Write Good or Die (11 page)

Mur Lafferty
has written for over 15 role-playing games, one
textbook, one book on podcasting, one novel, countless stories and
podcasts, and several magazines. Her column, Geek Fu Action Grip,
appears regularly in the magazine
Knights
of the Dinner Table
. She has published
fiction with the podcast Escape Pod, Scrybe Press, Murky Depths and
Hub Magazine. Other podcast projects include “Heaven,” I Should Be
Writing, Playing for Keeps, Pseudopod and The Takeover. She
currently blogs and podcasts for Tor.com and her Web site is
http://www.murverse.com.

Robert Kroese
is a writer and software developer who lives in
Ripon, California. He self-published his first novel,
Mercury Falls
, in October,
2009. As of March, 2010, Mercury Falls had received 93
five star reviews
on
Amazon and has been in the top 1,000
bestselling books
for
Kindle
for more than five
months. Kroese’s success with this novel caught the attention of
Amazon, which will be re-publishing
Mercury
Falls
through its Amazon Encore program in
late 2010.
His Web site is
http://mercuryfalls.net.

Scott Nicholson
is author of 10 thrillers, including
The Red Church, Drummer Boy, Disintegration, They
Hunger,
and
The
Skull Ring
. He’s published more than 60
stories in seven countries, and many of the stories are collected
in
Flowers, The First
, and
Ashes
.
In addition to six screenplays, he’s written or edited a number of
comic series, including
Dirt, Little
Shivers, Grave Conditions,
and
Dreamboat
. A freelance
editor and journalist in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North
Carolina, his web site is
http://www.hauntedcomputer.com.

Kewber
is a Brazilian artist who draws
Sleeprunners, Dirt,
Chaos
Campus
, and
The
Gorge
. His work can be seen at
http://kewber.deviantart.com/

About Literacy Inc.:
Literacy Incorporated is a non-profit organization
on a mission to fight illiteracy across America by reaching out to
high school students in all corners of the continental United
States. A person’s social responsibility is also affected by how
much he or she reads. Literary readers are 27% more likely to
volunteer or do charity work than non-readers and are 31% more
likely to vote. Deficient readers, on the other hand, are far more
likely to drop out of high school, are 33% more likely to be out of
the workforce, and are more likely to be put in prison

To help battle these problems, Deborah
LeBlanc, the founder of Literacy Inc., decided in 2005 to create an
incentive-based program that would encourage America’s students to
read—the LeBlanc Literacy Challenge. To participate in this annual
Challenge, students must read two books, take an on-line quiz and
submit a short essay. The participant with the highest score wins a
grand prize of $5,000 in cash, plus an additional $1,000 that is
given to the school or library of the winner’s choice. As an added
incentive to further education, if the winner chooses to put the
$5,000 in a college fund, Deborah will personally set up a matching
funds program at the college of the student’s choice. In addition,
once the student is enrolled in the university, his or her
dedication to education, as made evident through grades and
attendance, will be rewarded with additional funds to cover
subsequent semesters, all the way through a four-year bachelor’s
degree program. Other prizes include a desktop computer as well as
gift certificates to bookstores with values up to $275.

As an added incentive to get students to
read, the books needed to take the Challenge are provided to
students in high schools across the nation at no cost. At the
conclusion of an inspiring and motivational presentation, Literacy
Inc. places the books directly in the students’ hands, giving them
one less reason not to take the Challenge and read. By combining
excitement and reading through concrete, valuable incentives along
with an inspiring presentation, Literacy Inc. encourages high
school students to take that crucial first step in creating a more
literate society—reading a book, cover to cover.

For more information on the organization,
visit http://www.literacyinc.com.

Join us at the organic,
interactive writing manual
Write Good or
Die
as a blog at
http://writegoodordie.blogspot.com
,
where you can read more tips and share writing advice.

Thanks for reading and good luck with your
writing!

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