give you ten words exactly *grins*)

I strive to be peculiar, loyal, book obsessive and honest.

2. Your blog name is "Project Fraeya" - does it have any meaning?

*evil grin* yup and that's a secret between me and myself and will be revealed...

3. What are your passions in life?

This is hard, books are obvious but I am *cough* slightly obsessed with dance. I can't actually dance but it doesn't stop me watching it: Ballet, Ballroom, Hip Hop, Jazz I don't really care what. I flew to Philadelphia in 09 to see the DWTS tour, only to top that by flying 5000 miles to Las Vegas to see the SYTYCD* tour last year. (On both occasions I ended up in the same hotel as the cast – that was freaky.)

Before that I spent almost an entire year travelling to London every month to watch Musicals, over and over. I still try to see as many as possible but can't afford London very often. :( I love concerts... you know I think the best answer is that my passion is making memories. I'll pick those over stuff any time. When I'm old and grey I can look on these years and I will always always smile.

*We were going to Vegas anyway, we just flew 3 days earlier... 

4. Tell us about your current WIP(s)

I've got two on the go:

One which I carefully planned and storyboarded called Quarantined. A post apocalyptic / dystopian story about a young media intern called Troy who unlocks an SOS originating from Blackpool, a coastal town that has been quarantined for the last 5 years and according to every official report has no survivors.

My other WIP doesn't really have a title as its MC only started haunting me this month, her name is Bree and she's got a ghost on her shoulder which happens to be a Shinigami (death spirit) that uses Bree to do her work. I haven't even tried to storyboard it as I'm writing as I go (which is scary) but had 5000 words within the first 3 days. I haven't really had the chance to work on it since then.

5. I'm absolutely amazed at how well you draw! You drew these gorgeous pictures of Nozomi we're using for Write Hope, and so much else (*gazes around this blog post*). However did you learn to draw like that???

*blushes* why thank you. I think of them as doodles... I never learned it anywhere, I just have this tendency to draw on notepads at work while being stuck on phones. Manga/Anime was a big thing while I was growing up so I copied and then started doing my own thing. I struggle drawing “real” people and I haven't really been doing a lot of drawing since the last time I did something for charity.

6. What piece of writing advice do you think is the most important?

Get the right kind of help... the amount of stuff I've learned from my writing buddy and critique partners is invaluable. The thing is, you need to pick people who either match or complement you. There is no point in having a crit-partner who doesn't read the stories you write. While my writing buddy has a different style we have enough similarities to be able to help each other. And the differences there are, are what also brings a new viewpoint when crit-ing each other.

Yes you are the one writing and editing and re-writing but without help I think it's a lot harder because you can't always see that needs to be seen. (I'm channelling my inner philosopher here >.<)

7. Chocolate or cupcakes?

Chocolate, always chocolate. I don't actually like cake all that much... I'll eat it to be polite but even when I was little I never got excited about birthday cakes. I was more excited about the my mum making quiche LOL.

8. Anything else you'd like to add?

Write Hope

Yes please, please, pretty please with sugar and icing and a cherry on top visit Write Hope. All of us there have been working hard to get everything organised for the charity auctions starting today and there is some awesome stuff in there; signed copies of If I Stay/Where She Went (ARC), first chapter critique by Tessa Gratton (increasing to additional chapters) plus a signed copy of Blood Magic, signed ARC of Memento Nora, Haven prize pack, a critique of your first twenty pages by Carrie Harris and the mystery box plus so much more....

Rach: And it's for such a good cause - Save the Children emergency disaster relief in Japan

I loved finding out more about you Luna, thanks so much for stopping by!

If you haven't popped over to Project Fraeya yet, hie thee over and meet Luna where she usually hangs out :)