You may or may not be familiar with the name Theodore Beale. He is also known as Vox Day. Tl;dr version: he's not keen on women's rights and was kicked out of the SFWA for calling N.K Jemisin 'an educated, but ignorant half-savage'. 

Blogger Natalie Luhrs has a copy of one of his books. For every $5 raised for RAINN (or, as she mentions in the comments of her blog, for your own local charity doing similar work) she will livetweet one page using the hashtag #readingVD. If she raises $2000, she'll read the whole. damn. thing.

Her blog post with details of how to register your donation to the official count is here. Her Twitter is here.

She's already up to $825. The read has BEGUN.

A copy of this book was provided by the authors for an honest review at The Romance Evangelist.

SUMMER RAIN is a new anthology of short stories by an all-star list of romance writers where each story has three things in common with the others. The first feature tying them all together is at least one scene where rain appears to play a key role in the plot. The second characteristic they all share is that each and every one is beautifully written and deeply touching. And the final, most important aspect of every story in SUMMER RAIN is that they were all donated by their writers and editor so that 100% of all profits from the sale of this anthology could be donated to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (www.rainn.org), the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the United States.

As with any large collection of stories, even ones with such impressive credentials such as these, it’s likely not every story would be to every reader’s preference. But I have to admit that at least for me, I loved them all so much that I had to stop reading for a while after each one, so I could wallow in a lovely book hangover before moving on to the next. These may be relatively short stories, but each packed such a visceral punch that there was no way I could read them all in a single sitting like I usually do. More than one left me in happy tears at its end, but none left me unsatisfied, though it would have been nice to follow a few of the romances beyond what was provided here, if only to enjoy being in their world for just a bit longer.

I know I haven’t been very specific here about what is in each of the stories in SUMMER RAIN, but that’s because I want every reader to experience the same feeling of discovery I had, without any expectations other than the knowledge that you’ll be reading something very special. SUMMER RAIN is a wonderful way to help people who have suffered from sexual violence, but it is also a collection of achingly beautiful romances so good that I bought my own copy. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars.

Article is at http://blog.metrotrends.org/2014/05/pays-sexual-assault-exams/

With 2014 being so terrible for badly behaving author blowups over negative reviews and seeing some posts from RAINN and other organizations on actual victim crimes and prevention -- *ack* -- I absolutely abhor anytime those butthurts equate a one star rating or negative review with rape or bullying. 

It undermines prevention efforts.

 

It demeans the victims of actual rape and bullying.

 If you are an author who has to attack a reviewer or rant about a negative opinion of your book -- find other words.  You're supposed to be a writer for crying out loud -- use your words and show some skill and creativity instead of causing more harm.

(And I seriously apologize to any U.S. soon-to-be empty nesters for adding more worries to sending your kid off to college sharing my RAINN quotes.  Right now from everything I am seeing and hearing, my opinion is that if anything does happen to your child they need to seek help off campus whether or not they choose to report or persecute; the RAINN hotlines can help.)