As you know, I normally refrain from troubling you with petitions and causes. However, I now have a special request for you concerning my author friend, Christopher, aka Dracul Van Helsing.
I have been following his blog and reading his excellent, thought-provoking stories for a while now. In a recent post, he mentioned his dire financial situation, which is threatening to see him living on the streets by the end of this month.
He also mentioned the fact that Vancouver’s Mayor, Gregor Robertson, is a supporter of the arts. The City has a program to cover the cost of rent for artists. However, this initiative currently excludes writers.
Christopher is asking for us to send the Mayor a petition asking him to open the program to writers as well, and to consider Christopher’s application. I have composed my own email, which you can see below. If you wish to support a fellow writer, please send a copy of this email or – ideally – one of your own to gregor.robertson@vancouver.ca. Also, please share this post.
Dear Sir,
I am writing in support of one of my favorite writers – Christopher Milner. I have been following his blog and reading his excellent, thought-provoking stories for a while now. In a recent post, he mentioned his dire financial situation.
He also mentioned the fact that you are a supporter of the arts, and specifically your wonderful initiative of covering the cost of rent for artists.
I wonder if the City could expand the program to include writers, and Christopher in particular. His writing has touched a lot of us, and it would be a shame if he was forced to give it up.
Such a move would emphasize what a true supporter of the arts you are, plus it would create a lot of buzz in the blog world, helping promote this great initiative of yours.
Thank you for your time,
Thank you in advance for your help! With any luck, the Mayor’s office will receive enough emails to help out Christopher and other writers.
Tweet This
Done, Nicholas!
I hope something comes out of this. Christopher sounds like a wonderful man and writer.
Thank you so much! Much appreciated 🙂
Email sent! Very kind of you!
Thank you so much for helping with this! 🙂
Sent the email, twitted the message.
Let’s hope this will help
That is so kind of you; thank you!!
Done, and done.
Thank you so much! 🙂
Excellent job, Nicholas! I’ve sent my email as well. We all think the world of Chris and do hope his fortunes change very soon. Also, thank you for making your book, Pearseus: Rise of the Prince, available without charge. Can’t wait to bury myself in it. In both cases, your benevolence is evident and I admire you for it.
Yay! Thanks for that, and welcome 🙂
All my pleasure Nicholas!
I love our community – authors helping authors. Sent and shared. 🙂
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it 🙂
What a wonderful way to support an author friend. I will spread the word.
Thank you so much, Michelle 🙂
A very worthy cause, Nicholas. I used to live in Vancouver and was there just a few weeks back – it is a beautiful city, with lots of artwork on the street so I’m not surprised to hear that the mayor supports the arts. I am surprised, however, to find the artist initiative does not include writers. I will certainly join the call to ask for the program to be extended, and hope that your friend is able to avoid being made homeless. xx
Thank you so much, Helen! Much appreciated 🙂
Done! Here’s mine:
Dear Mayor Robertson,
I write to you to show my support of Christopher Milner and to please ask you to extend your incredible support of artists to writers as well. You’ve created a ground-breaking effort on behalf of artists everywhere. Of which, writers are a large part. I know several Canadian authors who lend their time to the writing community and never ask for anything in return. I don’t personally know Christopher Milner, but when one of us suffers, we all do. If you’d extend this program to writers, the community would back you and shine a light on your efforts.
Thank you for your time.
Sue Coletta
Author of Marred and Wings of Mayhem
That is awesome!! Thank you!
Nicholas, Because I do not know Dracul, I wrote a direct appeal on behalf or the programme being extended to writers. Hope it helps.
That is great, thank you! 🙂
Sent a short personal email, Nicholas.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you, Pete. I appreciate it 🙂
Sent the email. Here’s mine just to have a second model:
___________________
Dear Mr. Robertson,
I am a Greek author, living half a globe away, but my husband is Greek Canadian–a McGill graduate–and part of me feels Canadian as well.
I’m writing to support a writer friend of mine, Christopher Milner. I have never met Christopher in person, but his writings have had a great impact both on me and a large number of writers/bloggers around the globe. I recently learned of his financial strains that threaten his ability to sustain his rent.
Since you support a program that subsidizes artists’ rent, I’d like to ask you to kindly include writers whose outreach with the help of the internet is even greater and more powerful than that of visual artists.
I assure you that such a move will gain publicity from many writers’ communities.
Thank you for your attention.
Your sincerely,
Maria Messini
Award-winning romance author w/a MM Jaye
_____________________
Please let us know whether our voice is heard…
Thanks!
I loved your email! Better than mine, for sure 🙂
Thank you so much, Maria!
Thank you very much, Nicholas. 🙂
Let’s hope it helps 🙂
Happy to do so Nicholas. Could not however find a link to the petition.
Hugs
Thank you so much, David. There is no link; you just need to copy-paste the email (or compose one of your own) and email it to the mayor’s office. Apologies for the confusion. I have now changed the text in the post to make it clearer.
Thank you and hugs back!
I’m on it! He is my best friend for a long time, Nicholas.
He has been there when in my darkest days.
Now, it is our turn as good friends to help him in return.
Hear, hear. Thank you, Sherrie 🙂
🙂
I wish you a nice day, my dear friend!
Take care!