Brian Pagel recently caught wind of the plight of Ben Wolverton, the son of Author David Wolverton (who also writes under the pen name, David Farland).
Ben had an accident while skateboarding. That accident left him in a coma and in need of some serious medical attention. To the tune of around $1,000,000.
And there is no health insurance to cover these costs. Since the father works as an author in a place where you can only get affordable health coverage through your employer, he’s stuck with the bill.
I’ve gone without insurance for long periods of my life. And one of the main reasons I have the job I do now is for the health benefits. Ironically, they were amazing benefits to have a decade ago, now they’ve become so expensive and with so much less actual benefits, that we’ve been forced to drop my employer’s offered plan and go with my wife’s, which I used to think were horrible.
Anyhow, I have a son about the same age as Ben, and he has, at various stages of his youth, decided to be a skateboarder (watch an episode of Ridiculousness and see how horrid those accidents can be), a parkour practitioner (again, watch Ridiculousness), and a football star (um, watch a football game to get a view of the violence).
At any given time, my son is nursing any of a host of injuries, bruised ribs, sprained wrists, pulled hamstrings, sore back… and those aren’t just during the season, offseason workouts, spring practice, it’s a yearlong thing nowadays. I’ve seen broken bones, noses, torn ligaments, and even one life threatening injury in the past couple of years since my son has been playing.
Risky behavior just seems to be a part of being a young man. When I read the story about young Ben my thoughts immediately went to my own son, and how devastated I’d be if something similar happened to him. Add to that a million dollar medical bill and I’m not sure what I’d do.
I bought a copy of David's recently released enhanced novel (for tablets only, I believe) as soon as I read about the incident. It’s only $10 and was told that this is probably the best way to help him outside of a direct contribution (which can be done as well).
Since Brian Pagel got word of Ben, he immediately begin throwing around some ideas to help. As of now, he's asking for authors to contribute proceeds for May sales to help Ben. I signed up right away. So, for the month of May, any story of mine that earns any amount of royalties earned will be donated to a fund for Ben Wolverton.
If anyone else is willing to commit, please let Briane know… Click here to join the cause. Or see all the info below:
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:
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!
...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!
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:
To buy either of these books, CLICK THIS LINK.
(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
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.
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.
14 comments:
I made a contribution. I've been doing what I can to get the word out, but there's a long way to go.
Own all of your books and already purchased his.
Just purchased Nightingale, don't have the funds to do much more, and you Americans think our Canadian health system isn't a good one.
I've seen some of this skateboard stuff, but there is no way you can convince kids not to do these things. I guess once upon a time they could hunt animals but since we became 'civilised' outlets for all that energy are needed.
JO ON FOOD, MY TRAVELS AND A SCENT OF CHOCOLATE
Rusty! Excellent post, and thanks for spreading the word.
Everyone: Another author has signed on to this cause. It's S.K. Valenzuela. I have a link to her books here:
http://www.nonsportsman.com/2013/05/maybe-even-dragon-lords-will-join-in-we.html
Right now, you can get an entire trilogy of books for under $2, and it'll help Ben.
I forgot to add: Everyone who signs up to donate books will get several posts on one or more of my blogs featuring their book, plus frequent tweets to links about their book. This is a way for starting authors, especially, to do some good and get some promotion. I'm not against people helping others and getting a boost themselves in the process.
If you don't have a book, just spreading the word will help, so if you do a post about it or tweet about it, hit me up on Twitter at
@whyihatepeople
Or email me at bfpageljr[at]gmail.com
and I'll give you some kudos for doing it.
Maybe that's why my mom never let me play sports... Of course, she let my brother play all the sports he wanted to play.
???
That is a huge bill. I hate that people who don't have money are footed with this kind of bill. Sucks :(
This is a great cause, though. Well done you for doing your part!
I purchased his book in April on Amazon to help. Great that you're helping spread the word.
A million dollar bill! That must be so overwhelming. Thanks for spreading the word Rusty.
Don't get me started on the need for healthcare reform -- I haven't seen a politician yet with a viable plan. Good on you for getting the word out, Rusty.
The cost of healthcare has skyrocketed, and I used to sell to hospitals, so I worked closely with their purchasing officers. It's crazy.
Hope word continues to spread to help out David's family.
He can apply to have the amount reduced (I used to have the job of reducing hospital bills) based on his income. He just needs to ask the billing office.
I just bought this book!
www.modernworld4.blogspot.com
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