EPIC FANTASY! WITH COWBOYS!

I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be writing for National Novel Writing Month this year. I have an idea that I want to write an epic fantasy (with cowboys) this year, which is very different from the sort of thing that I usually write. Last year I wrote Code Monkey: A Love Story with Occasional Monsters, which proved to be a big hit, and which I’ve been revising since December with the intention of actually bringing it to publication.

And last year Jennifer and I attended a great event called the Night of Writing Dangerously, an event where writers from all over the world (literally the world: I met people from Canada and Australia last year) get together in San Francisco for a night of epic writing and socializing. It was tremendous fun, but, more importantly, it raised nearly $50,000 for the Office of Letters and Light and its Young Writers Program. With this money, the Young Writers Program provided materials and inspiration to schoolchildren throughout the world to engage in their own works of creative abandon.

So once again we’re raising money for the Office of Letters and Light and their Young Writers Program. Our goal is $300, so that we can attend the Night of Writing Dangerously again. If you donate to my fund, in any amount, I’ll name a character in my novel after you (or someone else you might like to have honored in this way), and perhaps even incorporate a magical device of your choosing. It’s a fun challenge for me, and a great way to earn yourself a few milliseconds of fame in a web-accessible novel of dubious quality. Plus, I’ll be posting the novel online as I write it, so you can see your scene as it is written (I’ll be sure to drop you a line when it comes up).

But that’s not all!

This year, we’re offering SPECIAL GIFTS for donors! Just like NPR! How cool are we? Here’s what you can get:

• The first six people who donate $25 get a 1/2 pint jar of homemade jam (your choice of strawberry, cinnamon peach, vanilla peach) or apple butter (requires extra time) or spiced plum (also requires some extra time). The apple butter and spiced plum jam take a little extra time because we have to make them.
• The first six people who donate $50 get a pint jar of homemade pickles (your choice of dill spears, dill slices, sweet relish).
• The first person who donates $100 gets a pair of handknit socks (color and size to be coordinated with Jennifer).

These aren’t cumulative. We’re not THAT cool.

So what do you say?

Help us out? And in doing so, help out the Office of Letters and Light and the great work that they do.

To donate, click here, then click on the button that says “Sponsor Us”.