In response to the worst floods in Queensland for ten years, an anthology of short stories will be released with all proceeds going to the Queensland Premier’s Flood Relief appeal. 100 Stories for Queensland follows in the footsteps of the successful charity collections, 100 Stories for Haiti and 50 Stories for Pakistan.

Trevor Belshaw, one of the organisors behind the project, explained on his blog why such a response is needed:

Queensland needs help. It will be months or even years before the people of the beautiful Sunshine State can get back to leading normal lives. So bad is the devastation that much of the state’s infrastructure will need to be rebuilt, along with destroyed homes and people’s lives.
The people of Queensland are not the sort to ask for help, they are usually the first to offer it to others. This time though, they need our assistance and they deserve to get it.

I’ve signed on to give some of my time reading submissions and editing stories selected. If you want to help, you can donate to the Queensland Premier’s Flood Relief appeal, or, if you write, you can submit a story for inclusion in the collection, making sure you follow the submission guidelines:

1. Stories must be original and of an uplifting or upbeat nature. Stories with gratutious violence, demeaning content or narratives dealing with death and destruction will be automatically removed from consideration.

2. Stories are welcome in ANY genre and for any age group.

3. All stories must be beta read, line edited and proof read prior to submission.

4. ONE submission per writer. The first of any series of multiple stories will be accepted and the rest removed from consideration.

NOTE: Stories previously published to personal blogs are acceptable for submission on the understanding the original blog post is taken down if the story is accepted.

DEADLINE: Friday, 28th January 11:59pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time)

Please include a short bio of less than 50 words in your covering letter. Biographical information will only be used on the website to assist with promotion and will not be included in the final anthology.

You can also check out the fund raising project’s facebook page here.