A Beard for Lent

It has been said that all the best male comic creators, all the best male science fiction authors, have at one time or another boasted a luxurious, bearlike, beard. Or if it hasn't, I just said it. I was wondering what a good thing to do for Lent would be (giving up alcohol is sort of just for oneself), and I was already a bit fuzzy what with the writerly existence and all, and anyhow, the long and the short of it is... well, here's me last night, the evening before the start of Lent...


Yes, I know, I'm already half way to being Patrick Moore. Anyhow, I thought why not go the whole way, let it grow and grow, and then at the end of Lent (Easter Sunday), shave it off? And to make this something one does for others, indeed, for a cause close to my heart, why not get people to sponsor the beardiness?
So I've set up a Just Giving page: A Beard for Lent and am there soliciting donations. Please pass that address around. As I've said on the page, I'll be reposting the best comments left with cash on here and on Twitter. And if you want to pay to promote something you're doing (within reason), I'll be happy to do that.
I'll be updating how the beard is going, on here and on the page, every Friday. And I'll be taking my fundraising proto-beard on the road to C2E2, a signing at Chaos City Comics in St. Albans, Anime Detour and Kapow before (and the good people there tell me they want to make a thing of it) having it shaved off at Illustrious, this year's Eastercon.
So please: a beard is just for Lent, not for Christmas. I won't stop until I've raised £1000 for Shelter. So donate quickly, for the sake of my wife's sanity. Cheerio!