I’ve been asked to be part of Read for Pixels 2017, which is a charity featuring authors and dedicated to helping end violence against women. I’ll be doing a reading and an AMA session over on Google hangouts for them in March, which I’ll have more information on once everything is finalized. But for now I have a question for you. They want me to put together some stuff to give away to people who tune in for the hangout and for donors. They said I should tailor it to what my readers want, only I don’t know what you want. So I thought I’d ask. Authors in the past have offered all kinds of different things, including:

Exclusive drabbles (100 word stories). I don’t think 100 words would work so well for me, considering that even my short stories end up being not so short. But I thought that maybe doing scenes that weren’t in the books could be fun. Sort of like “Shitty Beer”. That showed Pritkin after Mac’s death, something that wasn’t in Claimed by Shadow, but was implied. It could also work for something that was mentioned but took place offscreen, so to speak.

Handwritten original short stories/poems/haikus/letters from characters. I don’t do haikus, and doubt sincerely that any of my characters do, and the only poems in the books are Billy’s limericks. But hey, if that’s what you’re into . . .

30-minute Skype chats. I’m not the world’s greatest conversationalist, just letting you know. But if you had some stuff you wanted to ask about publishing, I guess I could try to help?

Signed/inscribed 1st or limited editions or sets of their books. This is easy. You want this, right? Say you want this.

A chance to be a minor character in the author’s next book. Considering my books, and the things that happen to people in them, I’m thinking most people would want to avoid this. Like the plague. But I guess I could be wrong. I don’t promise that you won’t die horribly, however.

Critique of a 1,000-word chapter/query letter. Um, sure? Only I’m an author, not an editor, so my help might be less than optimal. But if you want it, I’ll try my best.

Swag bags of small exclusive items from the author. I got you, fam. You want t-shirts? Cause I got t-shirts. Mugs, bookmarks, those weird little tote bags they give out at cons and nobody uses because they’re too small or too flimsy, or because backpacks and purses work better? Okay, I mean, I guess it’s tradition at this point, so I could order some o’ them. Just say so.

Anyway, they’re open to other ideas as well, only I don’t have any. All my ideas are going into finished the new Dory story before I get lynched. So I thought I’d open it up to you. Whaddya want? Leave me a message with your ideas, or I’m going tote bags. Seriously, I swear I’ll do it (although I’ll try to put something decent inside.)