As previously mentioned, fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss is lending his time and talents to support Heifer International, a global development nonprofit working to end hunger and poverty and protect the planet. Through his Worldbuilders Foundation, Pat hopes to raise $500,000 for Heifer during his current fundraiser, which ends next Friday, January 18 January 21. To that end, over the course of the fundraiser, he is providing donors and fans the chance to make a cameo appearance in an upcoming book, play Dungeons & Dragons with him and other authors, or spend a spring weekend with him and his staff at Heifer Ranch.

Details can be found in the following press release.
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Author and Hugo Award-winning fan writer Jim C. Hines, he of the Women and Fantasy Covers post, is at it again…only this time in the name of charity.

Jim has launched an annual fundraiser to benefit the Aicardi Syndrome Foundation. What he’s offering is brand new cover poses like the one above. The more that’s donated, the more he’ll do. John Scalzi is in on this and figures into the tiered poses.

Check out Jim’s post Cover Posing for a Good Cause for more information.

I have a huge soft spot in my heart for hurricane victims.

About six weeks after Hurricane Katrina, I flew down to Mississippi where I spent the next six months living in a town that was about 98% demolished and roughly ten miles east of where the eye had passed. Before that experience, hurricanes were sad, and the people who lost everything to them were tragic, but it was abstract. I’d care for a few minutes before my own life made me forget about it. I never realized just how tragic and how horrible it all was until I toured a completely leveled city with people who had spent their entire lives there.

My experience with Hurricane Katrina changed my life forever. I wasn’t much of a humanitarian before I spent my time in Mississippi, but now I have a bleeding heart. I watched strangers help each other fix roofs, protect each other, feed each other, donate clothes and medical supplies, help clean up demolished property, help each other deal with loss and so much more. I saw how much one person could change a community and I saw how important the effort of one individual was in the face of such calamity. Now I can’t seem to stop myself from participating in humanitarian efforts, especially ones focusing on hurricane relief.

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