April is sexual assault awareness month.

This is something that’s very important to me. I’ve written a fair amount about rape over the years, but a lot of it comes down to:

Rape is a horribly common crime

As a society, we tend to punish victims while excusing or defending many perpetrators of rape

While the individual rapist is always responsible for his (or her) crimes, there are cultural/societal reasons rape continues at such a frequent rate

Survivors of rape deserve support, no matter what

For several years, I’ve run a fundraiser and given out signed books to encourage people to donate to rape crisis centers. In the past, I’ve given out autographed books to people who donate, but this year I wanted to go even bigger. So I’ve talked to some author friends, and the net result is that you could win a lot more books this year, depending on how much money we raise.

I’ll post a running total here throughout the month. The more money we raise, the more prizes I’ll throw into the pot. Right now, we’re covered through $3000 $4000. If we raise more money, then I’ll just have to round up more authors and prizes.

TOTAL RAISED: $3573

The prizes so far and the amount we have to raise to add them to the giveaway are as follows.

Goals Met So Far:

Additional Prizes:

$4000 - Two-year subscription to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Thanks so much to all of the authors who offered books!

The rules:

You can donate to your local rape crisis center, or if you prefer, to an organization like RAINN. Most places will take donations online.

Note: As of 4/17/2012, all donations to RAINN will be matched, effectively doubling your donation.

To enter, send an e-mail to endrape@jimchines.com.

Let me know how much you donated so I can update the total. You can donate any amount, from $1 to $10,000 or more.

If you donate at least $50, please include some sort of documentation (e-mail or electronic receipt, something like that).

Make sure to include your mailing address!

Now, Michigan law prohibits unlicensed raffles, meaning I can’t require donations to enter. Therefore, if you can’t donate anything at all, you can still e-mail me to enter the giveaway. But for those who can, please try to give at least a few bucks.

Winners will be selected at random on May 1. If there are particular books you’d like, please mention them in your e-mail, in order of priority. But I can’t guarantee anything. I’m planning to pick winners and prizes like so:

Randomly draw winner #1. If they asked for a specific book, that’s what they win. Otherwise, they get the first one on the list (Libriomancer).

Randomly draw winner #2. If they asked for a specific book and it’s available, that’s what they win. Otherwise, they get whatever’s next on the list.

And so on and so forth, until all the prizes have homes.

I hope that’s clear. If anyone has questions, please let me know.

Finally, I’d very much appreciate it if people could spread the word about the fundraiser and giveaway.