Cancer Sucks

Regular readers here know that I am an avid reader and a big fan of Jay Lake's work.  I've also mentioned more than once that I've been following his blog for some time, particularly his posts about his cancer journey.  He recently finished six months of chemo for metastatic colon cancer after a tumor was found on his lung.  Last Friday was his follow-up CT scan, yesterday the oncology consult.  

He has another tumor.  This one on his liver, about the size of an olive.  That grew while he was on some pretty heavy duty chemo.  

So now he is looking at more surgery, more chemo, more time off work, more time away from writing, more time away from life.  To follow his journey see his blog at jaylake .  

One of his concerns is of course financial.  Even with decent health insurance cancer treatment is expensive.  I imagine I'll start seeing blog posts from other LJ friends for fund raisers, donations, etc.  If and when I do I will boost the signal by posting here.  In the meantime if you want to help there is one easy way to do so:

Buy his books!  Don't buy used and don't download illegal electronic copies.  Support Jay - and all your favorite writers - by buying their work, paper or electronic, at retail or getting it from the library (library copies count, copies from used bookstores don't).  Sales are love - they let writers earn our their advances, earn royalties (which aren't much BTW), and lead to more book deals, which means more wonderful stories for the rest of us to read. 

Fuck cancer!

    

Clarification On Buying Used Books

I mentioned in my previous post that if you want to support your favorite writers don't buy used.  A friend here at the cube farm said I was being hypocritical as I am a big fan of Half Price Books.  So let me clarify my position on used vs new. 

I love used bookstores like HPB.  I've found many a wonderful gem there that I couldn't find anywhere else be it big box retailers, independent bookstore or amazon.com.  I have so many books on my TBR shelves that I seldom keep books once I've finished them.  Instead I sell them to HPB so that someone else can hopefully get the same enjoyment from them that I have. 

But I do have a philosophy when it comes to buying books.  I buy the latest offerings from my favorite writers new, trying to support my local bookstore if possible.  I know I'm going to buy these books and I want my copy to count towards the writer's sales figures so that he/she can keep writing the stories I love.  For older work from these same authors, especially if out of print, I have no problem buying used if that's where I find it.  But I try as much as possible to make my purchase count towards their bottom line whenever possible. 

I use HPB to find those volumes I can't get anywhere but amazon marketplace.  If I find something that's been on my list for months and years, that is out of print or only available used through online retailers, then I snatch it up.  I also peruse the stacks to find new writers to read and love.  I've found some of my favorite new writers at HPB; I've also found some real duds but luckily the treasures tend to win out.  Once they make my "must have" list I buy new. 

I hope that clarifies things a bit.  I hate being called a hypocrite.