In the Fall of 2012, DH Starr approached me about Featherweight publishing an anthology that he was a part of. It was a special project being organized by Michele Montgomery. All the authors wanted to donate their royalties from the anthology to charity. They wanted the monies to go to a specific cause---they wanted the money to go to a charity that worked with LGBT homeless teens. The authors donating their royalties to this worthy cause are Dakota Chase, DC Juris, Jeff Erno, Tabatha Heart, Caitlin Ricci, Diana Adams, DH Starr, Michele L. Montgomery, MF Kays and T.A. Webb. We thank them one and all. The inspiration for the anthology was a picture that they had seen with the text over the image that said "40% of homeless youth are LGBT. The #1 reason theyre on the streets is family rejection." Once we got to final editing stages we realized, we didnt know WHICH charity to donate the monies to. There are so many great charities out there working with LGBT youth that we werent sure which to choose. We wanted to make sure that no matter how much, it would make a difference. So the search was on. I was pleasantly surprised to come across one that had the name of the anthology almost exactly---Lost-n-Found Youth, Inc. It seemed like fate talking to me and after speaking with one of the board members, I was convinced of it. You see the board member told me that the day before we spoke, they received a call from a teen that had been on vacation with his parents and when they found a gay romance on his eReader, they left him on the side of the road. Yes, you read that correctly, abandoned him for reading a gay romance. Our hope is that with these stories, these teens realize that there are many out there that care about them. That no matter what anyone says---THEY MATTER.… (more) |