Celebrate the Release of The Strange Task Before Me with FREE Copies! (And, relatedly, let’s make the world a better place…)

Yelling “free books!” on Goodreads is a little bit like yelling “free greasepaint and giant shoes!” at a clown convention; before you know it, you’ve got some very colorful people swarming all over you.

(Fortunately, I have a thing for being underneath a pile of sweaty clowns (don’t ask), so I’m okay with what I’m about to do.)

*Clears throat*

FREE BOOKS!

Or, at least, free virtual books. Though I won’t guarantee they’re good ones. And you need to do something to earn them. Skip to the “Here’s How You Get the Free Books” part below if you’re impatient and don’t want to read my blather on the way to finding out how to get ‘em.

On November 20, The Strange Task Before Me: Being an Excerpt from the Journal of William J. Upton, a short prequel to The Camelot Shadow, will be released. I would love nothing more than to put this story into the seltzer bottle-filled hands of a bunch of sweaty clowns—except maybe to put this story AND its predecessor/descendant (that’s a weird combo) into their hands as well.

“All right, Gibson, we’ll bite, even though we resent being called sweaty clowns, except for those of us who are actually sweaty clowns—we’re not convinced your drivel is worth our time, but, let’s say we were really bored one day and wanted to give it a go; how would we get our white-gloved hands on these stories?”

Lately, I’ve gotten increasingly frustrated with the divisive state of the world and the fact that, at least if the news and social media is to be believed, 1) everyone hates everyone else and only horrible things ever happen; 2) no one can accept or gracefully deal with the fact that others might have a different point of view on a controversial topic (and one worth understanding, even if you don’t agree with it); and 3) we will forever be judged and defined solely by the worst thing we’ve ever done in our lives, with no hope of forgiveness, change, or redemption.

Now, I don’t believe all three of those things are true—at least, I hope they’re not, because that’s not a world I want to live in, and it’s certainly not a world I want my kiddos to inherit. But, I could use a little restoration of my faith in humanity.

HERE’S HOW YOU GET THE FREE BOOKS

So, in order to score free copies of BOTH "The Strange Task Before Me" and The Camelot Shadow, I’m asking you to do three simple things between now and November 17:

1) Add both books to your GR TBR if you haven’t already (just so your friends know that you have quality taste in stories, not that they doubted you);

2) In the comment section below, share one instance you’ve seen in the past few weeks of someone doing something nice for someone else for no particular reason other than it was the right thing to do, being empathetic toward someone with a different point of view, or otherwise just acting like, you know, a human being toward another human being; and

3) Share this blog post on GR, Twitter, Facebook, or your social media platform of choice to encourage others to come share their stories. (After you’ve done that, I’ll send you a message to ask about format/email/etc.)

Honestly, I don’t even care if you don’t want to read the books (I get that not everyone is that cool)—just share your stories. Generate some collective love, hope, and peace. Help remind me, to paraphrase the redoubtable Samwise Gamgee in The Two Towers, that there’s some good in this world—and it’s worth fighting for.

I’ll give you one good example to get the ball rolling: a couple of weeks ago, when I picked up my son from daycare, he was grinning from ear to ear. Before I could even ask him why he was so happy, he held up a little action figure. Naturally, I expressed my surprise that he would be in possession of something so cool and asked him how he got it. It turns out that one of his teachers had given it to him for doing such a good job helping the teachers clean up while the other kids ran around like crazy people (as kids do, mine generally included). What’s remarkable about this story isn’t that a kid got rewarded at daycare for good behavior; what’s remarkable is that, as I later found out, the teacher supplied the toy herself, and she routinely brings in little toys for similar purposes.

So, here’s a woman who’s hardly being adequately compensated for doing what is, for me, the single most important thing imaginable—taking care of my kids—spending her own money to help reinforce my son’s good behavior. I was simultaneously proud as a dad—my son didn’t help clean up for the promise of a reward, because he had no idea it was coming; he just did it because he saw that his teachers needed help—and so incredibly touched as a person that his teacher would do that.

One small act of kindness can’t undo the horror of a mass shooting. It can’t allay fears of nuclear war. It can’t protect the rights of all people and ensure that they get a fair shake in life regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexual identity.

But, damn it, we’ve got to start somewhere. I’m tired of seeing people tear each other down. I’m sick of seeing the worst of humanity.

Share your story today—or, even better, go out and make your own story. Be kind. Do something nice for someone, no matter how small. Instead of spewing vitriol at someone you disagree with, take a breath and try to empathize and understand. When you hear about something horrible someone did, condemn the act but be open to the possibility that they can learn and grow and change and be a force for good in the world eventually.

And then go read "The Strange Task Before Me." You’ll like it—and you’ll have earned it.