Sexy Wang Chung? This headline writes itself. (Comments)

This one was a while ago, but the sentiment of the post and the comment makes it something I can put in when I have nothing better to do timeless.  Writer/artist Rusty Carl had been, for a month, showing on his blog how to create a cover for a book entirely from "scratch," "scratch" being what real artists call "nothing". That is, if you create something from "scratch," you are an artist.  If you create something from nothing, you are a sorceror and should be crushed to death beneath a pile of iron pyrite, according to what I learned in second grade.  Thank God for Catholic schools!

Rusty posted his work that day and then pronounced the work that day to be just filler.  In comment, I said:

Filler it is. Your offhand doodles are better than many actual pieces of "art", and I should know as I recently hurried through an art museum with my boys, which makes me kind of an expert on art.

I would have pronounced this 'art' but you said it's filler, and there's no going back on these designations.  TAKE IT UP WITH THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION, but don't because honestly, they will have you disappeared like nobody's business.

I probably shouldn't have mentioned them at all.

There really is a Trilateral Commission, people who are snickering at me. They've even got a website.  You know who ELSE has a website? Wang Chung, that's who!

Coincidence? I THINK NOT!*

*Probably a coincidence.

Indie Authors For Ben Wolverton are donating profits from the sales of their books for the month of May to help Ben Wolverton recover from a terrible accident.  Read more about Ben here

Nightingale, (sci-fi) by David Farland.  David is Ben's dad, with two books to buy.  Nightingale, a speculative fiction book about a young man raised in foster care who learns he can sing and affect evil, and Million Dollar Outlines, a nonfiction book to help writers learn to write better outlines.  The books start at $6.99 in pretty much every format.

To buy either of these books, CLICK THIS LINK.

 INDIE  AUTHORS  FOR 

BEN WOLVERTON!

The Lost Road Chronicles 
(ya/speculative fiction) by J. Leigh Bralick, The "Lost Road" Chronicles begin with "Down a Lost Road," in which a 16-year old uncovers family secrets and gets swept into Earth's mystical past.)

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF J. LEIGH BRALICK'S BOOKS ON AMAZON.





Books by Briane Pagel.  Pagel is the indie author of books like

Eclipse, a harrowing sci-fi story about an astronaut who wanted nothing more than to reach the stars, and did so -- but it took murder to get there.  Or did it?

the After: Saoirse's life didn't begin until she died in a plane crash. But with everything perfect in the After, why is she so unhappy? With the help of a possibly-unfriendly William Howard Taft, Saoirse looks for, in her afterlife, the meaning she never had in her life.

The Scariest Things, You CAN'T Imagine: short horror stories that will leave you lying awake at night wishing you'd stuck with something lighter.  Try "The Grave-Robbers," in which New Sam learns that there have been a lot of prior Sams born to Mom and Dad.  And they're all down in the catacombs...

All these books and more, just $0.99 on your Kindle.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF BRIANE'S BOOKS FROM AMAZON.

BOOKS BY RUSTY CARL:  

Rusty is a master artist and the author of several books:

A Dead God's Wrath (spec fic/novella): A mysterious stranger shows up to help avenge a brutal murder, unlocking magic of the best, and worst, kind in a sleepy 1895 western town.

War Angel: Like your romance with a bit of adventure and history? In this story, a young man learns of his grandmother's remarkable escape from Nazi Germany with the help of a dashing stranger.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF RUSTY'S BOOKS FROM AMAZON.

Books by S.K. Valenzuela:

S.K. Valenzuela writes the Silesia series: Silesia: The Outworlder,
and The Lords Of Askalon:  Freed when her prison ship crashes, aided by a rogue fugitive, Saraha is trying to foment a rebellions against the Dragon-Lords. 

CLICK HERE TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OF S.K.'S BOOKS ON AMAZON.

"Unfettered: Tales From The Masters Of Fantasy," an anthology of fantasy works that is offering ARCs right now.  Proceeds from the first fifty books sold will help Ben Wolverton recover, and the books will be autographed by some big names in fantasy including Terry Brooks and Shawn Speakman, so click this link to go buy your ADVANCED COPY of this awesome-sounding book.

 B.J. Baye's book, "Desperate Upload,"

 A young boy is all that stands between a commando team from Mars and a deadly attack on Earth's orbital station. Jon Whyte is a kid born and raised on his family's freighter Stardream as it carries cargo all over the solar system. On a yearly return to Earth Station, the Stardream is intercepted by a commando team of marines from Mars, who are ready to strike the first blow against Earth in a war of independence. BONUS STORY: Four Minutes A young single mother finds herself the target of the Men in Black.

That's two stories for the price of one!  Get B.J.'s book on Amazon by clicking here. 

Sexy Space Opera? That's the phrase I used to search for the lead image. And the other image. (Comments)

Every week, author/professional grump PT Dilloway hosts a game called "Box Office Blitz."  The rules are that there ain't no rules... sorry.  I tend to do that. When I was younger, I spent a lot of time playing Grease with my friends, and I was always Balmudo, telling Danny that there ain't no rules 'cause we racin' for pinks.

"Pinks?"

"Yeah. Ownership papers!"

Anyway, last week Friday, on his post, I left the following comment:


MY BOX OFFICE PICKS: a play in 3 acts.
By Briane F. Pagel, JR.

ACT ONE: We see a kitchen table. A man is sitting, looking at his laptop. Around him are all kinds of dinosaur toys.

MAN: I AM SO TIRED. I AM GLAD I CAME HOME FROM WORK EARLY, SO THAT I DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING ELSE TODAY.

WIFE: SO BASICALLY TODAY IS LIKE EVERY OTHER DAY?

[pause for audience laughter. curtain closes]

ACT TWO: SAME KITCHEN TABLE, A FEW MOMENTS AFTER THE FIRST SCENE.

MAN: DO WE HAVE ANY OF THAT PIZZA LEFTOVER FROM LAST NIGHT?

WIFE:  WE DIDN'T HAVE PIZZA LAST NIGHT.

MAN:  WHAT? I AM 100% SURE I ATE SOME PIZZA LAST NIGHT.

WIFE:  THIS PLAY SEEMS TO BE DRAGGING A BIT.

MAN: PERHAPS SOMETHING WILL COME ALONG IN THE THIRD ACT TO LIVEN IT UP AND PROVIDE SOME MOTIVATION?

curtain

ACT III: SCENE: THE TOP OF A VOLCANO, WHICH IS IMPROBABLY SITTING ATOP A GLACIER IN ANTARCTICA, WHICH FOR SOME REASON IS LOCATED ON THE EDGE OF THE GRAND CANYON, WHICH FOR SOME REASON IS ON MARS.

MAN: GRAB MY HAND! IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO RESCUE YOU FROM THAT PRECIPICE YOU'RE HANGING FROM UNDERNEATH WHICH FLAMING ICE CROCODILES OF MARS ARE WAITING FOR YOU TO FALL SO THEY CAN EAT YOUR SOUL!

WOMAN:  I... CAN'T... QUITE... REACH... IT!

MAN:  I DIDN'T NEED THIS MUCH MOTIVATION! I WOULD HAVE SETTLED FOR SIMPLY BEING PROMISED PERHAPS $15 OR MAYBE A FREE BOOK FROM THAT GREAT INDIE PUBLISHER, PLANET 99 BOOKS!  THAT'S ENOUGH TO GET ANYONE TO DO ANYTHING!

*curtain*


Watch for the thrilling conclusion of this play in future comments.

Anyway:

1. Iron Man: ALL THE MONEY.
2. The Great Gatsby. A LESSER AMOUNT OF MONEY.
3. Disconnect. VIRTUALLY NO MONEY.

I am not sure of the rules of this game, so do I have to say a specific dollar amount? It doesn't matter.  I'm playing for pride. And a free e-book. SWEET.

Also, as to Gatsby: I'm going to go with EXACTLY 1/2. TO THE PENNY.

My God, I am perhaps a lot more overtired after this week than I thought.



That was an homage to a series of ads I used to do for various companies.  I get offers to post ads on my blogs from time to time, ads I have to write, and for some of the companies I had a minimum word count but couldn't come up with 200+ words about office supplies, so I started a long-running space epic that starred Jenkins Smedley, who sometimes went by the name of Smedley Jenkins, and "The Boss", and their weird, largely-small-business-related adventures.  It all sounds clever, doesn't it?  But it was.  Here was just one of those:

Previously on Smedley Jenkins Reboot...

Voice Over: Do you really need a recap? If you're watching this, then you probably watch this show obsessively and also read blogs about it and watch the "web-isodes" online, and I'm betting that you have a t-shirt that makes some cryptic reference to the show. So how can you not remember what happened previously?

Viewer: [LOOKS DOWN AT SHIRT, WHICH SAYS "Don't Fire The Fax Pig!".] Um.

Tonight, on Jenkins Smedley Reboot:

Jenkins: [walks into a dimly lit room wherein a bunch of people are gathered around a blanket-shrouded body-shaped object.] What's going on here? Is this an autopsy?

Coroner: Shh. I'm about to make the first incision.

Jenkins: Who am I going to disturb? The dead guy? Your concentration? Because how much concentration does it take to cut open a dead guy?

Coroner: It's not my concentration; it's the cameraman's. Do you have any idea how hard it is to swoop into someone's open chest cavity and then get right inside a vein? We do that all in one take.

Jenkins: I thought those were just special effects.

Coroner: [Laughs] And I bet you thought Nicole Kidman was a real person, too.

Jenkins: She's not?

Crewman in room: Sir, you're putting us on, right? Even stranded on an island traveling through space running from a group of paranormal-powered individuals who may or may not be trying to save the world...

Jenkins: That seems to be wrong, for some reason...

Crewman: ... even with all that, you can't have forgotten the Nicole Kidman rebellion of 2147, when all the Kidmanbots developed sentience and rebelled, attempting to set up a democracy in the United States and overthrow the Obamans who had stayed in power for over a century?

Jenkins: Is this a political parody, now? Because I'm sort of uncomfortable with political jokes thrown in for no real reason whatsoever. Plus, I think you're kidding me about this. 

Coroner: Kidding, am I? Look at this! [he throws back the sheet and reveals a Nicole Kidman robot lying on the table. Jenkins leans forward and bumps into the cameraman, who has zoomed in for a close-up.]

Cameraman: Watch it, will you? 

Jenkins: [rubbing head] Why is she here?

Coroner: Remember how for a while it was really a big thing to have celebrities be the corpses on those crime shows? 

Jenkins: Yeah...

Coroner: And remember how the Kidmanbots were always about 10 years behind the curve in terms of pop culture?

Jenkins: Sure. But, well, why are you cutting her up? 

Coroner: Dismantling. You don't cut up a robot. 

Jenkins: Is there a chance you'll answer my question?

Coroner: I have to dismantle her. Our Internet server is down and we need to get it back up and running. Instead of continuing to go with some cut-rate outfit, we've opted to simply build our own server, showing the kind of can-do pioneering spirit that is best exemplified by people carving a civilization out of nothing while stranded on a mysterious island and also simultaneously trying to figure out the secrets behind a band of "Others" who may or may not be from a shady corporation.

Jenkins: If we show that kind of can-do spirit, we'll likely be doing it while also being deposed in a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Coroner: In that case, we're showing the kind of can-do spirit that can best be shown by making the complex equipment needed to set up a web hosting site out of spare parts previously contained in our special Sweeps-month guest star Nicole Kidman.

Jenkins: I need a drink. Where is my special futuristic glass that is triangular instead of round for no good reason?

Coroner: Over there on top of that stack of papers that have all the corners cut off for no good reason.


I guess part of why I repost these things, these comments and such, is that I think they're fun, and I think that the Internet is very ephemeral, and that something I thought was funny back in 2009 might be lost forever if I didn't, I don't know, repost it in a blatant attempt to get page views by putting sexy pictures up like this:

But it's all for a good cause, because now I can remind you that this month is not only #helpwolverton month, in which you can buy a book for a good cause -- helping a teen recover, details here -- (you'll have to read a short short story first but you can always page down to get to the part where you buy a book) -- but it's also the month in which you can

GET THE ENTIRE SCARLET KNIGHT SERIES BY P.T. DILLOWAY FOR UNDER TEN BUCKS!

The Scarlet Knight is America's greatest superheroine: Enchanted armor, a magic sword, a grumpy ghost, witches, mob bosses, helpless friends, it's got the whole works.  This series of superhero novels by PT Dilloway manages to capture the charm of Golden Age comics and upgrade it with phenomenal writing and you can get all of the books for just 99 cents each for the entire month of May.

CLICK THIS LINK TO CHECK OUT THE ENTIRE SCARLET KNIGHT SERIES FROM PLANET 99 PUBLISHING. 

The story BEHIND the comment!

So Friday night, I was done with my week of being in trial and done with the week of guests and the boys were getting ready for bed and I was doing a little reading, and I noticed author Andrew Leon had left me a comment on one of my short stories (the Skyfall stories about the end of the world) telling me to check out his midweek post, so I did, and I found an interesting essay telling people that there's no reason to write for big publishers (is how I took the post, which you can read here).

In response, I left this rather-poetic comment:

I am on a Kindle so this will be short. I contributed an essay to a book coming out in the fall on this topic. If you like to write, write. And if you are a writer, read other writers. Comment on their posts. Review their books (and buy them.) Tell everyone you know about everyone you know.
I write because I like to tell stories. It's nice to make a bit of money doing it. But I have many times in my life given up the promise of more money in exchange for the certainty of enjoying what I am doing, and as a result I am happy, if not rich.

Writing to get published -- doing anything solely for the money it brings in-- is like looking up at the night sky solely for navigation: you may get where you are headed, but you will miss all the beauty and wonder of the journey.

Which ought to be enough said, right? Only the story behind that comment belies how much work went into it.

I got all the way up to "writing to get published... is like" and then I got stumped.

What, exactly, was I going to say it was like?

As I thought about that, for a moment, Mr F, the older of our twins, decided he wanted to go for a ride before bed.  I was okay with taking him for a short ride in the car, but I wanted to finish my comment, first, and I began typing in that writing to get published was like something but then I changed my mind and decided what it was really like, that stars, thing, but then I had to try to delete the part I'd already written, and have you ever tried to navigate around a Blogger comment on a Kindle?

There's no arrow keys or anything, so you've got to kind of stab the screen repeatedly with your thumb, and that does you no good if the part you hit moves the cursor too high up on the screen so now you can't even get to the end of your comment to simply delete the entire thing, and I spent about 10 minutes navigating around thumbfully while Mr F complained and bugged me to go for a ride (and while Mr Bunches and Sweetie were blissfully sitting upstairs watching a Baby Einstein video), and I eventually realized that I was not going to be able, using my stubby fat fingers, to get the screen to scroll down, so I resorted to inserting a series of dots, like this:

...........................................

and so on until the bottom of the comment scrolled into view because I had written enough dots, at which point I used my pinky finger to dot the screen in hopes of moving the cursor to the very end -- using my pinky because it is the smallest (a relative term) of my fingers, so it's sort of the microsurgeon of my hand -- and after the third try it worked, and I was able to delete the mostly-gibberish comment by that time, retype it, and then take Mr F for a ride.

Which goes to show you why I highlight these comments here, sometimes: it's not just that I put a lot of thought into them, but there's an actual lot of WORK that goes into some of them.

The REAL moral of the story is: why doesn't the Kindle keyboard have a direction key for that cursor? If God wanted us to navigate tiny little touchscreens using just our fingertips, He'd have...

He'd have...

He'd have what?  I'll work on this for a while and get back to you. 

Cool new anthology + helping a kid out= a great Saturday for you.

Today's featured #helpwolverton book is

"Unfettered: Tales From The Masters Of Fantasy," an anthology of fantasy works that is offering ARCs right now.  Proceeds from the first fifty books sold will help Ben Wolverton recover, and the books will be autographed by some big names in fantasy including Terry Brooks and Shawn Speakman, so click this link to go buy your ADVANCED COPY of this awesome-sounding book.










 INDIE  AUTHORS  FOR 

BEN WOLVERTON!

Indie Authors For Ben Wolverton are donating profits from the sales of their books for the month of May to help Ben Wolverton recover from a terrible accident.  Read more about Ben here

Nightingale, (sci-fi) by David Farland.  David is Ben's dad, with two books to buy.  Nightingale, a speculative fiction book about a young man raised in foster care who learns he can sing and affect evil, and Million Dollar Outlines, a nonfiction book to help writers learn to write better outlines.  The books start at $6.99 in pretty much every format.

To buy either of these books, CLICK THIS LINK.

The Lost Road Chronicles 
(ya/speculative fiction) by J. Leigh Bralick, The "Lost Road" Chronicles begin with "Down a Lost Road," in which a 16-year old uncovers family secrets and gets swept into Earth's mystical past.)

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF J. LEIGH BRALICK'S BOOKS ON AMAZON.





Books by Briane Pagel.  Pagel is the indie author of books like

Eclipse, a harrowing sci-fi story about an astronaut who wanted nothing more than to reach the stars, and did so -- but it took murder to get there.  Or did it?

the After: Saoirse's life didn't begin until she died in a plane crash. But with everything perfect in the After, why is she so unhappy? With the help of a possibly-unfriendly William Howard Taft, Saoirse looks for, in her afterlife, the meaning she never had in her life.

The Scariest Things, You CAN'T Imagine: short horror stories that will leave you lying awake at night wishing you'd stuck with something lighter.  Try "The Grave-Robbers," in which New Sam learns that there have been a lot of prior Sams born to Mom and Dad.  And they're all down in the catacombs...

All these books and more, just $0.99 on your Kindle.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF BRIANE'S BOOKS FROM AMAZON.

BOOKS BY RUSTY CARL:  

Rusty is a master artist and the author of several books:

A Dead God's Wrath (spec fic/novella): A mysterious stranger shows up to help avenge a brutal murder, unlocking magic of the best, and worst, kind in a sleepy 1895 western town.

War Angel: Like your romance with a bit of adventure and history? In this story, a young man learns of his grandmother's remarkable escape from Nazi Germany with the help of a dashing stranger.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF RUSTY'S BOOKS FROM AMAZON.

Books by S.K. Valenzuela:

S.K. Valenzuela writes the Silesia series: Silesia: The Outworlder,
and The Lords Of Askalon:  Freed when her prison ship crashes, aided by a rogue fugitive, Saraha is trying to foment a rebellions against the Dragon-Lords. 

CLICK HERE TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OF S.K.'S BOOKS ON AMAZON.





Want to join? Cut and paste that part, put it on your blog, add your info, and let me know it's there.  I'll post about you, too, and add you to the list!

Maybe even the Dragon-Lords will join in? We can hope.

Author S.K. Valenzuela has joined the Indie Authors For Ben Wolverton group!  S.K. can be found on Twitter (click here) and blogs at Sister Muses on Wordpress (click here).  Her Silesia trilogy details the struggles of Saraha, a slave who ends up trying to lead a rebellion after her prison ship crashes.  It's three books, but volume one is free right now, so for just $2 you can get an entire trilogy of brilliant, exciting writing -- and help fund Ben Wolverton's recovery.

Don't know who Ben Wolverton is?   Ben Wolverton is the son of a sci-fi writer.  He was injured in an accident in April, and is recovering, but the cost of his recovery is estimated at more than $1,000,000.  So the writing community is banding together and donating sales of their books for the month of May to Ben's fund.  Buying any of the books below will help him!

Click here to go to the website dedicated to Ben and his recovery.  There's updates on his condition, plus t-shirts to buy and other ways to donate.  Or keep on reading to find out who else is donating sales of their books to the cause!



 INDIE  AUTHORS  FOR 

BEN WOLVERTON!

Nightingale, (sci-fi) by David Farland.  David is Ben's dad, with two books to buy.  Nightingale, a speculative fiction book about a young man raised in foster care who learns he can sing and affect evil, and Million Dollar Outlines, a nonfiction book to help writers learn to write better outlines.  The books start at $6.99 in pretty much every format.

To buy either of these books, CLICK THIS LINK.

The Lost Road Chronicles 
(ya/speculative fiction) by J. Leigh Bralick, The "Lost Road" Chronicles begin with "Down a Lost Road," in which a 16-year old uncovers family secrets and gets swept into Earth's mystical past.)

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF J. LEIGH BRALICK'S BOOKS ON AMAZON.





Books by Briane Pagel.  Pagel is the indie author of books like

Eclipse, a harrowing sci-fi story about an astronaut who wanted nothing more than to reach the stars, and did so -- but it took murder to get there.  Or did it?

the After: Saoirse's life didn't begin until she died in a plane crash. But with everything perfect in the After, why is she so unhappy? With the help of a possibly-unfriendly William Howard Taft, Saoirse looks for, in her afterlife, the meaning she never had in her life.

The Scariest Things, You CAN'T Imagine: short horror stories that will leave you lying awake at night wishing you'd stuck with something lighter.  Try "The Grave-Robbers," in which New Sam learns that there have been a lot of prior Sams born to Mom and Dad.  And they're all down in the catacombs...

All these books and more, just $0.99 on your Kindle.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF BRIANE'S BOOKS FROM AMAZON.

BOOKS BY RUSTY CARL:  

Rusty is a master artist and the author of several books:

A Dead God's Wrath (spec fic/novella): A mysterious stranger shows up to help avenge a brutal murder, unlocking magic of the best, and worst, kind in a sleepy 1895 western town.

War Angel: Like your romance with a bit of adventure and history? In this story, a young man learns of his grandmother's remarkable escape from Nazi Germany with the help of a dashing stranger.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF RUSTY'S BOOKS FROM AMAZON.

Books by S.K. Valenzuela:

S.K. Valenzuela writes the Silesia series: Silesia: The Outworlder,
and The Lords Of Askalon:  Freed when her prison ship crashes, aided by a rogue fugitive, Saraha is trying to foment a rebellions against the Dragon-Lords.

CLICK HERE TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OF S.K.'S BOOKS ON AMAZON.





Want to join? Cut and paste that part, put it on your blog, add your info, and let me know it's there.  I'll post about you, too, and add you to the list!

Indie Authors For Ben Wolverton

UPDATE: SUNDAY 5/5/13: Author Rusty Carl is in! I've added him at the end.

As many of my own readers know, last summer my second-youngest, Mr F, had a bad fall and needed to have emergency brain surgery.

Mr F was lucky; he had the surgery, spent only four days in the hospital (and a semester wearing a soft helmet) and had no other ill effects.  He's doing great now, and with the exception of a scar you'd never know anything happened.

Yesterday, I read about Ben Wolverton.  I happened across Ben by chance -- a tweet popped up in my timeline telling me to help him for Star Wars Day, and I had the time to go read the link.  But what I saw really struck home.

Ben is a teenager who had a bad skateboard accident back in April, and got a serious head injury.  Unlike Mr F, Ben didn't just walk away a few days later eating cheese puffs and laughing.  Ben is still in the hospital, at least as I write this (May 5) and has only just begun being able to eat semi-solid foods.

This is a picture of Ben:

at his most recent.  He's hoping to begin physical therapy soon and get out of the hospital and back home and back into his life.

We live in a country where we will help people get textbooks for school, but not provide medical care.  That's for another day, but for now, what you need to know is that Ben's medical care might cost more than $1,000,000.  So people are banding together to help raise that money, and there are lots of ways to help.

The first way you can help is by donating money directly.

 CLICK THIS LINK IF YOU WANT TO JUST GIVE SOME MONEY.  

But if you'd like to get something in return and still help out, you can buy a T-shirt for Ben.  The shirt is $20, and has this design on it:

AND IF YOU CLICK THIS LINK IT'LL GO DIRECTLY TO THE SITE SO YOU CAN BUY THE SHIRT AND HELP BEN OUT.

Ben's dad is an author, too, and if you buy his book, it'll help him directly and you'll get a great book to boot.  There are two books, in fact: Nightingale, a speculative fiction book about a young man raised in foster care who learns he can sing and affect evil, and Million Dollar Outlines, a nonfiction book to help writers learn to write better outlines.  The books start at $6.99 in pretty much every format.

IF YOU LIKE TO READ AND WANT TO HELP BEN JUST BY READING OR WRITING, CLICK THIS LINK.

Other authors are joining, too.  Author J. Leigh Bralick, author of "The Lost Road Chronicles", is donating all the sales proceeds from her book for the month of May to help Ben.

You can read her post about why she's doing it, here, or you can go to her page at Amazon and buy one -- heck, buy ALL-- the books she's got.  (The "Lost Road" Chronicles begin with "Down a Lost Road," in which a 16-year old uncovers family secrets and gets swept into Earth's mystical past.)

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF J. LEIGH BRALICK'S BOOKS ON AMAZON.








I couldn't just sit and watch others do something.  When Mr F was going in for surgery, I reached out over Twitter and my blog to ask people to pray for him, and people's words of encouragment helped me over the roughest time I've ever had.  I can imagine how much worse it is for Ben and his family.  So I'm pitching in to help out by creating

INDIE 

AUTHORS 

FOR 

BEN WOLVERTON!

So far, I'm the only member.  But I hope it'll grow.  Already, Rusty Carl has said he would "do it in a heartbeat", so I'm sure he'll join.  But here's how it works:

1. Be an author.  Indie or not, we'll take you.
2. Pledge to donate all profits from sales of your books for the month of May to Ben Wolverton.
3. Spread the word, frequently and with enthusiasm.
4. Post a post encouraging people to visit Ben's site, and to buy all the books from all the authors who are participating.

So I'm in.  If you want to join, leave a comment and I'll add you to the list.  I intend to update frequently across all my blogs -- I won't promise daily, I've got a trial coming up and that takes some time -- and Tweet about this.

I'll even help you out: the remainder of this post can be cut-and-pasted and put directly on your blog. No muss, no fuss.  Just add your own details at the end.  Here we go!

INDIE 
AUTHORS 
FOR 
BEN WOLVERTON!




Help young Ben Wolverton recover from a bad skateboarding accident by buying books from these authors, who have pledged that all profits from their sales in May, 2013, will go to Ben's recovery fund:

Nightingale, (sci-fi) by David Farland.  David is Ben's dad, with two books to buy.  Nightingale, a speculative fiction book about a young man raised in foster care who learns he can sing and affect evil, and Million Dollar Outlines, a nonfiction book to help writers learn to write better outlines.  The books start at $6.99 in pretty much every format.

To buy either of these books, CLICK THIS LINK.

The Lost Road Chronicles 
(ya/speculative fiction) by J. Leigh Bralick, The "Lost Road" Chronicles begin with "Down a Lost Road," in which a 16-year old uncovers family secrets and gets swept into Earth's mystical past.)

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF J. LEIGH BRALICK'S BOOKS ON AMAZON.





Books by Briane Pagel.  Pagel is the indie author of books like

Eclipse, a harrowing sci-fi story about an astronaut who wanted nothing more than to reach the stars, and did so -- but it took murder to get there.  Or did it?

the After: Saoirse's life didn't begin until she died in a plane crash. But with everything perfect in the After, why is she so unhappy? With the help of a possibly-unfriendly William Howard Taft, Saoirse looks for, in her afterlife, the meaning she never had in her life.

The Scariest Things, You CAN'T Imagine: short horror stories that will leave you lying awake at night wishing you'd stuck with something lighter.  Try "The Grave-Robbers," in which New Sam learns that there have been a lot of prior Sams born to Mom and Dad.  And they're all down in the catacombs...

All these books and more, just $0.99 on your Kindle.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF BRIANE'S BOOKS FROM AMAZON.

BOOKS BY RUSTY CARL:  

Rusty is a master artist and the author of several books:

A Dead God's Wrath (spec fic/novella): A mysterious stranger shows up to help avenge a brutal murder, unlocking magic of the best, and worst, kind in a sleepy 1895 western town.

War Angel: Like your romance with a bit of adventure and history? In this story, a young man learns of his grandmother's remarkable escape from Nazi Germany with the help of a dashing stranger.

CLICK HERE IF YOU WANT TO HELP BEN BY BUYING ONE OR MORE OF RUSTY'S BOOKS FROM AMAZON.

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