Change a life: doing something impossible for literacy

Those of you who follow my blog will know that I've been inspired by my mate Joel Runyon's Impossible HQ to try and ramp things up a little and get involved in a little philanthropy. Why? It's not like I'm one of those wealthy ladies who lunch. I've got a busy life, work hard, and have plenty of home grown mouths to feed, but I've long felt like I need to incorporate some charity based work into what I do - to formally set out to change a few people's lives for the better.  One of the many reasons for wanting to do this is because I want to live in the kind of world where helping others and charitable giving is on the agenda for everyone, and because I know how powerful the ripple effect is for giving.

One of the top items on my Impossible List is "get involved on an ongoing basis at a high level with a literacy related charity".  Literacy/education is an area that is of utmost importance to me and I've long thought that this was the type of charity that I'd get involved in.  Once again, Joel has come to the rescue by putting out the call for his "Impossible League community" to raise $25,000 dollars to build a school in Guatemala in conjunction with Pencils of Promise.  PoP has built 50 schools over the past few years and over the next few months, they want to build 50 more. In their own words: "education is a living, breathing entity that with the right nurturing, evolves into something spectacular. We’ve learned that every piece of its growth is a challenge and that each pencil, each dollar, each volunteer is essential." Sounds like a worthy cause for me to begin my own philanthropic journey with. So here's the deal.

I've yet to be paid royalties on my latest novel Black Cow.  My publisher has promised payment to all authors in August (hey, it's August now!).  Since the opportunity has arisen, I'm going to publically pledge 50% of all the sales that I've made so far and am yet to make on sales of Black Cow to the PoP cause (a cause well aligned with the theme of the book).  I don't know how much that will amount to at this stage, but whatever it is - a lot or a little, PoP have got 50% of it.  If you'd like to support this great cause and help provide a school for these gorgeous young kids who want only to learn (and get a great read in too that some reviewers have called "life changing", go pick up a copy of BC now - maybe for a friend if you've already got it and join me.  Or you can go directly to PoP and contribute to our project here:  http://www.pencilsofpromise.org/fundraise/fundraiser?f=a0GU00000050QBQMA2&r=1
or you can help spread the word on your social networks by clicking on one of the little share buttons below.

Thanks for being part of something exciting! I'll update the figure here as soon as I know what it is.