Write Hope

Hey guys!

Well, the final tally is in! It took me a little while to add up all the numbers, doublecheck payments (because we had some awesome people whose awesome companies matched their donation so they donated the traditional way), add up more numbers, but we have it.

The result of the Write Hope auction is...

$10,351

And that's the net result you guys! All monies have either already been donated or will go to Save the Children as soon as possible!
It's humbling, awe-inspiring and absolutely AMAZING. There's really only one thing we can say to that.Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. To all who donated, bid, supported, promoted, cheered us on. You are truly amazing people. Thank you.

Now before I set the spotlight on Nozomi (cause that's where she likes to be!), one last announcement from my part: HELENE, winning bidder of Suzanne Kamata's bilingual picture book, and FLUR, second highest bidder of the signed copy of Across the Universe and a query critique by Beth Revis, one last call :-) Can you contact us within the next three days? If you don't we'll the next bidder will be able to claim the prize.

Now... t-shirt details!!

Nozomi's back!!!

I wanted to tell you a bit more about the Write Hope pack. Because it's pretty and I want one!

Luna is happy to make them up but we need a minimum order of 20, otherwise the manufacturing costs are too high. There will two version of the Write Hope pack, depending on the final quantities.

Version 1 (for orders between 20-49) = $35
1 Write Hope t-shirt
2 Write Hope Bookmarks (one sided design)

Version 2 (order 50 and above) = $35
1 Write Hope t-shirt
2 write Hope Bookmarks (one sided design)
1 Write Hope key-ring

I've attached the full list of sizes and colors for you to choose from, please note that the t-shirt colors aren't an exact match, but the closest I could find.

If you'd like one please let us know here by filling in this form.

Hey guys!

I'm reporting to you live from beneath a huge stack of paperwork with a few points of order.



We're busy wrapping everything up and fair is fair, you've all been amazing. All but a few bids have been confirmed and paid. Most details have been forwarded to the donors. We only have to coordinate :-)

Still, a few auctions are left open. Where possible I've emailed the winning bidders directly. Some of you I haven't been able to contact.

BOOK MAWSTER, winning bidder of the critique by A Writer Gone Mad,
HELENE, winning bidder of Suzanne Kamata's bilingual picture book, and
FLUR, second highest bidder of the signed copy of Across the Universe and a query critique by Beth Revis, can you contact us as soon as possible? (That is, before Friday! :-) )

Everyone who bid on our Write Hope prize pack, have a look at the comments. Joan offered to make all of you a wonderful handmade bookmark.

What is it you say? Do you want to know our amazing total? Have a look at our final project first. Cause the auction may have ended, we're not completely done yet.

Luna is offering to make Write Hope Packs, with a unique professionally embroidered WRITE HOPE t-shirt, bookmarks and a keychain. Come let us know if you want one! :-)

And then to answer that question... Well... We're still adding up numbers and will announce it shortly... But we're well past $10,000 *SQUEE*

Nozomi reporting here, I’m coming to you from the frontlines of Luna’s creativeness. If you’ve ever wondered what creativeness looks like, in Luna’s case it's like she picked up all her art supplies and threw them in the air… it’s an obstacle course of paper, scrap sketches, fabrics, ribbon and glitter. I love the glitter!

About a month ago Marieke asked her if she’d make a t-shirt for Write Hope, a few designs later and we have:

It’s pretty right? *loves*

Instead of printed t-shirts these are embroidered. Long lasting, eye-popping and gorgeous! Not just that, but you yourself can decide how you want yours to look…

See I love pink (much to Luna’s irritation) so I’d pick a pink t-shirt with hot pink embroidery… or maybe sparkling silver? We have a long list of different t-shirt colors and embroidery thread to choose from.

Luna is willing to design and manufacture a Write Hope Pack, which would consist of a t-shirt, 2 bookmarks (one-sided design) and a keyring. The cost of these packs would be around $30 (unfortunately postage & packing eats up almost a third of that).

In order for us to proceed, we would need sufficient interest. So, would you want one?

At our halfway point also a look at our fabulous mascot - Nozomi.

Ever wondered how long it takes for Nozomi to come to life?

Hours, many hours. Our little mascot might be small and cute, but creating a decent colour picture is quite long-winded. Couple of reasons for this, mainly I haven't drawn in a while and I've never been great at colour pictures. Pencils are my friends. :)

I do have the correct art supplies buried somewhere, but once scanned, those images lose the 'wow' factor (you can see all the lines and mistakes). So the alternative is colour them in with an art program. I used a free one called Artweaver, it has layers - layers are very useful.

To begin with I did a sketch of Nozomi, traced it with black biro and then cleaned it. This is scanned and imported into the program. The image duplicated into various layers (16 this time) and then each part of the picture is coloured in separately.

First the skin, kimono, hair, etc... all on separate layers (that way you don't have to start again if you mess up). From there shadows and texture are added and I'm forever going back to tidy bits up.

Once the Nozomi is finished, in comes the background. I used to draw these as well but because we are on such a tight schedule I've imported a picture, faded it and added faint butterfly wings (Nozomi ♥ wings) and then traced Nozomi back in. All of this with a click of my mouse. >.<

Finally you merge the layers, save and add text. And we're done... total time – about 4-5 hours.

You can see all the steps here (minus all the tidying):

Then again, wrapping things up sounds like we can, and we're actually in the middle of SO MANY fantastic auctions.

Bidding on the items from day 3 closes today. That means you have to hurry if you want the chance to win: a signed copy of Haven and a Haven prize pack; a critique of your first three chapters by Kendare Blake; a signed copy of Soar, Elinor!; a signed copy of The Trouble With Half A Moon; a collection of books by Kate Messner; a prize pack with a signed copy of The Pull Of Gravity, loads of swag and a query + partial critique.
And last but not least a query critique by Meredith Barnes of Fineprint Literary as well as the 30-minute Skype chat still open from day 1.

So far you all came through in an amazing way. We've had bidding wars, twitter taunting, upped offers and we're raising a lot of money for Save The Children. Because in the end that's the most important thing. On the Save The Children Blog stories about how the Japan disaster is affecting the children in Japan are heart wrenching. Just have a look at Seina's story. This nine-year-old boy has been living with his mother in an evacuation center. He's lost his sister to the tsunami.

This auction is an amazing experience so far - more on that later today - but it's children like Seina that are the heart of it. If you can help in any way, please do.

And to that end we have a whole lot of amazing lots up on the site. What do you think of a query critique from literary agent Tina Wexler? A critique from the mysterious Authoress? A marketing consulting session from Shelli Johannes? Signed and personalized copies of Maria V. Snyder's Insider series? A collection of picture books? And my personal favorite: Tessa Gratton offering a first chapter critique for every $50 and signed copies of Blood Magic.

We have so much more to come too. Signed copies or ARCs of One Hundred Candles, Eon, Riva, Moonglass, Across The Universe, Mistwood, Imaginary Girls, and many more. A partial critique and phone call with literary agent Kathleen Ortiz. A full critique by Debra Driza, followed by a full read from her agent Taylor Martindale. A story in the Kat, Incorrigible universe written especially for you. And another last but not least: a critique by the one and only Maggie Stiefvater.

So bid high, bid often, and thank you, thank you, thank you. :-)

Hello, my name is Nozomi.

I love books, onigiri, pretty much every kind of tea there is but I don’t like miso soup – at all. I read manga as much as books and my favorite anime film is Howl’s Moving Castle. I don’t really have a favorite real life people movie. I like fairytale ones. The happily ever after kind.

I live surrounded by books, and the stacks keep growing and growing but I think that’s really neat because it just means I can carry on reading. If I’m not reading, I’m sleeping.

I can’t cook, at all… I tried making spaghetti once, it wasn’t good. BUT I’m really good at eating, I do that a lot. Especially chocolate, I love chocolate. I love ice-cream even more.

If I was allowed a pet it would be a cat, a black one.

I want to help Write Hope because someone once helped me. They only asked me to help someone else so that's what I do. If we all help each other there's always hope.

My secret weapon is this:

No one can resist. Can you?

Nozomi

Welcome to Write Hope! We're an international group of Kidlit writers with a connection to Japan. Some of us have lived there. Some of us speak the language. Some of us love the culture. Some of us simply think Japan is exotic and mysterious.

The land of the rising sun and cherry blossoms in spring.

These last few days one thing that binds us above all is our mutual horror at the disasters striking Japan - from earthquakes to tsunamis to nuclear meltdowns.

AP

In three days entire villages have been wiped off the face of the earth, countless people are missing, others are homeless. Millions of people are left without electricity and water. There's no knowing where it ends.

We want to do our bit to help. To that end we have formed Write Hope. We're busy preparing everything now and over the next few weeks we plan to auction kidlit books, critiques, and other prizes for donation to the relief fund of our chosen charity Save the Children.

We'd love for you to be in too. Sign up, spread the word. If you have ARC's, books, critiques, swag to spare, pop us a mail. If you're a publishing professional, agent, editor, author, who wants to participate, pop us a mail.

If you want to help, pop us a mail.

Together we can move mountains :-)