We love DAW, Overwatch, Reddit…and YOU!

This morning, our thermometer showed over $630,000 raised for Heifer International! You all have been so generous that we had to raise our goal to a million dollars…which is, oddly, the amount of matching money we have! So think of it: if we reach our new goal, we’ll have used up all the matching money we were offered, doubling every last dollar. And the way you guys have been rallying, we have a very good chance of doing just that!

If you’ve been biding your time, waiting to see what else might show up in the Lottery, we’re happy to announce that we’ve added a TON of books from DAW Books to our Lottery Library! Hyperbole? Not by much–there is a 6’ x 15’ section of shelving in the office that is completely filled with DAW books, and we have a few auctions on top of that for some of the ARCs, signed books, and signed ARCs DAW sent. This is the most they’ve donated to any of our fundraisers, and we have a bunch of sets–complete series, or the first couple books to start you out. Most of the DAW prizes contain more than one book. Check ‘em out!

Once you’ve ogled all the awesome reading material DAW sent, head over to our AMA on Reddit r/fantasy to answer some questions. “Answer?” you may ask. But of course! All week some of our favorite authors will drop by our AMA for an AYA, where they ask you questions! Sound strange? It is delightfully so. Today, we have Darynda Jones, Mark Lawrence, Jason Hough, Jeffrey Alan Love, Django Wexler, Helen Lowe, James L Sutter, Andrew Lynch, and Michael J Martinez, all of whom will be dropping in here and there throughout the day to ask you guys what’s up!

Andrew already asked, “If you had to replace a dragon from one of your favourite books, what would you replace it with, and how would that affect the story?” to which thelanos42 replied, “I’m pretty sure the Bicycle Riders of Pern would not have been quite as successful.” Mike wanted to know, “What is the biggest thing that’s gone wrong for you because you were too engrossed in a book?” citing missed train and bus stops as an example. He’s also interested in your favorite beer. Head over there and join the conversation–different authors will be stopping to chat all week!

After you’ve spent a day on Reddit, it might be time to unwind from all that smiling and get down n’ dirty with our Overwatch Tournament, which kicks off tonight at 5:30 pm, CST. All the information is on our Tournament Page, including who’s going to be duking it out, and what sort of handicap they have. You can influence who gets skunked by donating! Each team is raising money for our fundraiser, and for each match, the team who fails to raise the most money gets the handicap–right now, the first match between the Secret Hitler team and the Penny Arcade team looks pretty good for Penny Arcade, who has raised over $1,700. This means the Secret Hitler team will have to play as Soldier 76. We feel bad for them. Head over to the Overwatch Tournament Page to find all the times, handicaps, donation links, and links to the teams’ Twitch pages.

In the meantime, we’ll keep adding cool stuff to the Lottery Library, checking in on Reddit, trying to figure out how to liquid-cool our PCs, and posting Stretch Goals as they unlock. A big, warm thank you to everyone who’s donated, contributed, asked questions, tweeted, posted, and visited our page (hey, here you are!). We love you all thiiiiiiiiiiiiis much!!