All proceeds from these 3 anthologies will go to help support the recovery of Australia.  We asked Stephen to decide where the profits would go to do the best work and after much research he continued to come back to The Red Cross.  We can identify where we want the donation to go and we will have it go directly to the efforts of The Red Cross in helping with the recovery effort in Australia.

Stephen gave us a recent update  and if you want to read more about what is happening directly from someone who is there you can read more here:

Recent rains have helped enormously, still there are fires, but not to the same extent as there were, and the focus now is more on recovery and rebuilding. To that end there are advertising campaigns now to stop what’s called the second wave disaster and that is people staying away from tourist areas and business who rely on travelers and visitors to survive. Most of our tourist destinations are unaffected, yet people think the whole country is gone, which of course isn’t true. The problem of course is that if people stop visiting, businesses will go broke, making the overall recovery much harder. With the rains, re-growth has already begun and some burnt out areas have grasses and shrubs recovering already.

Then of course there is the wildlife, and those organizations such as the RSPCA, and others are doing remarkable work rescuing animals and rehousing them. A lot of our native trees are Eucalyptus, and with millions of trees gone, Koalas only eat those leaves, so regrowth and resettlement is going on in huge numbers to save a cuddly species from extinctions in the wild. Kangaroos will bounce back, and in time, the feeling is most other animals will to, but the key words are – in time. In a lot of cases we hope the burnt trees themselves will regrow as they have evolved to grow after bushfires. I’m told with heavy rains in recent days some are showing green growth, which is encouraging.

All charities are ‘working their bums off’ but the one who seems to be doing the most is the Red Cross. So in closing, two things.  Firstly – and I know I’ve said it before – my heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you for participating in whatever way you have. Forty eight stories simply is mind-blowing, and the offers for promotion, trailers, editing, cover design, formatting and of course redirecting the money has been so uplifting I can’t even begin to tell you – and for someone who uses words all the time – that’s saying something.

Secondly, if ever you’ve thought about visiting this country, now’s the time. And as Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) once said in some fantastic famous ads in the US and across the world. “Come on down; I’ll throw a shrimp on the barby for you.  – Author Stephen King.