Thank you, Linda Joy Singleton!

The power of the internet and, more importantly, the generosity of the writing community never ceases to amaze me.

The following video is full of inappropriate-for-kids words, but here’s the gist: a young man whose friend is dying asked online if there was any way to get ahold of a copy of the final book of his friend’s favorite series so he could see how it ends. An editor heard about the request and sent an ARC. The author himself even offers to call the dying fan.

http://io9.com/5887804/scifi-author-spoils-his-entire-book-series-for-terminally-ill-fan

I’ve experienced this kind of generosity myself.

A couple of years ago, my teenage daughter fell in love with Linda Joy Singleton’s awesome The Seer series. And being the obsessive sort, she wouldn’t let go. She kept reading the books over and over and swore she wouldn’t read any other books until the final book came out - months and months away. It was frustrating (she was supposed to be reading other books for school) but also, I had to admit, kind of amusing. So I contacted Linda Joy and told her about her diehard fan. I've never met Linda Joy and I didn’t expect anything; I just wanted to reach out because, as a writer myself, I know how we often work in a vacuum.

I can’t tell you exactly how Linda Joy responded. But I can tell you she did something amazing that lit up my daughter’s world and moved me. All Linda Joy asked for in return was that we buy a copy of the final book, Magician’s Muse, when it came out. Not a hard thing for us to promise! (For more information on Linda Joy's work check out her website HERE. I loved her Dead Girl series. It's about a girl with a terrible sense of direction who has a near-death experience and gets lost on the way back - and ends up in someone else's body.)

I don’t think I’ve ever thanked Linda Joy properly for what she did. But the video above inspired me to pay it forward, so I’m holding a random drawing. If you comment on this post from now until March 4th, you will entered to win the first three books in The Seer series!! On me.

All I ask is that you pay it forward someday. Reach out to a reader or a fellow writer and offer a kind word or hand up. I truly believe that the energy we put out into the world always comes back to us.

Thanks!