Belarus update

When Elspeth Morrison and I decided to publish the bundle Something Short, she decided that she wanted to use the proceeds to help out a friend who was raising money to send a group of volunteers to Belarus. I whole heartedly agreed. We would have liked to have sold more books but I like think the little we contributed is making someones live better. Below is the link with the story of STAND international and how their volunteers fared in September.

Blago, September 2014

Of course you can still buy our book on Amazon. Even though the trip has been, the support for this project in Belarus is ongoing so any future royalties will go to this project.

Something-Short

I'm busy reading Penny Lucker's The Truthfinder just now, I'm totally engrossed in the story so a review should follow shortly.

Confused

Learning a new language is never easy and French certainly has its challenges. After living here for 3 years I now understand most of what is being said, but some people talk faster than others and especially little jokes and asides are cracked at speed. I mostly nod or smile politely, not wanting people to repeat themselves, but totally clueless as to what was just said.

Then there are the faux amis or false friends; you think you know a word as it is similar to the English, but it means something else in French. Like the word déception, it means disappointment in french. Also some English has taken on a new meaning, par example K.O. We know it to mean a knock-out, but here it is used to say that something is not OK. The one that had me really confused is the expression 'pas terrible' which translates as not bad/terrible but actually means it is terrible???

I've not been blogging as regularly as previous and I apologise for that. Work has been busy and when I'm off I just want to lie on the beach and enjoy the fine summer weather. In a few months when it cools I hope to pick up the pace again.

Elspeth and I received the first royalty cheque for Something Short and the money has been donated. We could always do with more sales as support in mind Scotland is still short of its target. You can of course also donate directly:
https://www.justgiving.com/volunteering-Belarus/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socspondesktop&utm_content=volunteering-Belarus&utm_campaign=post-sponsorship-donation-desktop

Something Short

The new bundle of short stories I've co-written with my friend Elspeth Morrison is selling slowly but steadily. It is amazing how hard it is to get family, friends and acquaintances to part with 77p ($1.29) even when it is for a good cause. We are trying to plug the book at every opportunity so  I thought I devote another blog post to the charity we are hoping to help. The Stafford centre in Edinburgh is fundraising to send 4 volunteers plus a staff member to the family centre at Vileyka in Belarus.

This is what the Stafford centre says:

Vilejka has a population of about 26000 with a further population of 24000 living in the surrounding rural area. Within the town around 50% of families have heating and water however within the surrounding rural area most families do not have these commodities. Around 25% of the total population are elderly and struggle to survive on the state pension.

The family centre is run by the local municipal but is severely restricted in its work due to financial restraints. As a result only a very small percentage of those living in poverty have any support from outwith their family.  After finding out about stand international our service users had no hesitation in volunteering for this worthwhile cause.  

We need to raise £2000 to help us get there by donating as little as a £1 you will not only be helping our volunteers you will be helping the people in Belarus where the family centre means so much to so many people.  

So if you can, donate via the following link 

 https://www.justgiving.com/volunteering-belarus

or buy the book!

http://www.amazon.com/Something-Short-Elspeth-Morrison-ebook/dp/B00K74XHZO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1401545726&sr=1-1&keywords=elspeth+morrison 

Thanks
Angela

Belarus

It has been a while since my last post, but some times you just need to prioritise and I'm afraid the blog fell by the way side. I have been busy editing and getting a bundle of short stories ready for publication. I'm so pleased that Something short is now available from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Something-Short-Elspeth-Morrison-ebook/dp/B00K74XHZO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1400057792&sr=8-4&keywords=something+short

So why Belarus I hear you ask? Elspeth my friend and co-author has a friend that is trying to raise £500 to go out to Belarus and help build a play park at an orphanage. We hope to help this wonderful charity; stand international with the proceeds of this book. This charity works with children that have been affected by the Chernobyl fall-out.

http://standinternational.org/where-we-work/belarus

We are selling the book at $1.30 which means after tax and Amazon deduct we have royalties of $0.30 so we need to sell a lot of books to make any impact. I would like to call on my followers to share this post, buy the book (its only $1.30!!) or do a review.

Many thanks for helping out!
Angelax