SHAKEN: STORIES FOR JAPAN

Timothy Hallinan is the Edgar-nominated author of THE QUEEN OF PATPONG, the fourth in his series of Bangkok thriller featuring American travel writer Poke Rafferty.  Most recently, he's the editor of SHAKEN: STORIES FOR JAPAN, a collection of original short stories by top mystery writers that was designed as a fund-raiser for the relief effort in northeastern Japan.

SHAKEN:  STORIES FOR JAPAN

When twenty writers came together to create a book of short stories to raise money for relief efforts in the Japanese disaster area, we all knew this was a challenging process.

For one thing, writers tend to be individualists, unlikely to show up for breakfast all together at 7:45 wearing matching shirts.

For another, we were spread all over the place – on both coasts of the United States and in the middle, in Australia, Hong Kong, Greece, Paris, Bangkok.  We could communicate by group e-mail and try to reach consensus on things that way, but as anyone who's done that knows, all it takes is one or two (reasonable) questions, and the whole discussion wobbles off into strange new channels.

Especially with writers.

So we decided to try to keep it simple.  Here's the description of the stories we were going to write:

It can be anything you like, mystery, nonmystery, past, present, future.  It should just have something to do with Japan.

How long?

Long enough.

Think of all the things that could have been said: it should be uplifting, it should end optimistically, it should give the reader something to think about that's related to the relief effort, it should, it should, it should.

But we didn't do that. In this, as in every other aspect of the project, we just trusted each other to do the right thing, and do it the absolute best we could.

And did they—meaning my brother and sister writers—ever.

For the record, here are the writers whose wonderful stories make up SHAKEN: STORIES FOR JAPAN.

Brett Battles
Cara Black
Vicki Doudera
Dianne Emley
Dale Furutani

Timothy Hallinan
Stefan Hammond
Rosemary Harris
Naomi Hirahara
Wendy Hornsby
Ken Kuhlken
Debbi Mack
Adrian McKinty
I.J. Parker
Gary Phillips
Hank Phillippi Ryan
Jeffrey Siger
Kelli Stanley
C.J. West
Jeri Westerson

Missing from that list is Gar Anthony Haywood, who decided at the end that his story didn't work but who contributed a brilliant cover design instead.

Since I was the editor, I was sitting in the middle of the circle, and only I saw the material as it came in.  And it was instantly clear that everyone was working on tiptoe and that we were going to have a great collection.

And we do.  I can say with all immodesty that SHAKEN: STORIES FOR JAPAN would be a steal at $8.99.  Instead, it's only $3.99, and that money goes to the 2011 Japan Relief Fund administered by the Japan America Society of Southern California, which has already sent $750,000 to nonprofit organizations working in the area.

You can buy it for the Kindle on Amazon and support the relief effort here.  If you have a Nook,  buy it anyway and e-mail me at thallinan@gmail.com and I'll send you an ePub version you can read.

When it came time to publicize the book's availability, I went all control freak, trying to organize the effort.  Everyone very wisely ignored me and blogged, tweeted, facebooked, and generally talked it up to their hearts' content.  And bingo, it opened in the low 2000s on Amazon, went to number 4 for story collections, and has been hovering in the good-sales area ever since.

But it could sell MUCH better, and I'm—we're—hoping you can help with that.  Buy it.  Tell your friends to buy it.  Remember, nobody gets a penny from this except people who really, really need it.

SHAKEN is art from the heart, but it needs other hearts to pass it along.

Thanks in advance.