Brave

I have been receiving an INFLUX of amazing personal stories through email. I want to thank each one of you for your bravery in sharing your stories. They are each amazing and show how important this cause is. Here is Christag_Banner's story. It is real and intense. I admire her immensely for allowing me to post it here.

"Fall of 1990

I met the man of my dreams.  Or so I thought.  He started out sweet and kind.  Don't they all?  He was older than I.  I was just a junior in high school and he had graduated the year before.

Things were fine for a few months.  We dated like everyone else.  I honestly don't remember the exact day or even why he hit me the first time.  I do remember  being hit in the eye.  And panicking on how I would hide it from my mother later on.  From then on it was a regular occurrence and he learnt how to hit me and hurt me where no one would see the evidence. 

I remember being frightened to leave.  When I would tell him I was leaving him, breaking up with him, he would hit me more.  When I finally got used to being hit I started to fight back.  That is when he started with the threats that if I were to tell anyone about his abuse or if I were to leave him he would hurt my family."

 

Read more of Christa G.'s story on the Personal Stories page.

Courageous

When I first started this venture, Lulu was one of the first people to contact me and sign up. Before this I did not know her at all. In the past week, I feel as though I have gotten to know her extremely well. Not only has she helped me organize this site, but she was one of the first to tell me about her story involving domestic violence. She offered willingly to share her story here. After reading it and talking to her, she is one courageous woman.

"When I was 16 years old I met who I believed was the love of my life.  I was young, a junior in high school, and I had been single for almost two years.  I know that 16 is far too young to be in a serious relationship. I know this now, but at that age I wanted to be committed and have that high school sweetheart relationship.  I put up with arguing and fighting for the next two years.  I never thought that I would find myself stuck in a toxic relationship that would ultimately change my entire life.  That it would change ME. 

I lost all interest in things I loved.  I quit dance classes, I quit painting, I quit playing piano and guitar...I just gave up.  I focused all of my time and energy on trying to fix this relationship.  I tried everything, because this boy (I can't call him a man.) thoroughly convinced me that it was all my fault.  He broke me down, and made me believe that I was worth nothing.  I believed him."


Read more of Lulu's story on the Personal Stories page.

Hero

Ms. Maroon is my best friend. We met through the fandom and bonded over football, fashion & hot boys. She makes me laugh. She let's me vent when I am upset. She is my rock. And today she is my hero. She expressed wanting to share her own personal story with domestic violence. You can find her story below.

"I used to be the kind of girl that had a twinkle in her eye.  Not because I had rosey cheeks, but because my outlook on life was rosey.  I trusted a person from the get-go and always thought of you as friend upon our “meet-cute”.  There was always a smile on my face, and pep in my step.  I was happy because that was just the way that I was.  It wasn’t even something that I had to think about.

I’m not that way anymore.  

I’m not as trusting as I used to be.  At one time in my life, my joy was replaced with anger and resentment.  I didn’t get to be this way on my own; mainly because... I guess you could say... my joy was taken from me." 

Read more of Ms. Maroon's story on the Personal Stories page. 

Information

I have been getting A LOT of questions regarding this fundraiser so now I am going to try to answer some of them here:

• As a contributing author, you get an advanced copy of the compilation before it is sent to people who are making donations. You may also donate monetarily if you choose, but you are not required since you are donating your time by writing a story.

• If you sign up now as a contributing author and at a later date you feel like you cannot commit to writing something by the deadline, you can DEFINITELY back out. No hard feelings. This is a FUNdraiser and meant to be just that....FUN! No stress! I know all to well how real life can get in the way. Just be sure to shoot an email to fandomagainstdomesticviolence@gmail.com so that we can take you off the list and not harass you about your submission :)

• Authors can write whatever genre they choose. There are no limits here. It can be TwiFic, PotterFic, Original fic, poetry, a brand new one-shot, a side-shot/future-shot of a story you already write. WHATEVER you choose!!!  Again....there are no limits! This is one thing I love about the fandom...the endless creativity. So I would LOVE to see what everyone comes up with!!

• For those who just wish to donate money: the minimum donation is $10. That is dictated by the NCADV donation site. You are more than welcome to donate more if you would like.  This donation gets you the ENTIRE compilation, meaning you will receive EVERY SINGLE story involved in the compilation!!! There is no bidding on individual stories. This is not a contest. This is for fun and to raise money and awareness for The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

• I am also working on coming up with some other ideas....maybe having artists contribute digital work to add....or if you want to create something handmade for people to bid on. I want to be able to include more than just authors in this venture. So if you are an artist or creative person who feels they are not a writer PLEASE PLEASE contact me with your thoughts and ideas fandomagainstdomesticviolence@gmail.com. I am open to new ideas.

Thanks again to everyone for all their support. We already have THIRTY-FOUR authors signed up to contribute which is INCREDIBLE!!! 

xoxo,
b

Unbelievable

I am seriously BLOWN away by the outpouring and support to this cause. In just ONE day a total of TWENTY-TWO amazing, wonderful and talented authors have signed up to contribute!! I have gotten TONS of emails from people who don't write but just want to help. You are helping simply by retweeting information. Every little bit helps!!!

I have also received a few emails from people who have personal experience with domestic violence. Whether it was the person being directly involved or someone close to them, it just goes to show you how important this cause is. I am so honored, humbled and happy to have so many people getting behind it as well. 

This is a cause that is very close to me so I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support.

I love each and every one of you dearly!! Keep spreading the message!! I love seeing when new people sign up....it brings happy tears to my eyes :)

xoxo,
b

Welcome

Thanks for visiting the Fandom Against Domestic Violence blog. Feel free to browse around and check out the links above.

This all started from my little story, True Love Way. I wanted to do something to give back from my writing. My story involved domestic violence issues so I decided that for each review/author alert/story alert/story favorite I received that I would donate $.10 of my own personal money to NCADV. So far I have raised almost $200 just from that little venture. But I know we can do more!

If you're an author that would like to contribute, fill out the Author Sign-up form above. Submissions are due by January 21, 2011. Stories do not necessarily have to revolve around domestic violence issues. They can be oneshots, outtakes, original stories or whatever you feel like contributing.

Donations will be done directly through the NCADV website (you can find a link under "How to Donate" above) from February 1-28, 2011. The minimum donation is $10 but you will receive a lovely compilation of stories from various authors who took the time out of their busy schedules to write something just for this fundraiser.

If there is any other way that you would like to creatively contribute please feel free to email fandomagainstdomesticviolence@gmail.com

Also, I am probably going to need some help managing all this, so if you are willing to work on a team with me to get this ball rolling feel free to email me at the email above!!

Thanks again for all the support!!!

xoxo,
buhbeesgirl

Follow Fandom Against Domestic Violence on Twitter @FansAgainstDV