Mercury Blobs, By Sylvia Petter just published.

Mercury Blobs, a collection of short stories by contributor and editor to the New Sun Rising Anthology, has been recently published by Raging Aardvark.

This is a collection of flash fiction which will challenge and delight readers.

 “The brilliant stories in Sylvia Petter’s Mercury Blobs are sometimes very funny and sometimes very moving, and often they are both at once, which is one of the best tests of a truly serious writer. Moreover, she is a master of the very short fictional forms that have become a crucial expressive medium of the 21st-century sensibility. This is a splendid collection from a gifted writer."

–Robert Olen Butler, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain.

We are delighted to congratulate and celebrate this new publication by Sylvia and wish her the best on her future writing journey.

Mercury Blobs is available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle formats.

Raindrops just published by Vaishali Shroff

Vaishali Shroff has just published a wonderful picture book called 'Raindrops'. It was published by Tulika Publishers.

Here is an excerpt

It is pouring rain. From her window, little Anju sees familiar scenes of a rainy day - cloudy skies, umbrellas, puddles...But her curious eyes pick up other surprises too, while her imagination plays with the raindrops sliding down her window pane. Soft water colours drench the pages with the mood of a wet, wet day. 

You can buy this book from Tulikabooks

Shipping is free at the moment...

Gold Medal eLit award to New Sun Rising

Such exciting news to share!

The electronic version of the Charity Anthology - New Sun Rising been awarded a GOLD medal eLit Book Award - which is pretty cool, given there are thousands of entrants from round the world.

There is an awards ceremony in New York in about a month or so time, which sadly - as much as I'd love to jet off and go - I can't make it.. A huge thanks to the contributors who live around there and have offered to go in my stead. As soon as any information about the awards ceremony comes to hand, you can be sure that it will be posted here.

There are so many people who put in countless hours to ensure that this project didn't die. I'd like to publicly thank Sylvia Petter who has been the driving force for so long on this. She is an amazing inspiration to anyone who works with her.

The project stumbled a number of times, but was always held together by a wonderful editorial team - and now is still enjoying awards and sales - which I may add are still being sent to the Japanese Red Cross.

 If you haven’t read it yet, you can buy the anthology in e-book ($5) or paperback ($10.05) from Amazon.  Now you have an even bigger excuse to read it - its an Award Winning book!!

New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan – charity status

When we all set about this project, you the contributors, all the people behind the scenes right from the very beginning, the team that brought the project to fruition, and you the readers of New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan, it was in order to help those affected by the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

We pledged all royalties from the book, paperback and kindle, toward the relief fund run by the Japanese Red Cross Society.

A little over two years on, we are pleased to report that we have sent two donations to the Japanese Red Cross Society. Amazon won´t let us divulge sales numbers and earnings, but to give you an idea, we hope to have made total donations of 500 Euros by the next deadline in 2014. 

In 2013, bank charges in Japan were waived, and members of the editorial team covered the outgoing bank charges as part of an extra donation. Unfortunately, sales in the UK were not high enough for us to access those royalties, but there is still time. Donations to the Japanese Red Cross Society relief fund can now still be sent with bank fees waived in Japan until 31 March 2014.

The original cut-off date was 31 March 2013, so the extension shows that there remains work to be done to help those affected and unfortunately probably already forgotten.

We also sent a copy of the anthology to the Japanese Red Cross Society for their offices and so they could see the work of the many contributors from all over the world.

Sales are slowing down now, but we have still registered sales this year, so when the money comes together before next year´s deadline, a further donation will be made. Members of the Editorial team will cover the outgoing bank charges so that we can honour the pledge we all made.

Since New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan will remain available beyond any bank fee waiver deadline, we will continue to send monies from the sale of the book to the Japanese Red Cross Society, since we are convinced that the effects of the disaster will make themselves felt for a long time. So we are on board for as long as it takes.

Thank you all, for your support!

Extracts from the letters from the Japanese Red Cross Society (18.04.2013):

"This is the Japanese Red Cross Society and would like to express our sincere gratitude for your donation to the disaster victims who were affected by the earthquake and tsunami in 2011. ...

Thank you once again for your generous and continuous support and cooperation."

"We hereby acknowledge, with sincere gratitude, receipt of your contribution for those affected by the Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster. Based upon decisions made by the Cash Grant Allocation Committee, your donation will be distributed via the appropriate prefectural and municipal governments to support the recovery of those affected by this devastating disaster."

Extract of message (15.02.2013): 

" Today we have received your book and we thank you for introducing it to us.
We will surely enjoy reading it and feel your warm heart supporting the
affected people.

We deeply appreciate your kindness and passion for this incredible project.

Best wishes,
Organizational Development Department
Japanese Red Cross Society"