You may also want to give a gift that will give the recipient the power to change lives. A gift certificate from Kiva.org provides the funds for the recipient to make a loan to an entrepreneur in the developing world. An entrepreneur in the developed world might need a loan of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars to start or expand a business. An entrepreneur in a developing country may need less than a hundred dollars to start or grow a business that will lift them out of poverty. The recipient of your gift certificate can make a life-changing loan to the entrepreneur of their choice, and when that loan is repaid, use the funds to make another loan. The cycle can be repeated endlessly, making your gift of $25 or $100 priceless. I made my first Kiva loan as part of Blog Action Day: Poverty.

Another good idea: Charity Checks. You can order giving certificates that can be used to donate to any IRS-qualified charity in the US, and there are 800,000 qualified charities. You purchase the certificate and get the tax deduction. You give the certificate as a gift, and the recipient then determines what charity to donate to. Unlike donating to a specific charity in someone else’s name, with Charity Checks, you know the recipient will be happy with the charity that receives the gift.

Comment added after reading Karen Swim’s post Santa Cause or the Grinch who Stole your Present?: I would recommend a charitable donation as a gift only to people close to you who you know would be happy with this. We do this in my family, but I would never suggest a business do this for a client nor would I do it to someone with whom I hadn’t discussed the idea in advance. I wasn’t clear enough and hadn’t thought through the implications until Karen brought them to my attention. Now back to the original post …

This is the time of year to give beyond our immediate circle. The Salvation Army’s red kettles are a symbol of the spirit of Christmas giving as well as an important means of raising funds to help those in need. I don’t go out to the malls and stores to shop so I miss the chance to drop something into a bright red kettle manned by a smiling bellringer. This year, I decided to be an online bellringer.

Thanks to Jon Swanson at Levite Chronicles for the inspiration. I didn’t know that I could be a bellringer for my own Online Red Kettle. If you do your Christmas shopping online, you can drop something into an online kettle and help the Salvation Army brighten the lives of those who need help this year.

Christmas celebrates the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ who gave the ultimate gift of His life for our salvation. We can share a little of His love by our own giving to our loved ones and people we don’t know. May you enjoy a blessed season of peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

1. I wrote Dream or Destiny ten years ago and had an agent trying to sell the book for two years.
2. After I ended my relationship with the agent, I let the book sit around for a couple of years, then sold it to another publisher on my own.
3. Before the book was published, the publisher decided to focus on erotica, and I felt my book was no longer a good fit for that publisher.
4. After I cancelled the contract with that publisher, I let the book sit around for a couple more years, then sold to GASLight Publishing. Publication was delayed because of illness of GASLight’s principals.
5. When I updated the manuscript, I got input from several people (who are acknowledged in the book). Each person who read the book gave me suggestions to make it better.
6. I had to make revisions to account for changes that have occurred in society during the last ten years. For example, caller ID wasn’t common (maybe it didn’t even exist) ten years ago. Now I had to account for the fact that David and Marilee had no idea who made the threatening phone call they received.

I’m going to tag a few folks—if I’ve tagged someone who doesn’t participate in memes, just ignore the tag. Anyone who wants to play along is encouraged to do so. You can either write a post on your own blog or respond in comments. And you can tell six book-related things about you or six odd things about you. Or you can do like I did and tell six odd book-related things.

David Bowles at Writing the Westward Sagas

Grace Anne Schaefer at People of the Frozen Earth

James Doughty at Doughty Families

Jeanne Dininni at Writer’s Notes

Lisa Vella at Getting It Right for You

Pat Taylor at On the Wings of the Wind

By celebrating this Day throughout the world, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright. 

Although this day doesn’t seem to be oberved in the US, I want to add my voice to the promotion of “reading, publishing and … copyright.”

[tags]books, copyright, publishing[/tags]