Good Things

Foreword

Dear Readers,

This is the fifth anthology that I have organized and edited for charity, following Here, Kitty Kitty in 2013, Reaching Out in 2014, Bellator in 2014, and Amor Vincit Omnia in 2015. I have worked with many fantastic authors, sometimes for just one anthology and some have been willing to deal with me again and again. They benefit some great charities. This anthology, however, I think is the one I’m most excited about.

It’s not at all that the past anthologies weren’t awesome, they were, but this is the first time that I’ve been able to speak directly to the charity ahead of time. While before, we just donated the profits and said as much, this one is being done as an approved fundraiser by the charity we’re giving the money to. It’s not official merchandise, but we are approved to use their logo and talk about them a whole lot. This is exciting.

What’s the charity, you ask? Well, that will take a little back story.

As always, I was late to the party. I didn’t start watching the television show Supernatural until it was already airing its eleventh season. Since then, I’ve gone through the previous ten seasons on Netflix and am working my way through to the end of this latest season before the next begins. (Yes, they have been given the green light for season twelve, which makes it the longest running primetime genre show in history.)

And for good reason. It’s amazing. This isn’t the place for me to fangirl however, so I’ll move on.

There’s always that fear when you like a show or movie that you’ll learn more about the actors and realize they’re jerks. Well, that didn’t happen here. Not only have I found that the actors of the show—headliners as well as return characters—love their work and their fans, but they seem like genuinely nice people and they pretty much all adore each other. They hang out together during hiatus!

They also believe in giving back, and are involved with/have created charities.

That brings me to Random Acts. This charity was co-founded by Supernatural star Misha Collins. I’ll talk more about it at length at the end of the anthology, but basically, its goal is to promote kindness throughout the world. In a time when many of us feel like the world may, in fact, be slowly ending, when we see hatred and violence everywhere we turn, the idea of being kind resonates so strongly.

When you want to be a force against the hatred, be kind. That’s what this charity promotes, and what we want to promote.

In the spirit of the show itself, I present to you an anthology of ten urban fantasy stories all involving an act or acts of kindness in some way. Since I don’t like to self-congratulate, I’ll only say that I know for sure nine of them are awesome! Stories from authors you’ve read in previous anthologies and new, stories that re-visit some of these authors’ wonderful own worlds and others that go to new places, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this journey.

One hundred percent of what we (the authors) receive from the sales of this anthology will go straight to Random Acts to continue their mission. We hope that you enjoy these stories, and maybe feel inspired to go out and spread some kindness in the world yourself.

Happy Reading,