Imbi Neeme: #AuthorsForFireys guest blog

This guest blog features Imbi Neeme, an author auctioning items to raise money via #AuthorsForFireys for the fire fighting effort here in Australia. The full set of #AuthorsForFireys interviews and blog posts will be here as soon as they are published, as interviews and guest blogs for #AuthorsForWildlife will be here.

Meet Imbi Neeme

My name is Imbi Neeme and I am a recovering blogger, an impending novelist and a compulsive short story writer. My book The Spill won the Penguin Literary Prize in 2019 and will be published with Penguin Random House Australia in June 2020.

Since I’m a relatively unknown quantity whose book’s publication date is still four and a half months away, I figured a signed copy of my book would only attract bids from my mum. The same applies to any offer I could make as a mentor or assessor of manuscripts. Also, I’m not really sure how much my mum would let me mentor her, anyway.

So I thought about what I could offer that could be of actual value to someone unrelated to me. And I came up with encouragement.

It’s been the encouragement of my friends and fellow writers that kept me going while I was writing in the shadows. And it was that same encouragement which sustained me during those years I was putting my work out there and getting knocked back by publishers, agents and unpublished manuscript prizes.

Even now, as I move tentatively towards publication, it is the people around me that help stay the course, my head held high.

So… let me be your personal cheerleader in 2020 in the form of twelve postcards (one per month). Let my gentle words of encouragement buoy you. Let my handwriting quietly please you.

And let all the money that is raised by #AuthorsForFireys truly help those devastated by these terrible fires.

WEBSITE LINK: http://imbineeme.com

Imbi Neeme’s offer

As my book is not out until June, I’m offering to send any aspiring or dwindling writer out there a handwritten postcard with gentle words of encouragement every month for 2020. That’s 12 postcards! 12!

For the record, I have very pleasing handwriting. #AuthorsForFireys

— Imbi Neeme (@TheNDM) January 6, 2020

As my book is not out until June, I’m offering to send any aspiring or dwindling writer out there a handwritten postcard with gentle words of encouragement every month for 2020. That’s 12 postcards! 12! For the record, I have very pleasing handwriting.

TWEET LINK: https://twitter.com/thendm/status/1214326685312503810?s=21

Please bid on original tweet.

Want to know if this is legit?

Yes, it is legit. The whole community — Australian and global — is rallying together to support Australian firefighters, wildlife rescue and bushfire victims. Here are some reports on this effort.

• SBS: Australian authors rally around to raise funds for bushfire relief effort
• SMH: Authors ask readers to dig deep for nation’s bushfire crisis
• Book Riot: AUTHORS SUPPORT AUSTRALIA FIRE SERVICES WITH #AUTHORSFORFIREYS
• Penguin Books: Authors For Fireys — Australian authors band together to support the Country Fire Authority
• Daily Nous: Philosophers Raising Funds for Firefighters in Australia
• ArtsHub: Six ways artists can take action on bushfires

Fundraiser information from Emily Gale

The #AuthorsForFireys auction will take place only on Twitter from Monday 6th January, ending at 11pm AEST on Saturday 11th January. Scores of authors, illustrators and book industry people will host their own individual auction under the hashtag #AuthorsForFireys and bids will take place on each tweet. At the end, the highest bidder donates the amount directly to the firefighters fund. After receiving proof of donation, the author or artist will dispatch goods/services or make arrangements for delivery.

As originally wanted by @EmilyGale and @NovaWeetman, this fundraiser is now officially for ALL fire services in Australia. The official Authors For Fireys Website will be updated accordingly. Winning bidders or auctioning authors can nominate funds to the fire service of their choice.

Items up for auction include signed books, original illustrations, one-off fan-art and craft, unique gifts and manuscript critiques for writers.

There is a supporting site, explaining how it works, at this address: https://authorsforfireys.wixsite.com/website.

Related:

Elizabeth Stevens: #AuthorsForFireys guest blog Gabrielle Tozer: #AuthorsForFireys guest blog Kelly Morton: #AuthorsForFireys guest blog