Wick author’s new homeless charity book written in a single day
After publishing his debut novel earlier this year a Wick author has a new novella about homelessness that was written in just one day.
Scott Crowden worked on the 24-hour challenge as a charity fundraiser for Shelter Scotland and the short book, No Place That’s Home, is now available on Amazon at: amzn.eu/d/583QjD7
“Basically, the gist of it was that I wrote a novella within 24 hours on the 1st of July, to sort of emulate the challenges that people set themselves for charity, like marathons,” said Scott who now lives in Aberdeen.
“All of the royalties that I receive from each sale are going to be donated to Shelter Scotland via Work For Good.
“The book was released just over a week ago, and it’s titled No Place That’s Home. It deals with the issue of homelessness first and foremost, and in particular, highlights the many different ways that someone can become homeless and how it may affect their lives.”
The novella follows Craig and his daughter Annie, who live happily in their two-bedroom apartment in Aberdeen. One night, Craig is cooking lasagne in the oven, when he receives a devastating phone call. Urged and rushed out of the house at a moment’s notice, he and Annie make their way to the hospital. But when they return, the world they knew has changed forever.
If only Craig had remembered to turn the oven off before leaving, then maybe they’d still have a home. Now homeless and moved into temporary accommodation for six months, Craig and Annie face the struggles that thousands of people go through every day in Scotland. All of their belongings are gone.
The book follows the stories of other homeless people in Scotland and as the plot progresses, these stories begin to converge. How will things progress for the father and daughter as they try to pull their lives together after hitting rock bottom?
“I felt excited to write it, especially under the timeframe I’d imposed upon myself because it felt like what I was writing would hopefully have some significant impact, if not on the readers then at least through the money that will be raised.
“I did quite a bit of research to make the characters and their situations realistic, and I was helped a ton by Fay McLeod, the community manager down at Shelter Scotland’s Aberdeen branch, who I met up with to talk about the book. She also proofread it to ensure that everything in the book was accurate and not against the morals and strategies of Shelter Scotland.”
Scott says he is making no money from the sale of the book but has ordered copies to sell to anyone who does not wish to buy from Amazon. “The price of the book is £7.99 and roughly £5 of that goes to Shelter Scotland, the other £2 (roughly) goes back to me to cover the cost of buying and shipping the books.”
His debut novel, Parallax, came out in March this year and was created while Scott was a student at the University of Aberdeen. This 492-page book is available on Amazon as an ebook priced £4.99 and as a physical paperback priced £12.99.
