Drop Everything And Read

My childhood memories are filled with books.  The first book I remember reading was the Bible.  After that, C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia occupied a near permanent rotation in my life for several years until I discovered Heir to the Empire in 1991.  I read and reread Timothy Zahn's trilogy over and over for several years.  Over time, my tastes have branched out, but Narnia and Zahn's trilogy still rank high on my favorites list along with The Deathgate Cycle, Tracy Hickman's joint project with Margaret Weis, Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind, the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, and The Name of the Wind series by Patrick Rothfuss.

My wife and I made a point of instilling a love of reading in our daughter, mainly just by reading to her and making books a part of her life from decorations to a massive library available to her at all ages.  When she finally made the push to read on her own early during her 4th year of life, words do not exist to describe how happy and excited we were.  To this day, the sight of her sitting curled up in her bed, on the couch, in her car seat, or in a corner at church with a pile of books (and, in the case of at home, usually a cat) stacked all around her is one of the best sights I see at home.

So, why this trip down memory lane?  Well, April 12 is Drop Everything And Read day.  It's a day to focus on reading.  It's not an internationally recognized day you'll find on your calendar.  It's just a small thing started in honor of a woman that loved to write stories for children.  A day to instill a love of reading in children in our lives.

This weekend, the Fantasy Sci-Fi Network, a network of authors dedicated to writing stories for all ages, is taking part in this event.  All this week, they've been tweeting out using #dear and #fsfnet to get the word out about authors taking part (just do a twitter search for those hashtags and you'll find dozens of authors names).  As a member, I'll be entering my premiere novella in the event.  From 1200 AM Friday, 10 April 2015 until midnight on Sunday, April 12 2015, Rise: Tears will be available for free on Amazon!   Hurry, get a copy (or two) and share with someone in your life you want to instill a love of reading in.

Don't wait for them to do it themselves!