Barb Caffrey's Blog

Folks, I said this a few days ago on Facebook, and I’d like to repost what I said at my blog. (My Facebook page, BTW, in case you haven’t been there, is here.)

So, here goes! (Repost follows…)

Thank you all so much for the warm birthday wishes. This was one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had, and I appreciate that very much.

I’d like you to do two things now, if you can. First, go help my friend Betsy Lightfoot. Their house burned down due to arson. She and her family have done a lot of good for others. They really, really didn’t deserve this. (Finances precluded them to have home insurance, though they had been about to get it back.)

https://www.givesendgo.com/GD2AK

Second, support a writer, any writer, that you’ve not read before. (Am I saying this because I’m a writer myself? Well, yeah…) Go read something if you have KU from someone you’ve never heard of. Maybe you’ll find a new fun author to try, maybe you don’t…but at least you’ll have given someone a thrill that their work has been noticed.

If you don’t have KU, find something that’s the equivalent of $4 USD or less, and when you get paid, providing you have enough money for a book or story, go buy it then.

There are so many writers who don’t get read who are really good, thoughtful writers. They have senses of humor. They have emotional depth. They have wit, and charm, and historicity and characterization…all writers want is for someone to read them. If you like what you read, great! But at least being read helps, as it makes us feel less like we’re shouting into the heart of the Void (and are thus completely unheard).

That was the end of the repost, but I wanted to say a few more things now. The writers I know well include Chris Nuttall, Leo Champion, Kayelle Allen, Rosemary Edghill, and Katharine Eliska Kimbriel. If you haven’t read any of their books, go find one right now and buy it or borrow it. (Chris and Leo have had things available on Kindle Unlimited now and again, and Kayelle might, too.) In addition, as I used to work with Jason Cordova over at Shiny Book Review, I’d like to recommend his work to you. (My favorite is the one about the little kaiju at Christmas. A girl had hoped for a dog, got a kaiju, and found out it was exactly what she wanted or needed. It’s a feel-good story about hope.)

You will enjoy what they’re doing. They all write well, come up with extremely immersive worlds, and will take you out of your own head for hours or days (depending on how immersed you are).

Now, as for my friend Betsy Lightfoot’s situation? I feel terrible that she’s in this position, having to deal with a house that’s seriously damaged, not knowing if the person who caused this fire will be arrested (or when)…time is at a premium, and she lost pretty much everything she owned. If you can help her, please do. If you can’t, say a prayer for her, and think good thoughts…she’s a gifted writer who was getting close to putting her first novel up for sale. I’ve read it and I liked it very much, enough to edit it for her and give whatever help I could.

Ask yourself, please, what you’d do in such a situation. Then think about this: Betsy and her family have gone out of their way to help people. There are people who get help all the time who don’t need it nearly as badly as Betsy does right now.

That’s why my birthday wishes are two: Help Betsy out. Find a writer who’s new to you and go buy something, anything…or borrow it via KU, if you have that.

We writers have to stick together. That’s why I’ve written this post.