This morning accusations were made about my earlier announcement that my next book ‘Life after Taylah’ had elements regarding child abduction in it, and that 10% of the proceeds would go to the Daniel Morcombe Foundation. People felt that it was disgusting and wrong that I would do this. They’ve even gone so far as to put messages on my facebook page, the least offensive of them demanding I delete my account. When I first put up the link and mentioned the tragedy, in retrospect I should have stressed that I had contacted the Foundation and had their full support. But to be honest it never occurred to me that anyone would doubt that of course I had. I contacted the Daniel Morecomb foundation before I even started work on the book. I offered them 10% of the proceeds, explaining the book would touch on similar themes to the Morecomb’s tragedy. Of course I would never have mentioned their Foundation if they had refused the offer, or otherwise requested I not make the donation. (I have children myself, after all.) The Foundation responded to the offer of the donation with, “We appreciate it more than words can say. Thank you for your support of Daniel and his family.” I am shocked by the idea that writers should not publicly link themselves to, and support through donation, human tragedies. People and businesses from all walks of life offer support and contributions from their earnings to all sorts of terrible situations. If a work of fiction linking itself with a tragedy and offering charitable support for a worthy Foundation strikes us as surprising, then I think that is a bit sad for the romance community. We need to be doing more of this, not less. I’m also appalled by the idea that romance should avoid links with serious subjects. Romance really does deal with genuinely dark events: war, suicide, addiction, violence, and abuse. One of the reasons I wanted to speak about the Morecombe tragedy was because, as a writer, I wanted to explain how it affected me and played a role in my writing. Of course it would have been insensitive to refer to the specific event without contacting the Foundation and securing their consent. But equally it’s ridiculous not to pretend that some romance books engage with genuinely dark, serious subjects—subjects about which people will have strong reactions and emotions. Romance is known for being written by women for women. Many of us are mothers. We can’t pretend that real life events don’t impact upon our world. Nor should we be afraid to support charities dealing with those real life events. Giving proceeds from the book was the best way I could support the charity. Some of those upset felt that I was exploiting the situation as a PR stunt. Nothing could have been further from my mind. I find it hard to understand how linking to a charity could be interpreted in this way by anyone. Should authors be afraid of giving to charities out of fear of being branded with such accusations? Others claimed that I should not have been giving a mere ‘percentage’ of the proceeds of the book to the Foundation. I am like anyone else. I work for my living and give money where I can. The idea that we should criticize a person for giving only part of their earnings to charity is just crazy. We can’t be afraid to support charities and we shouldnt have to be. Given the accusations made, I no longer feel I can write or release the book with fear that Ill only be attacked unfairly. The whole experience has hurt me deeply. Social Media is never a place to publicly humiliate somebody and therefore should not be used as such. I will however still be donating an amount of $2000 to the Daniel Morcombe Foundation. Thank you all for your support in this matter and to anyone Ive upset, Im truly sorry. I never, not for a second, meant this to come across as a selfish act. The fact that it was taken like that upsets me and Im deeply sorry for it. Bella x
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 00:19:32 +0000
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