Virtual Stores Donate Proceeds to Disaster Relief

Two virtual stores hosted by Café Press, The Browncoat Commissary and World Building for Writers, will donate all shopkeeper proceeds generated from sales made through September 17 to the American Red Cross for disaster relief efforts on the hurricane ravaged Gulf coast.

(PRWEB) September 3, 2005 -- Two virtual stores hosted by Café Press, an on-line marketplace providing services for individual entrepreneurs, will donate all shopkeeper proceeds generated from sales made through September 17 to the American Red Cross for disaster relief efforts on the hurricane ravaged Gulf coast.

The World Building for Writers shop and the Browncoat Commissary, two shops with a sci-fi / fantasy focus, have pledged to donate all proceeds for sales made between now and September 17, 2005 to the American Red Cross in an effort to expedite humanitarian aid to the Gulf coast region devastated by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

World Building for Writers (http://www.cafepress.com/browncoatshop), run by author DM Kraft, offers a World Building Workbook, designed to assist writers in brainstorming efforts. Related merchandise, such as mugs and tote bags, invite writers to join the fictitious "World Builders Society," touting the motto: "practicing the art of creation without deification." The workbook and a workshop that is also made available through a sister site, http://www.BuildWrite.com are designed to facilitate the design of believable alternate worlds. As stated on the BuildWrite website: "the alternative worlds created in main-stream fiction throughout literary history compile a virtual universe of cloned Earths. ...With traditional or main-stream fiction, the act of creation is therefore limited when compared with that required for fantasy and science-fiction. Writers in these genres are expected to place a high emphasis on complete creation.... Uniqueness of setting and characterization is as important as plot, otherwise what would be the point to writing a story as fantasy/sci-fi rather than keeping it mainstream?"

The Browncoat Commissary (http://www.cafepress.com/browncoatshop) was originally established as an outlet for fans of Joss Whedon's "Firefly," a short-run television series which will continue its story with a wide-release movie titled "Serenity" later this month. Shortly after starting operations, this shop began to include merchandise associated with another television series, "Stargate SG-1," providing fandom-specific rather than series-specific merchandise in a store-within-a-store by the name of "Sekh's Shop," based on the nickname for a fan known as "Sekhmet." All merchandise within the Browncoat Commissary is imprinted with original designs created with careful respect given to copyrights owned by the television shows represented. This shop has always been a not-for-profit operation, focusing primarily on charitable contributions to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

The final total for donations to be made to the American Red Cross at the conclusion of the pledge period will be noted on the Browncoat Commissary and Worldbuilding Shop storefronts at Café Press on or about September 18. Information on sales and proceeds can also be obtained by contacting DM Kraft.

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