Blogathon 2013 is Five Days Away

We are five days away from the 2013 Blogathon where I and 15 other writers will discuss a wide range of topics over the course of 24 straight hours with new posts every 30 minutes. Like the 2011 Blogathon, my charity of choice this time is the Hero Initiative. Last year, we raised over $500 dollars for the Hero Initiative and, so far, we've gotten $144 in sponsorship for this year's Blogathon. If you would like to donate, there are several ways:

* Direct donations to the Hero Initiative (click on the Pay Pal link
* Purchasing products from their site, including annual memberships
* Purchasing products from their eBay store
* Donating funds to Peter David and his family through the Hero Initiative

I have added the Peter David link, because he and his family could use the support -- and because it is a perfect example of what the Hero Initiative does. Most of us are aware that the organisation exists and have an idea of what it's intended to do, but we don't necessarily get a glimpse of what the Hero Initiative actually does. Well, this is one of those things. Peter David suffered a stroke over the holidays and the Hero Initiative is helping to provide funds to him and his family as he recovers. It's a very direct and easy to see demonstration of what your money will be doing if you choose to donate and sponsor us in the Blogathon.

If you do choose to do so, drop me an e-mail at chevett13[AT]yahoo[DOT]ca so I can record you contribution.

This year's Blogathon is going to be a bit different than my four previous Blogathons. Instead of simply writing by myself all day, I have enlisted 15 talented writers to join me. We have selected topics and they will each provide a post on their specific topic with me writing two bookend posts -- the second one being a response of some kind to what they wrote (and to keep things lively and fresh, I won't be reading any of the other posts until I post them). The stellar line-up is:

Tim Callahan (he will kick things off and conclude things, writing two posts on two different topics), Tucker Stone, David Brothers, Alec Berry, Brian Cronin, Graeme McMillan, Jeff Lester, Tim O'Neil, Ryan K. Lindsay, Adam Langton, Matt Brady, Ales Kot, Shawn Starr, Kaitlin Tremblay, and Augie de Blieck, Jr. Some of the topics being discussed: Kirby's '70s work, the idea of keeping up with other critics, Dreadstar #1-12, when the best time to have given up superhero comics was, Identity Crisis, and favourite Peter David Star Trek novels.

In addition to that part of the Blogathon, I will also be writing 16 posts over on Comics Should be Good during the same half-hour period when the other writers' posts go up here. I will be counting down my top 10 comics of 2012, my top five comics from before 2012 that I read in 2012, and some other 'best of 2012' post that I haven't quite figured out yet.

The whole thing begins on Saturday January 26 at 9am EST. I hope you will drop by and, hopefully, donate some money to a worthy cause, the Hero Initiative.

Thank you