While I was asked to write a story for the Brave The Bullies Together Book I thought it would be a good idea to meet and talk to a couple of the people who brought this project to life. Anyone can say they are going to do something but few actually get things done and Steve is that type of guy who gets things done and likes to help out a good cause. I've known Steve for more than a year and I know how passionate he gets when it comes to projects and helping out a good cause. Here is the chat we had and hopefully you get more of realization of what the eleven authors involvement with the book really meant to all involved.
Hi Steve before we get started tell us about your
projects the geek and multimedia site The Cult Den and your involvement with
Dream Cage and Hairless Whispers?
Let me start by saying
WOW!! It's a privilege to be the person interviewed for a change and I thank
you for doing this. I had a great 2012. It all started when I discovered social
network site Twitter. I
had been published in the odd restaurant trade
publication and had reviewed bands in my younger years, but Twitter gave me the
chance to meet talented people and publications that gave me a chance to be
passionate about articles. Whilst developing my own site I had the honor of
writing for thecultden.com , then under the stewardship of Brad Preston, and
one of my first articles was an interview with my hero Kneel Downe. Kneel and I
became great friends, like brothers, and when it was time for his first book
VIRULENTBLURB:FRACTURES to be released it was just a natural transition to go
help with the promotion and things involved in book publication. From there I
co-founded an agency with my old friend Richard Derham, specializing in helping
talented writers get their work known. Supporting people and their work is a
great passion for Kneel and I so we embarked on a free website
hairlesswhispers.com where anyone can advertise their work or their website.
Then in January Brad put thecultden.com up for sale so he could move on to
other ventures so myself and Antoni Pearce, with support from Chris Orr,
purchased the site we had come to love.
Now for the important stuff and the project that got
us all together.
How did you get involved with Emily Foster and her
Brave the Bullies campaign and foundation?
I interviewed film
director AD Lane at the start of his crowd funded "Invasion Of The Not
Quite Dead" project and he spoke very passionately about being bullied as
a child and how certain films had helped him cope. I received an email shortly
after from a nice young girl who complimented AD and myself for allowing
bullying such an open forum to be discussed. She went on to explain how she had
been tragically affected by bullying, and in particular, the suicide of her
best friend Sam. Emily was only 16 at the time and was studying for her school
exams whilst building a foundation for anti bullying and going into local
schools to educate children on the dangers of bullying. To say I was inspired
is an understatement and when you get the chance to help someone with such
drive it becomes a privilege. It started with on of my media sites sponsoring
Brave The Bullies Together and helping gain awareness and sort of grew from
there.
How deeply does her campaign affect you and did
bullying affect you in some way in your life?
When I was 12 years old my
best friend was a black boy called Dominic Shillingford. We did everything
together, football, drums, chased people, all the things young kids get up to.
What I didn't know at the time, and maybe my age and naivety was a factor, was
that Dominic was receiving horrendous racial abuse. I had no idea, in fact the
first I knew of it was when we were informed in school one Monday that Dominic
had hung himself. Devastated doesn't quite do my feelings justice, and in fact
I am now a 38 year old man dealing with emotions with the weekly help of a psychiatrist,
so I am far from over it. Speaking to Emily gave me drive I needed to try and
make a difference and hopefully no one else will ever have to feel the despair
that those affected by bullying have to feel on a daily basis.
How did the Brave The Bullies Together project come
about and what inspired you to put it together?
October last year myself
and Kneel, whilst meeting in Manchester
for agency type reasons, had the pleasure of meeting Emily and her mother
Sarah. When you spend a couple of hours in the company of such wonderful people
you cannot help but want to be involved. We are not rich men so writing a
cheque for a huge amount is not an option, so you have to take a good look at
yourselves and see what you can come up. Kneel is already an established writer
and whilst I am just starting out have had some feedback that I do okay, so we
mooted the idea of giving a percentage of any takings from our own projects to
the foundation. Emily as I have said was studying for her exams at the time and
sent us a copy of a short story she had written and we were both blown away by
the talent she showed. Putting her story out in the public domain was the first
idea, then Kneel wrote an exclusive Detective Lobo story about bullying, then
everyone else got wind of what we were doing and wanted to contribute in some
way. The book is now eleven writers submitting styles of their own all for a
cause we all truly believe in. Both Kneel and myself are humbled by the support
our friends have shown us.
What do you hope to accomplish with this charity book
and are you hoping it reaches enough people to help get Emily’s message out?
The aim is twofold. The
anti bullying message is so important in the world today. We unfortunately
still live in a world of intolerance, racism, religious ridicule and plain
nastiness, so the fact a young girl has started a foundation to educate those
who need it is a huge thing. I hope the governments and educators of the world
get to know of this campaign and take a long hard look at their failings in
this area.
The second is financial.
Whilst Emily and her group of volunteers do sterling work, advertising and the
everyday costs of travelling around to get the message out are incredibly
important. We have a law in this country that a foundation such as Emily's must
have a certain amount of cash on hand before they can legally be recognized as
an official charity, so hopefully this will help somewhat towards that goal.
Tell me about the stories and authors who donated
their time and talent for this special charity book?
I cant say too much about
the stories, except they are all in my opinion brilliant in there own special
way. There is an eclectic mix of styles within the book, that some see as a
risk, but when kind hearted people want to contribute why should what others
think come into the equation?
Emily has her story in
there, Kneel and his fabulous Lobo character make an appearance, Ren Zelen has
contributed a werewolf tale, science fiction makes an appearance courtesy of
your good self, Mandy Griffiths talks of a lady in Australia and Marilyn
Monroe, My own Twitter fiction makes a debut with my Captain Indigo revolution
beginnings, the father of the excellent TIM and Death series Ben Cooper try's
his hand at something new, Ed Griffiths supplies a poem close to everyone's
heart as it was written about our great friend Jonathon Taylor who we lost in February,
James Knight has supplied an exclusive version of his 13 Things series, Antoni
Pearce has worked a script similar to a Doctor Who adventure into it, Steven
Harris has spoken of a child that never talked, Myself and Kneel have jointly
presented another Twitter experiment in the Seconds Of Forever section, and I
wrote a song in 1993 called Why Aren't We The Same so I have published the
lyrics. The song is currently being re-recorded and will be released via iTunes
at some point as a single with all proceeds going to Brave The Bullies
Together. And superb artwork for the cover was designed by Vicki Clarke.
It is sure to have
something for everyone in it.
Was it hard to convince the writers to help out with
this project and how enthusiastic were they about it?
It was not difficult at
all, in fact myself and Kneel were pestered by them all to be included. When
you have great writers asking me if their words are doing the project justice
you know how passionate they are.
Is there plans to do another book for next year and is
there anything else planned to help raise awareness for Emily Foster and Brave
The Bullies?
Our support of Emily and
Brave The Bullies Together will be ongoing. As for future plans who knows?
Kneel is still planning to generously give a percentage of his books away to
the foundation, and Emily is jumping out of a perfectly good airplane soon all
for the cause, so things continue to happen. If anyone has fundraising ideas of
their own and would like to get in contact I will happily help arrange
anything.
Here is the important question. Where can people buy the book “Brave the
Bullies Together” and help out on this worthy cause?
To start with the book is
available through publishing site www.lulu.com ( http://www.lulu.com/shop/emily-foster-and-friends/brave-the-bullies-together/paperback/product-20742407.html;jsessionid=86C1EB4234975C818D3E8A7580F66508) and we hope to have it on Amazon
as well pretty soon. Alternatively you can go to the Brave The Bullies website
and click on the DONATE button and give them money anyway. The site is http://bravethebullies.jimdo.com/
Thanks so much for your
support and the help you have shown us all it is greatly appreciated.
At this time I would like to thank Steve for his time and for also asking me in taking party in this project that hopefully will raise awareness to bullying.
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