In honor of World AIDS Day, author James Frey created a custom Bugaboo Cameleon Stroller that's being auctioned on eBay.

The auction is "to generate money for the Global Fund which finances AIDS grants in Africa, the region hardest hit with this pandemic," according to a press release.

When he's not writing, Frey and his wife keep busy with their 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son. We spoke to Frey about the auction and his family life.

ParentDish: How did you get involved with this charity?
James Frey: A friend of mine, who works in PR for Bugaboo and was doing work with Bugaboo and (RED), contacted me.

PD: Tell me about your design.
JF: You know, they sent me a stroller. (Laughs.) And they were like, do something cool with it. I'm a father to two young children and we're constantly reading books and learning our letters and saying the ABCs. And I'm a writer who literally makes his living using letters. I wanted to do something that I thought would be cool looking and appropriate to what I do. So I came up with the idea of just plastering letters of different colors and sizes and fonts all over the stroller.

PD: There was an article in Vanity Fair about you being a "PTA dad" at your kids' school. Do parents ever want to talk to you about your career?
JF: Occasionally. Most of the time I'm just a dad. There are other well-known parents at our children's school [and] we're there as the parents of our children, not as whoever we are in our professional lives. I love doing stuff at my kids' school. They go to a great school and I'm happy to be a part of it. I'm the school tour guide, I was Class Dad twice. I think it's important to be involved with your kids' lives and I'm lucky that I have the opportunity to.

PD: Were you one of the only dads to be a class parent?
JF: Yeah. The Class Moms all liked to tease me and make fun of me.

PD: You just wrote an incredibly moving and sad essay about the 2008 death of your son for Babble.com, something you've never spoken about publicly. What made you decide to write about that experience now?
JF: They asked me to blog about why I did this [designed the stroller to auction off for charity]. I don't generally do anything like this. Unless I have a book coming out I try to stay out of the press. I try to stay out of the media, stay away from it. If Bugaboo were selling a designer stroller just to sell it I wouldn't have been particularly interested. I wrote about [the death of my son] because that's why I did [the stroller design], and because I hoped [the essay] will motivate people to bid on it and help raise money for the children who are dying.

PD: It's definitely a call to action. Is that how you thought of the essay when you wrote it?
JF: I hope so. Listen, if they make enough money to save one kid's life, that's a great thing. If they make enough money to keep a kid alive for five more years, that's a great thing. It wasn't about me or my family. I mean, it was about me and my family but the reasons for doing it (are) entirely related to trying to raise money to help children who might die. And having been through that experience, it's not one I wish upon anyone.

James Frey is the author of "A Million Little Pieces," a book that was initially published in 2003 as a memoir and selected for Oprah's Book Club. After The Smoking Gun Web site revealed that some of the details of Frey's story were untrue, Winfrey lambasted Frey on her talk show, something for which she later apologized. The book now comes with a disclaimer. Frey's other books are "My Friend Leonard" and "Bright Shiny Morning," both of which were best sellers. He told ParentDish that his next book, "Illumination," will probably be published in 2011.

Click here to bid on the James Frey Custom Bugaboo Cameleon Stroller. The entire purchase price will go to The Global Fund, according to the listing. Bidding ends Dec. 11, 2009.

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