As generally happens when a major natural disaster strikes, creative people get together to help raise money for the relief effort. Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) has been no exception. This book, however, is somewhat different, having been produced in The Philippines, and containing many local writers.

Outpouring is the brainchild of Dean Francis Alfar, and is published by Flipside, the company for whom Charles Tan works. The writers include a few well known names such as Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Ken Scholes, Jeffrey Ford, Jason Erik Lundberg and Dean’s wife, Niki, but most are less well-known and a few are making their debut. However, with Dean in charge I am sure that the quality will be very high. And, of course, all of the proceeds are being donated to help the relief effort, specifically to the Philippine Red Cross.

Talking of which, although PayPal will take their usual cut, Wizard’s Tower Books will pass on 100% of revenue from the book to Flipside.

So there you have it. A chance to sample some fine writers, mostly from far-flung parts of the world, and to help with a charity relief effort as well. The book is only available as an epub, but it should be easily convertible to mobi via Calibre and similar tools.

If you would like to learn more about the speculative fiction scene in The Philippines, I interviewed Dean and Charles for Small Blue Planet.