I’m proud to announce that today my wife Ann is in Madison, Wisconsin, to help accept the state superintendent’s Friend of Education award on behalf of Project 16:49. Ann works as the homeless student liaison for the School District of Janesville, and she and Robin Stuht — her counterpart in Beloit — have been working tirelessly over the past couple years to set up a shelter for homeless teens in Rock County. Many homeless children can enter a shelter with their family, but a large number of homeless teens don’t have that option. They’re not yet old enough to enter a shelter for adults, so they have zero places to go.

To help raise awareness about this problem, filmmaker Rubin Burgos created a documentary about three local homeless teens. He called it Sixteen Forty-Nine after the numbers of hours and minutes a child has to wait between leaving the safe haven of a school in the afternoon and returning the next morning. Ann and Robin took up that banner, naming their effort Project 16:49, and they’ve been showing this moving film all around the area to help drum up support ever since.

This pays off in all sorts of ways, not just raising funds for the shelter itself but also motivating people to chip in as best they can. Earlier this month, for instance, the staff of the Mercy Health Mall teamed up to donate backpacks full of school and personal supplies for Janesville’s homeless teens. (That’s them in the photo. Ann’s the one in the blue dress in the middle.)

Today, State Superintendent Tony Evers is recognizing Project 16:49′s efforts (along with eight others) in a ceremony at the state capitol, and Ann and Robin are there to accept the award. Read the official press release, and if you can manage it, visit the Project 16:49 website to see if there’s something you can do to help.

I spend my days entertaining people, which I love, but my wife and her friends are out there on the front lines every day, working hard to help people in the worst need. I’m glad the state superintendent stood up to recognize and endorse all their hard work.

The ever-talented John Anealio just released this video of him performing an acoustic version of the song “Angry Robot,” which I co-wrote with him. It’s so cool it had me bouncing off the walls!

Don’t forget, you can still download the original version for free. What’s stopping you? Just juke your way around the Angry Robot and grab your prize.

Today, John Anealio released “Angry Robot,” a song I helped him write. You can find it available for free on his website as a single or as part of his brand-new The Robot E.P., which includes “Angry Robot” and covers of “Mr. Roboto” and “The Transformers Theme.”

I met John at the World Fantasy Convention last October, and we hit it off. Our virtual paths crossed again when he wrote the original “Angry Robot” chorus as the theme song for Angry Robot, which publishes my novels Amortals and Vegas Knights. The omnipresent and awesome Mur Lafferty uses it as the lead-in for the official Angry Robot podcasts she hosts.

John wanted to turn the chorus/jingle/intro into a full song, and he asked me if I’d be interested in helping him write the lyrics. I didn’t just jump, I rocketed at the chance. Who wouldn’t love to have a talented musician like John set your words to music?

The chorus was already perfect, so I wrote a first draft of the verses. We went back and forth with it a few times, polishing it to a high gloss, and then John strode off to set it all to the perfect tune.

Give it a listen! It’s free to stream or download, contains no DRM, and both John and I hope you enjoy it.

My co-writer on the script for the InSpectres movie, Jeff Dohm, is launching a new tabletop roleplaying game this year, called Steamfortress Victory. Jeff describes it as American steampunk, and it fits that bill like a set of clockwork goggles. The first product for it — a prequel dime novel/adventure called A Day at the Fair — debuted at Archon last year, and it’s now available for sale in print direct through publisher Industrial Dream Mills and as a PDF through DriveThruRPG.com.

If you like your steampunk wrapped in an American flag, be sure to check it out. It’ll give you a good taste of what you can expect from the full game when it premieres this summer.

Over at Tor.com, I posted about the latest charity bundle of tabletop gaming PDFs that DriveThruRPG has put together. This one gives you $330+ of product for only $20, with proceeds going to the New Zealand Red Cross to help with its efforts to give aid in the wake of the recent earthquake there. It’s a great cause supported by a great group of publishers. Check it out.

Pat Rothfuss, author of the excellent The Name of the Wind, has set up Worldbuilders — his annual fundraising drive for Heifer International — once again. As an incentive for fans of genre fiction, Pat and dozens of other authors have donated all sorts of prizes that you can win for taking part in the drive. Every $10 you chip in nets you a chance at winning something cool, like an autographed copy of a great read. Plus Worldbuilders matches 50% of your donation, making your bucks go farther.

Alternatively, you can purchase things from Pat’s online store, all proceeds of which go to Heifer. Pat also auctions off all sorts of rare items like editorial criticisms, rare books, and more.

I just sent off an autographed copy of Guild Wars: Ghosts of Ascalon today, so it should go up into the book lottery soon. If you can chip in something too, please do. It’s a great cause, and it’s heartwarming to see so many authors and readers banding together to do some good in the real world.

I ran into John DeNardo of the excellent SF Signal at the World Fantasy Convention over Halloween weekend. I’ve been following the site for a while, and we hit it off while chatting at the Tor party. They do a fantastic job of covering all the news for genre lit.

Yesterday, I saw they had a new “Mind Meld” post up that posited the question “What are your favorite SF/F games?” to a number of writers, including Tobias Buckell, Ari Marmell, John Scalzi, John Joseph Adams, and Tim Akers. I shot them a direct message on Twitter saying how much I liked it and how I would have been happy to contribute myself. Within minutes, I had an apologetic note saying that they’d actually meant to ping me for it, and would I be interested in answering the question in a make-up post.

Of course, I said yes. It doesn’t take much to get me to prattle on about one of my favorite topics. Apologies in advance to my friends whose games slipped my mind at that exact moment but which no doubt would be at the top of such a list on any other day.

My pals at DriveThruRPG.com just raised over $65,000 for Doctors Without Borders to help with the efforts to help out the people affected by the horrible floods in Pakistan. Good going to them, the gaming companies that supported them, and all the gamers who bought the special bundle to raise the money. Does my heart good to see that kind of rallying for people in such dire need.

See after the full press release after the break.

October 27th, 2010

*DriveThruRPG’s Customers Donate Over $65,000.00 to Doctors Without Borders
for Pakistan Relief*

(Atlanta, GA) – DriveThruRPG, an Internet-based business that specializes
in the marketing and distribution of role-playing games and role-playing
accessories for traditional dice-and-paper gaming, recently conducted a
fund-raising program in the wake of Pakistan’s devastating floods. Their
efforts, concluded on October 25, resulted in an amount in excess of
$65,000.00, all of which is being donated to the international emergency
medical organization, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF).

“For the second time this year, we asked the gaming community to step up and
help those in need,” said Sean Patrick Fannon, marketing and communications
manager for DriveThruRPG. “Once again, the response of the publishers and
the customers blew us away. I am proud to be part of this community, and I
am grateful for its capacity for generosity. We cannot erase the misery
suffered by the people of Pakistan, but we are hopeful that our efforts can
bring some relief and recovery to them.”

DriveThruRPG continues to support Doctors Without Borders because of its
mission to provide emergency medical care to people in over 60 countries
around the world, as a neutral and impartial organization.

“We would like to thank DriveThruRPG for choosing Doctors Without Borders as
the beneficiary of this event,” said Jennifer Tierney, director of
development for MSF-USA. “Contributions like this enable us to provide
assistance to those affected by the floods in Pakistan, through programs
focused on delivering safe drinking water, providing shelter for the
displaced, medical and nutritional care, and essential relief supplies.”

In addition to the RPG bundle that was offered, DriveThruComics (sister site
to DriveThruRPG) also offered a special charity package. “Comic and fiction
publishers at DriveThruComics were thrilled to donate some of their creative
work to the Pakistan relief cause,” said Matt McElroy, DriveThruComics
manager. “Comics fans responded, donating thousands of dollars and scooping
up some great digital comics along the way.”

Since early August, MSF aid workers have conducted nearly 50,000 medical
consultations at hospitals, mobile clinics, and diarrhea treatment centers.
The organization is providing 330,000 gallons of clean water per day, has
distributed nearly 58,000 relief item kits and 13,000 family tents to help
displaced people survive, and 1,700 malnourished children have been admitted
to feeding centers. Approximately 135 international aid workers are working
alongside 1,200 Pakistani staff in MSF’s existing and flood response
programs in Pakistan.

“Though we are deeply saddened that another tragedy like this has come up so
soon,” said Steve Wieck, CEO of DriveThruRPG, “we are gratified to know our
publishers and our customer base were able to step up once again and share
such generosity. Our relationship with Doctors Without Borders gives us a
solid and continuing conduit to channel that generosity into powerful and
effective relief efforts. We hope it’s a long time before we are needed in
such a way again, but we are ready to do what we can when that time comes.”

About DriveThurRPG:

DriveThruRPG..com is the world’s largest source of RPG products available
for download, as well as a burgeoning source of print-on-demand books for
gamers. It is an industry leader in modern business and technology
developments for the tabletop gaming fan. For more information, contact Sean
Patrick Fannon (*sean@onebookshelf.com*, 614-946-9371).

About Doctors Without Borders:

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international
medical humanitarian organization working in more than 60 countries to
assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or
catastrophe. The organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. For
more information visit doctorswithoutborders.org.

My pal Blaze Miskulin recently set up a new venture called Trilobyte Studios. He aims to develop a number of new properties in several different genres, for games, films, books, and so on, but he needs help. If you’re a creative soul looking to get involved with something cool, stop by and check it out.

My pal Tony Lee just launched a new gaming company, TimeOut Diversions. Just in time for Halloween, he has Killer Thriller!, a short RPG about B-movie horror flicks. Also, to celebrate the upcoming World Series, Tony’s written “Hu’s the Monk,” a fantasy roleplaying riff on the classic “Who’s on First?” routine by Abbot & Costello. Check it out.