The Many Deaths of Joe Buckley (Benefit Anthology from Baen Books)

VETERANS DAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2014, RIVERDALE, NEW YORK—Baen Books announces a charity ebook, The Many Deaths of Joe Buckley. Joe Buckley is a character that has appeared in many books by Baen authors—a practice that has become a tongue-in-cheek tradition.

After a Veterans Day launch, half of the proceeds from the sale of this ebook will go to an organization that provides reading material and other items that our troops need and want—Operation Baen Bulk. The other half of the proceeds will go to ReadAssist, a nonprofit that helps disabled readers get access to books, and also provides free access to Baen ebooks.

"Joe Buckley is practically a tradition among Baen Books authors," says Baen Books publisher Toni Weisskopf. "The reason for this string of murders and near-murders in print for Joe Buckley is now legendary. But you may not want to stand too close to him if you happen to be another character in a story by a Baen author."

Weisskopf explains that in many Baen books, including works by Baen authors such as David Weber, John Ringo, and Sarah A. Hoyt, a character named Joe Buckley meets a very bad end. In others, such as works by Baen authors Eric Flint and Travis S. Taylor, Joe winds up only mostly dead, or living a fate worse than death.

"We've brought together the myriad Joe Buckley death and near-death scenes from the works by Baen authors and compiled them into a stunning collection of murder and mayhem," Weisskopf adds. "It's a lot of fun to read through these—and in each section you get great storytelling from top Baen authors, of course."

The Many Deaths of Joe Buckley ebook benefiting Operation Baen Bulk and ReadAssist is available here: http://www.baenebooks.com/p-2613-the-many-deaths-of-joe-buckley.aspx.

(This certainly sounds like a worthy cause. I picked up my copy of it this morning, and while I'll probably just skim the stories--I'm not much on reading excerpts from novels--I'll certainly read the intros and all the extra material because I'm a sucker for that sort of behind-the-scenes stuff. The book is also available from Amazon.)