Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Books for Charity: Helping a Family in Joplin

Posted by L.J. Sellers
As I watched families pick through the rubble of their homes, looking for shoes for their kids, I felt sickened and helpless. As helpless as they must have felt to see the tornado coming and not be able to do anything but hide and hope for the best. I tried to imagine what it would feel to have lost everything and not have enough money to rent a motel room for the week.

So rather than feel helpless, I decided to do what I could. Together with my blogger partners, we’re raising money to help a family in Joplin, Missouri. Drew, Judith and I have pledged 100% our Amazon book royalties (print and digital) through the end of month to this charitable cause.

The family we're helping is Francisco and Natasha Rodriguez and their children Zion and Adriana. Natasha is pictured here with the kids. They plan to share the money with other family members Jose, Sabrola, and Fabian Ramierz, who lost their home, cars, and workplace.

The amount of money we raise will be up to readers. We hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to buy some great books and donate to a good cause at the same time. Here’s a list of the participating novels with links to Amazon.

Drew’s bestselling title: While the Savage Sleeps

L.J.’s bestselling Detective Jackson mysteries:
The Sex Club
Secrets to Die For
Thrilled to Death
Passions of the Dead
Dying for Justice
And standalone thrillers:
The Baby Thief
The Suicide Effect

Judith’s guilty pleasure Skeeter Hughes mysteries:
Where’s Billie?
Whose Hand?

Friend of the blog author C.J. West has decided to join us and donate 100% of his e-book sales. His titles are:
The End of Marking Time (A creative, compelling story, L.J. adds)
Taking Stock
Randy Black thrillers:
Sin & Vengeance
A Demon Awaits
Gretchen Green

Another way to help out is to spread the word. Use Facebook, Twitter, or any of your online accounts to let other readers know about this charitable cause. If you want to help this family directly without buying books (as some readers have requested), please email me or anyone else on the blog for their mailing address.

The outpouring of support has been terrific! Thank you!

18 comments:

  1. Great cause. It's like some giant just came out of the sky with a weed eater or something and trashed a town. It's horrible and I am glad people are helping anyway they can even when times are tuff.

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  2. I have tweeted it, blogged it and google buzzed it!

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  3. Great idea - it's also my birthday and I planned on buying books anyway so this is the best of both worlds :)

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  4. Thanks so much, Lisa and Paula. Every little bit helps. We sure do appreciate it, and I'm guessing the people we help will, as well.

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  5. I'm just so proud of you all! Way to go! I'll keep helping to get the word out, in between editing jobs.

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  6. Excellent! Wishing you great success over the next few days.

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  7. Lala, I love you. Thank you for your support. Some sales are being made, be we could use a whole lot more.

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  8. I meant to post this earlier. The generosity of L.J., Drew and Judy is amazing.

    Other than making a purchase in the next few days to support a family who needs some help, here's how you can thank these authors.

    When you read the book, go to Amazon and drop a short review on their sites. You have absolutelyl no idea the power you have to effect sales.

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  9. Blogged it on The Dirty Lowdown, Tweeted it, posted to my Book Blogger group. Love you guys

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  10. I just posted it to my facebook friends. You guys rock!!! What a wonderful idea.

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  11. Thanks to everyone for helping us spread the word. We appreciate it so much. Our hope is to make a difference during this difficult time, and people like you all are helping to accelerate the effort by giving us your support.

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  12. Great idea LJ, I have reposted the link on fb and about to tweet it as well. . It's so nice of you all to do this during time of need.

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  13. Thanks, LJ, for setting this all in motion, and to my fellow CFCers for taking the ball and running with it! What a great feeling to have so many people contributing to help a family whose lives have been devastated by the horrific tornado in Joplin. My congratulations to everyone who is taking time out from their busy lives to pitch in a bit to this incredibly worthy cause. I'll continue to spread the word, and will match the average of my colleagues' donations.

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  14. I live about an hour from joplin mo? this is great thing, you all are doing

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  15. I posted in on our local news Facebook.

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  16. What a great opportunity to read your other standalone, LJ! Thank you for organizing. I will tweet and spread the link as well. It is such a tragedy--I greatly appreciate the opportunity to do a tiny something...

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  17. This was LJ's great idea. I just signed on. Although the heartbreaking stories in Joplin have gained most of the national attention, I want people to know that two people were killed in North Minneapolis by tornadoes that same afternoon, and about 6,000 were left homeless. I'll also be donating an amount equal to 100 percent of my royalties to efforts to help the people in North Minneapolis, a community that has been hardpressed for years.

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  18. I think it's great that all of you are helping these families that are in need!

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