Teaser Tuesday (5/28/13) and a Donation Bomb

Photo credit: Rachel Schieffelbein's website

So many people have books coming out or that just came out! I'm having trouble keeping up with everyone. It so happened that this book is exactly what I was looking to read today, so I swooped it up.

When Mabel's best friend, Amber, drags her along on a double date she finds herself falling for Lance, the obnoxious class clown whom she swore she'd have no interest in.

The only problem is, she's not sure if she's really the girl Lance is into, or if, like every other guy she knows, it's really Amber he's after. One thing is clear, if Mabel wants to be the lead in her own love story, she needs to start acting like it.

The rules for Teaser Tuesday are:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then hit up Should Be Reading to add your link.

And the teaser:

I, on the other hand, feel weighted down. Sandbags are tied to my arms and legs, making it difficult to walk away.

The next thing of note is a Donation Bomb that Leigh Covington posted about on her blog.

David Farland (Wolverton)'s son Ben, age 16, was in a tragic longboarding accident on April 3rd, 2013. He suffers from severe brain trauma, a cracked skull, broken pelvis and tail bone, burnt knees, bruised lungs, broken ear drums, road rash, and pneumonia. He was in a coma, but has recently awakened. His family has no insurance.

Ben's treatments are already over $1,000,0000.
Ben will need extensive therapy as he relearns how to walk.

Ben's estimated hospital bills are looking to be somewhere around $1.2 MILLION! So what can we do? We can help! Even the smallest donations can go a long way when everybody gives a little bit.

THE PLAN: Donate any amount, large or small, to the Help Ben Walk Fund (feel free to donate more, if you can.)

THE DATE: Friday, June 7th!

To find out more about Ben and other ways you can help, CLICK HERE.

Also - on JUNE 4th there is a TWITTER BOMB! Spread the word and use hashtags #davidfarland or #helpwolverton! You can use these posts to get points in the Rafflecopter giveaway below!

Please help spread the word by sharing on your blog, tweeting, posting on Facebook, or any other way you know how. For those who help spread the word, one lucky person will receive an Ebook through Kindle or Nook of David Farland's book, Million Dollar Outlines! Check out Leigh's blog to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway.

SOPA/PIPA

I'm taking a break from posting about writing for a minute to talk about something else near and dear to my heart--the Internet.

I don't know about all of you, but I spend a considerable amount of time online, particularly when I'm procrastinating. But I also use it for information for basically everything. And I use Wikipedia as a primary source, despite countless high school teachers telling me it was too inaccurate. At least three ideas in Rosetta came from the Wikipedia article on wolves.

Anyway, all this is the rambling way of saying that websites like Wikipedia and YouTube and others are in jeopardy. The point of SOPA (the Stop Internet Piracy Act) is to prevent piracy and copyright infringement. As a writer, I'm all for that. However, if SOPA passes, it essentially gives the government the ability to shut down any website that might happen to link to a site that contains piracy. It's impossible to ask these user-created websites to police every link that appears in an article or a video or a comment, and this can only result in censorship and the eventual blackout of all these sites.

There are other consequences to SOPA and PIPA (the Senate version, the Protect Intellectual Property Act), and you can learn more about them pretty much anywhere online. Here's the BBC article explaining the controversy (I hoped this would present the most objective picture).

Wikipedia, Reddit, and other websites are blacking out today to bring awareness to this issue. You can get involved. Get educated about the bills and their possible repercussions. Go to Google and sign the petition. Write your congressmen and women. Pass the word on to your friends and family. Whatever you choose to do, please keep aware of what's going on. Remember, decisions are made by those who show up.