It’s a nightmare that must pass through every successful writer’s mind at some point: What if something were to happen to me while I was out on a book tour? Back in March, on the third stop of bestselling Star Wars novelist Aaron Allston‘s tour to support Fate of the Jedi: Outcast, he had a heart attack in Kansas City. To make matters worse, the symptoms were atypical enough that he didn’t recognize them: “I thought I had the problem figured out—it had to be a severe case of constipation,” he recalls. “I thought I knew what the problem was and was determined to wait it out. Anyone who had been suddenly plunged into my physical state—nauseated, weak, not thinking straight—would have known that something was profoundly wrong, but I’d gotten there gradually and didn’t know.”
Remarkably, after two days of struggling to recuperate in his hotel room, Allston tried to get back on his tour itinerary—so an attempt to fly from Kansas City to Phoenix ended up with paramedics taking him off the plane in Dallas and rush him to the hospital, where he waited another four days for a quadruple bypass, then another three weeks in recovery. Unfortunately, Allston doesn’t have health insurance, so the bills have added up. Fans near Allston’s Texan home have created a donation fund; next Sunday, they’ll be conducting a fundraising auction—they have received several donated items already but welcome additional gifts, as well as direct contributions.
(photo via The Swivet)