Thanks for giving me the chance to spread the word to short story lovers about the Stories for Homes anthology. This particular story started back in April, when I was invited to a housewarming by the parent of one of my son’s friends. Over a glass of wine (OK, I may be fictionalising there a tad) Sally Swingewood told me about her personal struggles to find a decent home and her plans to raise awareness of the housing crisis, as well as money for a housing charity.

Her plan involved a book. Of short stories. On the theme of home. It would be highly polished and professional. The stories would be of the highest quality but the authors should include both published and emerging writers. Did I want to get involved? Rhetorical question!

I gulped when Sal said she wanted to launch the book in July though. Could it possibly be done? Well, yes, it could, but only if a whole community of volunteers got involved. Before we knew it, we had a website, Facebook group and Twitter a/c. The submissions began flooding in.

With the help of our growing community of supporters, the e-book was published on schedule at the end of July. The paperback was launched last week. With an average of 4.8 stars awarded in reviews on Amazon, we knew we had achieved our aim. Truly, this is a world-class anthology and. most importantly, Shelter was receiving some serious money. We’ve already raised over £1000 in royalties.

This post is part of a Book Blast to try to get #storiesforhomes trending. Thanks for reading this post, thanks for sharing it, thanks for supporting Shelter, thanks for buying this book. Your reward is 63 world-class short stories and the warm fuzzy glow you get from knowing your money has gone to support Shelter in their vital work to help those people who need their services the most.

Debi