Mallorie is braver than you

Imagine for a moment that we had made such wonderful progress in the fight against cancer that only two hundred cases remained in the entire United States. Or substitute heart disease for cancer if you'd prefer. Or HIV.

That would be a revolutionary day, right? Something to celebrate, as by that point we would be just one more small breakthrough away from eradicating an entire disease, from wiping it off the face of the earth forever.

But what if, instead of cancer or heart disease or HIV, the disease affecting two hundred Americans was something you had never heard of? What if this disease was so rare, affecting such a small percentage of the population, that there was virtually no incentive to devote any funding to medical research?

And what if the disease was incurable, affecting mostly teenagers and young adults, and once diagnosed, meant a future of gradually worsening seizures, muscle spasms, dementia and eventually death?

What if you were diagnosed with Lafora Disease?

Welcome to Mallorie Lindo's life. Mallorie is braver than you. She's braver than me, too. Mallorie is a seventeen year old neighbor of mine in New Hampshire, living a few towns away, and she suffers from Lafora Disease.

Mallorie has been forced by circumstances beyond her control - beyond anyone's control - to carry a burden no teenager should ever have to carry. She knows what her future holds, and unlike many people diagnosed with a deadly disease, Mallorie can't even cling to the possibility of a miracle cure, because little is being done to find one.

Needless to say, Mallorie and her family are facing the battle of their lives. These kinds of fights aren't cheap, either, and many of the expenses Mallorie and her family are facing aren't the sorts of things health insurance will pay for.

It just so happens that at the same time I was learning of Mallorie's situation I was putting the finishing touches on my brand-new collection of mystery novelettes titled UNCLE BRICK AND THE FOUR NOVELETTES. The collection includes three previously published stories, including "Uncle Brick and Jimmy Kills," a finalist for a 2010 Derringer Award for excellence in short mystery fiction, as well as one brand-new story, written just for this collection.

UNCLE BRICK AND THE FOUR NOVELETTES is available at Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, and any minute now at Barnes and Noble. I am pledging all of the royalties I earn from this collection - every penny - from now through Thanksgiving to Mallorie and her family. That amounts to about $2.06 per download.

I'd like to think the collection is a pretty good deal on it's own, $2.99 for 40,000 words of entertainment, but when you add in the fact you'll be helping contribute to a young woman facing a future none of us should ever have to face, in my opinion it becomes a no-brainer.

If you're not interested in Uncle Brick and would like to contribute to Mallorie's fight directly, you can do so via the Paypal button at her website, Mallorie's Joy.

Mallorie's Joy - that's not the name you would expect on the website of a young woman facing what she's facing, is it? But that's because Mallorie is not what you would expect. She's braver than you and I, remember? She is determined to face each day as brightly and optimistically as possible, and while no one should doubt the difficulty of doing so in her situation, it's one of the things that make Mallorie Lindo and her challenge so special.

So check out Mallorie's Joy, click around and get to know this extraordinary young lady. Consider helping Mallorie and her family financially if you're able, either by purchasing UNCLE BRICK AND THE FOUR NOVELETTES or by contributing directly.

If financial support is not possible, I'd be willing to bet she would appreciate a prayer if you pray, or a good thought if you're not religious. Maybe a card or a note.

But please keep Mallorie in your thoughts.

Is that a Derringer Award or are you just happy to see me?

I'm going to list some names and I want you to try to guess what they have in common: J.A. Konrath, Dave Zeltserman, Doug Allyn, Earl Staggs.

If you guessed these are all authors who can out-write my ass with half their brains tied behind their backs, you probably wouldn't be far off, but that's not what I'm getting at. All of the above-mentioned authors have earned Derringer Awards from the Short Mystery Fiction Society at some point in their careers (some more than one).

Other Derringer winners have been Richard Helms, Mike Wiecek, Chris F. Holm, Dave White, Julie Hyzy, Toni LP Kelner and a number of other unbelievably talented writers. Jeffery Deaver was a finalist. So was the incomparable Sophie Littlefield. The list goes on and on.

And you want to hear something cool? I'm now one, too!

My seven hundred word flash fiction story, "Lessons Learned," which ran at the outstanding noir fiction site, Shotgun Honey, last July, was voted the 2012 Derringer Award winner for Best Flash Story, rendering me stunned, humbled, and excited as hell to be included among such an incredible array of talent in the crime fiction community.

And the competition was fierce, too. The Derringer is awarded annually in four categories: Best Flash Story (under 1000 words), Best Short Story (1001-4000 words), Best Long Story (4001-8000 words), and Best Novelette (8001-17,500 words). Judges chosen from SMFS volunteers score each nominated story to come up with five finalists per category, and then the SMFS membership votes to determine a winner in each category.

As a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society I read all the stories which were selected as finalists in each category and then voted (and yes, of course I voted for my own story, are you crazy?), and there wasn't a bad tale in the bunch.

I'm not new to the Derringer Awards, having been selected as a finalist three previous times, twice in 2009 for Best Short Story ("Independence Day" and "Regrets, I've Had a few")and once in 2010 for Best Novelette (Uncle Brick and Jimmy Kills"). But this is my first Derringer win and I would be lying if I said it tasted anything other than incredibly sweet. Again, all you have to do is take a look at the names of the previous Derringer winners to see what an honor it is.

A few months ago I made a light-hearted comment on Facebook about an award I was in the running for or something and a gentleman made the following comment in return: "If you write to win awards, you're a bigger asshole than you know."

I didn't say much at the time, simply unfriended the person and moved on, because his comment was so ridiculous and unnecessary I couldn't see wasting a lot of energy on it. I don't write to win awards and find it hard to imagine anyone would - there aren't enough awards out there to even make that a legitimate goal, and the ones that are out there are so hotly contested, the odds of ever winning any of them are so prohibitive you might as well try to win $640 million at Mega Millions.

But just because awards aren't the reason I write, that doesn't mean I don't appreciate winning one. Everyone likes validation; anyone who claims otherwise is lying, either to you or to himself.

In the business of writing fiction, if you don't find a way to deal with rejection you're not going to last long, so when people - especially people who specialize in either writing or reading the type of fiction you write - make an effort to recognize your work, it's a hell of a good feeling, one which I intend to savor for a while.

But, like anything else in life, as a writer you're only as good as your last book, or your last story, or maybe even your last sentence. So with that in mind, congratulations to the 2012 Derringer Award winners in the other three categories: Best Short Story, B.V. Lawson; Best Long Story, Art Taylor and Karen Pullen; and Best Novelette, Earl Staggs; as well as to all of the finalists in all of the categories.

Now it's time to get back to writing.