South Carolina author donates debut novel royalties to Charleston cat charity

Feb. 28, 2013 - PRLog -- South Carolina: writer Thomas Rydder announces he will donate a portion of his royalties for forthcoming books to charities. His first novel, ‘The Clearing’, a supernatural thriller set in western Pennsylvania, will be published March 1st by Greyhart Press.

About his decision to donate royalties, Rydder said, “I decided this long ago – each of the books I write will have a similar amount sent to a charity of my choice. Know why I’m telling you this? Look around you. Look at the war, the poverty, the disease. That’s our world, ladies and gentlemen, at least the tragic part of it, and we, as writers, have both a gift, and a responsibility. The gift is the ability to put pretty words in fetching fashion on a piece of paper. The responsibility is to take our gift and use it to improve the plight of our world. I attended a motivational seminar once, and the keynote speaker, Mr. Brian Tracey, said one thing that evening that has stuck in my head for 25 years: ‘You are here to contribute!’ ”

About his choice of the Feline Freedom Coalition, an organization for which he works as a volunteer, Rydder explained, “The FFC is a non-profit group that operates in the Charleston, SC area, and rescues feral cats, caring for them throughout the rest of their lives, and with some of the tamer ones, attempts to place them in a good home. Now, some of you are going to look at that and wonder why the FCC, and not another one. After all, there’s a whole mess of human suffering – why not one of them? The answer? Because the kitties can’t fight, speak, or in any other way improve their plight. They just survive the best way they know how. They are representative of just another way man has screwed up our lovely home, and at least a little of it has to be set back right.”

The Clearing , a supernatural thriller that will be enjoyed by fans of Dean Koontz and Stephen King, is published March 1st in paperback (ISBN  978-1481077682: $11 ) from amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Clearing-Thomas-Rydder/dp/1481077686) and as a Kindle eBook from amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/The-Clearing-ebook/dp/B00BMEVA0W) ($2.99) and an ePUB ebook initially from Smashwords but soon from other major retailers (ISBN 9781301576913)

Notes to editors
About Thomas Rydder:  Rydder was born in 1957 in a small town in Western Pennsylvania that had — and still has — one traffic light. There wasn't a whole lot to do there, and he had few neighbors, so he learned to play quite a bit of make-believe — soldiers, cowboys and Indians, that kind of thing.

Fast forward 40 years and he’s the project manager for a small civil engineering firm in picturesque Charleston, South Carolina with his wife and four rescue pets (two dogs, two cats) — and eight feral cats outside that put up with him because he gives them two squares a day.

He’s never stopped creating, and ‘The Clearing’ is the result.

Find out more about Thomas at his website: thomasrydder.wordpress.com/  

About Greyhart Press. Bedfordshire-based Greyhart Press was set up in 2011 by author Tim C. Taylor to publish his back catalogue. Within days, other authors were asking to be published through Greyhart, and Taylor put his writing on hold to run Greyhart Press full time. To date, Greyhart Press has published 35 books by 16 authors.
www.greyhartpress.com    www.ataleforatale.com