Authors sell words to raise money for charity
Published: February 20, 2006
A novel charity fundraiser in Canada has writers trading words for donations this weekend, organizers of a Toronto-area literary contest said.
Eighteen writers gathered at the pickering library near Toronto yesterday for the so-called great Canadian novel marathon to ink a plethora of words within three days, ending today.
For a 50-Canadian-dollar donation, an author will use a person’s name in their novel, while 25 dollars gets a street name, address or pet’s name put into the plot.
The money benefits a local women’s shelter.
Writer and library manager Amy Caughlin said she had no trouble fitting four orange cats and two gerbils into the plot of her book about an autistic boy with an ear for music.
But Caughlin said in a telephone interview that fellow author Martin Avery was struggling to include his friend’s dog chip in his gangster novel.
“The dog understands Latvian and English,” she said.
There is no guarantee the books will be published — quantity is valued over quality here — but such contests have raised thousands of dollars for charities in Canada in recent years.
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