We Dream For Jeanne
Yesterday, an Erfworld reader PMmed me to say, "I wasn't around to comment on it when it actually went up, but I had to say -- The fact that you used 'Callahan's' as the mind-link incantation made me very happy. I loved those books."
I did too. "Those books" are the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series by Spider Robinson. If you've read the whole series, you know why "Callahan's" was the magic word to initiate a Thinkamancer link. I count the Callahan's series as an early influence on my own writing, so you have Spider to thank for some of Erfworld's strangeness. As I told the reader who wrote me, I have met Spider on a couple of occasions at conventions (he's a great guy), and am really hoping our paths will cross after Erfworld book 1 is out, so I can give him a copy.
Then this morning, I heard about this awfulness, via SpiderRobinson.com:
HELP JEANNE STAY HEALTHY
Earlier his year a brilliant surgeon, Dr. Andresz Busczowski, helped Jeanne Robinson beat back a rare and virulent form of biliary cancer. But it’s so rare even he can’t say how much time he‘s bought her, how soon it might recur—and her latest blood tests have been so discouraging they’ve now decided she needs to start chemotherapy as soon as possible. Besides the prescription drugs to counteract the chemotherapy, she needs special therapies and supplements, counseling, and extensive diet and lifestyle changes, to reduce her stress level and the strain on her liver to as close to zero as possible. All those things are expensive...and like many artists today the Robinsons were already running on fumes financially.
But Jeanne, a Soto Zen monk, has been spreading love and kindness in all directions for a long time. So her Buddhist sangha in Vancouver, her neighbors on Bowen Island, and friends as far away as Florida have all spontaneously come together to raise funds to help keep her around as long as possible. Your participation is welcomed. A Bowen benefit concert, “WE DREAM FOR JEANNE,” will be held at Cates Hill Chapel at 7:30 PM on Friday Sept 18 details here; goods or services can be donated for eBay auction (such as rare Babylon 5 scripts and other SF memorabilia) by contacting Jan Schroeder at <dreamforjeanne@aol.com>, and PayPal donations can be sent to http://wedreamforjeanne.blogspot.com/.
Another way to help would be to buy our books from Amazon by clicking-through from this site http://www.spiderrobinson.com/books.html, so Jeanne and I can get the affiliate commission. We promise you an entertaining read.
You can read Jeanne’s recent blog entry, The Third Act, to get a sense of how she’s feeling at http://stardancemovie.blogspot.com/.
Jeanne and Spider both warmly appreciate your help, support, prayers or just good thoughts.
So whether or not you've read the Callahan's series (or Spider and Jeanne Robinson's other work), I'd like to ask you to support them in this hard time. If you've loved their work like I have, please donate directly. If you have no idea who these people are, do yourself and them a favor by buying one of their books, using the Amazon link on their site. I would suggest "The Callahan Chronicals," which is a reasonably-priced trade paperback collection of the first three Callahan's books.
My heart and hopes and best wishes go out to Spider and Jeanne. Let them know the same. As they say around Callahan's Place, "Shared pain is lessened; shared joy is increased."
Hello, your link to http://www.spiderrobinson.com/books.html is using erfworld.com for the domain so it doesn't work. It's easily gotten round of course but a simple click won't work. Figured I'd let you know!
I'd fix it but I am not sure what is wrong, exactly. How would I fix it? Or can I?