Yes it’s true! The Colorectal Cancer Alliance has confirmed to our publisher, Nightscape Press, that Fantasy For Good – A Charitable Anthology has raised at least $10,290.82 for their outstanding organisation!

I say at least because it’s been a time-consuming challenge tracking down all the payments that go directly from Amazon to the CCA (Nightscape Press gets none of the proceeds from sales of this book, they all go straight to the charity). This is primarily because of the way Amazon in different countries has identified itself in multiple payments over time. It was tough to track everything down but eventually the CCA confirmed they had received funds of over $10K since publication.

This is a fantastic sum, one that really warms the heart. When Jordan Ellinger and I embarked on this project back in 2012, we obviously hoped the result would be a decent chunk of change for a worthwhile cause. It is immensely gratifying to finally be able to announce a very decent sum, albeit one that comes seven years after we began, and five years after publication. Still, it was never a race, and we’re delighted that FFG continues to sell steadily as more fantasy fans discover its existence. Every penny of the proceeds still goes directly to the CCA, so if you’ve not bought a copy what are you waiting for?

I’d like to extend a sincere thank you to the following fine folks:

• Jordan Ellinger, my partner in crime for two years on a surprisingly demanding task. The two of us could share tales of long nights ploughing through the endless slush pile, agonizing discussions over what to include and what had to be left out, or encounters with certain prickly famous authors who did NOT end up in the anthology.
• Nightscape Press, Bob and Jen, for supporting us every step of the way, for doing the formatting, layout and all manner of publishy things for free, including sending out comp copies to the authors on their own dime.
• Paul Pederson for letting us use the breathtaking cover! Please visit his site to see more astonishing fantasy artwork.
• Trent Zelazny for the very moving introduction, for helping us make contact with some giants in the industry, and for allowing us to reprint one of his father’s wonderful stories
• Our contributors, you are all wonderful people. You gave your time and your words, without which we’d have nothing but an interesting pamphlet. It was a genuine pleasure to read and publish all your stories, especially those from writers who had rarely or never been in print before.
• The Colorectal Cancer Alliance, for doing terrific, important work and for enthusiastically supporting us from the very start.
• Our readers, especially those who left a review, we appreciate you all and we hope you all found something to enjoy.
• Everyone who submitted a story to our open call, thanks for making our job so tough by sending us so many good stories, and also several oddly similar tales of intelligent birds living in cliffs. I would love to see the themed anthology those were rejected from.

My final thanks goes to my wife, Jennifer, for all her love and support, and no thanks at all to the gods of unpleasant coincidences. Jennifer was diagnosed with, of all things, colon cancer well after we had selected the CCA as the beneficiary for FFG’s sales. That was not the kind of personal connection to this project I’d been looking for. The good news is that the problem was detected early, my wife made a full recovery, and she remains cancer free.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to be making a similar post in five year’s time when we smash the $100,000 mark. Well one can hope.