Internets, I am going to do a Fundraising Thing for Christchurch.

Now, before I go into the details, I want to say something. The Christchurch earthquake was terrible by any measure, and many people have been left homeless and traumatised. The city still experiences aftershocks, and the hardship is real. However, New Zealand is a developed nation with a reasonably okay welfare system, a viable infrastructure and some money in the bank.

If you have a limited charity budget, I would far rather you donate to appeals in Pakistan, which is a humanitarian disaster on a much wider scale, and where lives are still very much in danger. But if you have some spare cash you were going to throw at, I don't know, a new hat, and not charity at all, then people in Christchurch would appreciate it. And that hat will be out of style next season anyway.

Karen, charity money, you say. Got it. I'd like to help! What are your plans?

I am going to run a reviewathon in the style of the Penny Arcade Child's Play Desert Bus for Hope appeal. Except instead of driving a bus in a video game for days on end, I will be reviewing books from my extensive backlist of Books I Keep Meaning To Review.

In-depth surveys inform me my crazed reviews are something many of y'all like.

How long will I be doing this? Why, that is up to you! For I will review as long as you pay me to.

Of course, I am not insane. We will be working on an exponential scale. The first hour of review will cost one shiny dollar in cumulated donations. The second hour will cost $2 in cumulated donations. Third hour? $4 in donations. Fourth hour? $8! And so on and so on.

How do you go about this?

1) You make a donation, to the New Zealand Red Cross, selected because they are largely secular, on the ground right now, and available to international donations.

2) You forward me the email confirmation of said donation to karen@karenhealey.com.

3) I add your contribution to the cumulative total.

You can start donating now, and anytime up until the end of the reviewathon, which will begin at 10 a.m., 24 September, Melbourne time. That is this time for you.

There will also be PRIZES for donators given at random times. Prizes like personally signed copies of Guardian of the Dead! Or a chance to name a character in my next book! Or your choice of one of the books I review! Or a future ARC of Summerton! Or the recipe for my famed lemon yoghurt cake! There may be SPECIAL GUEST REVIEWERS!

Internets, I think you can agree this will work out well for everyone, except your correspondent, who will be weeping into her keyboard come about hour five. SO HARD TO MAKE JOKES, she will sob. FUNNY CHARACTER DIALOGUE, SLIPPING THROUGH MY FINGERS. BOOKS, I LOVED YOU ONCE.

Young ladies in pain; the very essence of charity. Give, give give!