Win a Lit-Mag Subscription This Week!

Sundays have been lots of fun here at Date of Disappearance Headquarters lately, thanks to the weekly Patron Extraordinaire! drawing. This week’s gift, a short story collection by an acknowledged master in the form, posed me a pleasing decision-making challenge—and in the end I just couldn’t narrow it down to a single title, so … I narrowed it down to TWO!

The Date of Disappearance Administrative Assistant (my three-year old son), has just pulled from the hat the names of two Patrons Extraordinaire!

A & G McTIGHE will receive the book Dancing After Hours: Stories by Andre Dubus

MARIAN will receive The Afterlife & Other Stories by John Updike

Congrats Marian and McTighes! These books are both masterworks and I’m confident you’ll find lots to admire in each. Look for them in the mail soon!

-- PROGRESS --
This week I hoped we could climb well into the fifty-percent-funded margin, but thanks to your tremendous ongoing support, we flew through the fifties and are currently at 62%! I am amazed and full of gratitude. Thank you all.

-- ON-WORD! --
With forty days remaining and roughly $1,800 left to raise, the task of encouraging others’ support continues to be Priority Number One. Date of Disappearance now has an official Facebook page, which I hope will offer easy ways for any of you to share (or continue sharing) the project with your own community.

(And/or feel free to pass along the link to those ten Sneak-Peek Sentences from the book that I shared last week)

Thanks for everything you all continue to do to spread news of this project widely!

-- THIS WEEK’S PATRON EXTRAORDINAIRE! GIFT --
Anyone who has pledged in the time between this fundraiser’s launch and the close of next Saturday, October 15th, will be eligible to receive:

A year's subscription to the cutting-edge literary magazine, Ecotone. Bristling with knock-out fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, and comics, Ecotone (not a “nature magazine”) is quietly, steadily enriching our cultural life with each new gorgeously designed, inevitably award-winning issue. You’re going to love finding this mag in your mailbox—and just see if it doesn’t elicit oohs and aahs when displayed on your coffee table!

MINIMUM PLEDGE: $15
PLEDGE BY: 11:59 p.m. PT, Saturday, Oct. 15th

-- SEVEN YEARS ON --
This week marked the anniversary of my first novel’s publication seven years ago. It’s been a wild, weird ride for me since The Green Age of Asher Witherow first appeared in 2004. In a blog post contemplating this, I wrote of Date of Disappearance:

“It will be a small book, born quietly at midday, and in a limited number of copies—not what they call a ‘breakout.’ But it will be something lovely, with illustrated pages you can turn by hand.” 

I reiterated my long-held belief that “the art of language and story is sustained by the unwavering economics of the spirit,” and I gave an appreciative shout-out: “Here’s to those who can help me realize my quiet, somewhat old-fashioned idea.”

In other words, if you've supported or intend to support the project, here’s to YOU! I’m confident we’re going to reach that goal together.

With gratitude,
—M
http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/project/date_of_disappearance

-- THE STATS --
Date of Disappearance Project Goal:
$4,760
Amount Raised as of Today:
$2,936 (or 62%!)
Remaining Amount to Raise:
$1,824
Fundraising Days Remaining:
39